by Natalie Grey
“Then whatever it was would still be in the same place,” Dan argued.
“Not if he tied it to a specific set of coordinates,” Dhruv shot back.
Gracie looked at the two of them. She had a fairly good idea of what this meant, but she was out of her depth, and she knew it. She caught Sam’s eyes and saw his empathetic smile.
“I’m lost, too,” he mouthed at her and shrugged.
She smiled back.
Jay had looked up when they were speaking about flipped coordinates, and now he went back to searching with a renewed sense of purpose.
“Ha,” he said, a moment later, causing both Gracie and Sam to start violently. He looked at them. “Sorry, but I did find something on the other side of the oasis, just in the water here.” He pointed at his screen.
Gracie exchanged looks with Sam, and both of them got up to take a peek.
What was on the screen looked like gibberish to her, but as Jay scrolled through slowly, Dan and Dhruv nodded. All three of the developers looked halfway between impressed and deeply annoyed.
“Uh.” Gracie looked around. “All right, I’ll ask. What am I looking at?”
“It’s a challenge mechanic,” Dan explained. He pointed to a few lines of code. “See, here—well, not important. It allows people to challenge one another in a way that the other person can’t back out of. Of course, it only allows people to challenge who know how the mechanism works, and there are quite a few passcodes, but that’s the gist. It looks like you can make it either a solo duel or a team fight.”
“He’s going to challenge me,” Gracie said.
“We’ll disable it,” Dan assured her.
“Don’t.” Gracie crossed her arms.
Everyone turned to look at her.
“You didn’t bring me out here for that,” she told them. “You know as well as I do that it’s this fight or another one, and another, and another. And there’d be no point to challenging me unless…”
“Unless?” Dan prompted.
The look on Jay’s face told her that he, at least, knew what she meant.
“Unless it was winner-takes-all,” he said quietly. “We’ve seen how Harry’s mind works. People who don’t agree with him need to be eliminated. If he wins, Gracie’s gone. If she wins…”
Everyone looked at Gracie. She was staring down at the code with a little smile.
“Fly the rest of them out,” she said. She looked at Dan and Dhruv. “The whole guild. I want them here while we’re fighting.”
Dhruv and Dan didn’t even look at each other before nodding at her.
“And since he can only summon me once I log on,” Gracie said, “I’m going to go get some rest before I do.”
“I’ll stay here,” Dan said. “I want to see if he finds it.”
“He will,” Dhruv predicted. “I’ll have Rosalie make the arrangements for the rest of them.” He paused, then said in an impressively flat tone, “Jay, would you like to take the rest of the day to show Gracie around?”
“That sounds nice,” Jay agreed. “Gracie?”
“Yeah.” Gracie flushed. “Yeah.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kevin opened the door to the apartment to find a strange mix of smells: one part amazing breakfast, one part burned breakfast. He came around the doorway to the kitchen with one eyebrow raised, and his expression grew more quizzical when he saw Jamie surrounded by plates of pancakes.
“Uh, good morning.”
“Jesus Christ!” Jamie practically jumped out of his skin. He’d been flipping a pancake, which flopped onto the edge of the pan and tipped onto the flames. “Oh, goddammit. Sorry. I was going to clean up and everything.” He rescued the pancake and turned off the burner. “Uh.” He cleared his throat. “You’re home early.”
Kevin’s mouth was twitching madly. “Did you see Gracie’s text?”
“No! No.” Jamie looked around and patted his pockets. “I think I left my phone in the bedroom. Why, what’s up?”
“They’re flying all of us to Portland,” Kevin said. “Everyone who can go, anyway.”
“Who’s ‘they?’”
“Oh. Dragon Soul.” Kevin raised his eyebrows. “Gracie is already there, apparently. And, well, if you think you’ve made enough pancakes…”
“I was trying to get them right for once!” Jamie waved his hands. His face was bright red. “Everyone should be able to make pancakes, right? It’s not hard.”
Kevin stripped off his suit jacket with a grin. “Okay, well, for one thing, most of us use a spatula to flip the pancakes, so you’re doing it on hard mode. For another, we all have gaps. I, for instance, can’t whistle.”
“Really?” Jamie stopped, intrigued. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” Kevin smiled. “All right, text her back that you can go, we’ll pack, and then we should have time for lunch before going to the airport.” He looked around the kitchen at the multiple teetering stacks of pancakes. “That is, if we can find anything to eat.”
Jamie flushed even more.
“Alan will meet us here,” Kevin said. “Do you think there’ll be enough pancakes for him too?”
Jamie gave him a Look and disappeared into the guest bedroom while Kevin guffawed. Then he took a bite of one of the pancakes and his expression changed. He checked to see if Jamie was watching before edging over to the trash can and spitting the mouthful out.
“Or maybe I’ll buy us lunch,” he called into the bedroom.
Jamie appeared in the doorway, phone in hand. “Oh, God. Are they not good?”
It took everything Kevin had to keep a straight face, and he was pretty sure he was going to crack a rib in the process. “Man, I love you, you’re great, and your cooking is generally a transcendent experience. But these are the worst pancakes I’ve ever had. They’re both too dry and not cooked. I don’t even know how you managed that.”
“Ohhhh.” Jamie buried his head in his hands.
“Adorable,” Kevin commented.
“Huh?” Jamie’s head came up.
“Nothing.” Kevin headed for his own room, unbuttoning his shirt. “I’ll change, then we can brainstorm lunch.”
In reality, Lakhesis was Marie Wilson, a former preschool teacher turned receptionist. Her new job, as she had hoped, was less stressful.
Unfortunately, it was less stressful to the point that she was bored out of her mind. She had already redone the entire office filing system, then she had gone through it again to make new labels for everything. She had organized the supply cabinet, placed orders for anything she could think of, written a chart to show what they had, and optimized their client contact system.
She was going to go out of her mind if she had to sit here for one more minute.
Which was why, when the text message came, she gasped.
“Everything okay?” Her boss, Robert, stopped on his way across the reception area.
“Uh…” Marie looked down at the text message. “A friend just offered to fly me out for, uh…an engagement party.” She bit her lip and tried to think of a good way to phrase this. “I know the next few days might be busy, so—”
“I think we’re set up well,” Robert said. “And I’ve seen how hard you’ve been working. It’s probably a good distraction, what with…well, everything.” He gave her a sad smile; she had told Robert about her sister’s death. What with the funeral and the estate planning, she’d had to. Now he gave her a gentle look. “I think some time with friends would be very good for you,” he told her.
Marie blinked back tears. She had expected anything other than this. Weren’t bosses supposed to get on your case for asking for days off? “Thank you,” she said. “Really. I, uh—”
“Why don’t you take the rest of the day?” Robert suggested. “Run errands, pack, maybe go see a movie…”
“Right.” Marie nodded. “I’ll email you the meeting schedules for everyone, then I’ll head out.”
“I hope your friend has a good engagement
party,” Robert said sincerely.
“Mmm.” She could hardly tell him what this really was. None of the people in her office played video games at all. “I’ll pass that along. Thanks.”
Ushanas pushed herself away from her desk and rolled her chair across the floor. She was riding high on the fact that she’d finally gotten the promotion she’d deserved for the past year and a half, and she couldn’t see the day getting much better.
Well, maybe if she got a burger for lunch.
“Shannon.” Taylor, one of her coworkers, popped up over the cubicle wall. “Your phone’s ringing.”
“Whoops, sorry.” Shannon scooched her way back across the floor and picked it up. “Hello?”
“May I speak to Shannon Jeffords, please?” The voice was pleasant.
Shannon frowned. “That’s me.”
“Hello, Ms. Jeffords. This is Rosalie Williams at Dragon Soul Productions. As a member of Red Squadron, we’re inviting you to join us tonight at the Dragon Soul Headquarters. We would be paying for your flight out.”
“That’s…what?” Shannon frowned at her phone.
“I understand you’ll have received the details from Gracie King.”
“Uh, sec.” Shannon switched over to her text messages and her eyebrows shot up. Apparently, this day was going to get better. “Yeah, I will be able to make it.” She’d be calling in sick, but that was neither here nor there. “Um, I’ll wait for details from you?”
“Of course. Your email on file for your player account is the one we should use?”
“Er, yes.”
“Very good. We look forward to seeing you this evening, Ms. Jeffords.”
Shannon hung up and considered her desk.
“Everything okay?” Taylor called.
“Oh, yeah, that was just…my sister-in-law. She’s planning my nephew’s birthday party.” Yeah, that hung together. Shannon pressed a hand over her stomach. “You know, I actually don’t feel too well…”
“The only one we’re waiting for at this point is Chowder,” Gracie told Jay, “and Kevin offered to log on and see if he’s there.”
“Good.” Jay smiled. They pushed their way out the front door into the unseasonable sunshine, and he got a sudden guilty look. “Uh…my car is a gigantic mess. Please don’t judge me. You know what, maybe let’s just get an Uber.”
“Nuh-uh.” Gracie laughed. “I wanna see. Also, where are we going?”
“Well…” Jay gave her a smile. “I’d like to show you all the teams and the offices, but I figured maybe that wasn’t the best idea.”
“Plus, we’ll want everyone else to see it, too,” Gracie agreed.
Jay laughed. “Dan and Dhruv are definitely not going to agree to that. Proprietary info and all that.”
“That’s a load of bullshit,” Gracie told him bluntly, “what with all of the sponsored team stuff in the game.”
Jay stuck out his tongue. “I didn’t say it had internal logical consistency, I just said they weren’t going to agree to it.” He looked around. “What about this? Why don’t we drop your bags off and then go get some lunch? Uh, wait, where are you staying? Did they get you a hotel, or…”
It took a moment, but Gracie caught up with his train of thought and blushed. “Oh. Right.” She cleared her throat. “They did get me a hotel room, and it’s pretty swanky. Let’s put my bags there, and, uh…” She was really shit at flirting. “Well, if the whole team is going to be at the hotel, you might as well come stay with us, right?”
That was about as subtle as dropping an anvil, but Jay played along. That, or he was just as bad at this as she was. “That makes sense, yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
They both cleared their throats, and Jay fumbled with his keys to open his trunk and helped her load in her bags.
“So, is Alex coming?” He looked at her. “Please don’t judge me for the car.”
“I’m not going to judge you for the—are you serious?” Gracie peered in the window. “This is what you think of as ‘super messy?’ You are never allowed to see my car.”
Jay was startled into a laugh. “Good to know.”
“Anyway,” Gracie said, sliding into the passenger seat, “Alex is coming. He’s needed a vacation for a while, and he was actually able to bring Sydney with—”
Jay cut her off with a kiss. There was one moment of silence before she reached out to grab his shirt and pull him closer, and then they were making out like two teenagers in the high school parking lot, even while laughing at the absurdity of it.
When they broke away from each other, Gracie was gasping for breath. She leaned back in her seat, still laughing, and Jay did the same. She could see his heartbeat racing in his throat.
He looked at her with a grin. “That was practically torture back there in the conference room.”
“I hope you never actually get tortured,” Gracie said, stifling another laugh. “You are in for a big surprise if you do.”
“Thankfully…” Jay started the car and pulled out, “the world of video game development is not quite that intense. So, what do you want for lunch? I mean, there’s obviously seafood.”
“Oooh! Yes, please.” Gracie settled back in her seat with a happy smile. “That’s the one thing that’s not good in Vegas.”
“Really? Vegas doesn’t have shellfish?”
“Oh, they do—but the good stuff is flown in, so it’s all super expensive. Not like somewhere on the coast where everywhere has it.”
“Good point.” Jay pulled onto the highway. “So, what’s it even like living in Vegas?”
“Not like you’d expect,” Gracie said. “There’s the Strip, obviously, but there’s tons of other stuff. It’s like any other city in some ways, just…full of very drunk tourists in weird outfits. It’s all scandalous to them, and very normal to everyone else. Like, ‘Oh hey, tits.’”
“You know, I just don’t see myself getting to that point,” Jay informed her blandly.
“It happens, man. Ask Alex.” She grinned and curled her legs up to her chest, watching as the buildings sped by. “I feel like I should be nervous.”
Jay picked up on what she meant immediately. “About Harry? And…you’re not?”
“No.” Gracie sighed as she stared off into the middle distance. “I’m angry. I know he might still come back someday, but I want this to be over. Dan and Dhruv? Eh, we’re not going to be best friends, but I can work with them. Harry, though? He’s a lunatic.”
“You are not wrong.” Jay shook his head. “Well, it’ll be interesting to see what he’s planning. And if you’re not scared, then neither am I.”
It wasn’t here anymore. Harry’s panic was rising. It had to be here. They could not possibly have found it; he’d hidden it too well, and in a place they would never think to look.
But he couldn’t find the challenge key. It should be hovering in mid-air, ready to be used.
Ready to summon Callista.
He looked up at the sky in frustration, and that was when he noticed it. He remembered this place very well. He remembered the fall of the shadows and the way the sun had gotten in his eyes…
The sun had been on the other side of the sky when he’d been here before.
They had flipped the castle.
He looked around, mentally trying to judge where the new location of the key would be, and paced around the rim of the lake toward it. He could only hope that a flip was all that had happened. If it were more, like a flip and a shift, he might very well never find it.
He couldn’t even bear to think of that.
But it was there, a faint shimmer in the air, and his breath left his lungs in a faint whoosh. Distantly, he heard Thad cursing. His team must have lost the skirmish.
Harry looked coldly toward the group.
He needed them to be on their game, and he needed them not to ask questions about what happened to those who were lost in the Battle of Kings.
It was a war, aft
er all. And in war, people were lost.
Forever.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“There they are!” Gracie said excitedly, jumping up and down to look over the crowd at the arrivals gate. She held up her homemade sign, emblazoned with the words RED SQUADRON. “Mirra! Caspian! Fys!”
“Hey!” Kevin came over with a ready grin, holding out his hand for a shake.
Gracie pulled him into a hug. “Good to see you! You’re taller than I expected.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kevin shoved her lightly. “This is Alan.” He pointed to a man in his early to mid-forties, whose light brown hair was beginning to go gray, and whose clean-cut, classic features echoed Kevin’s. “And this is the baby,” Kevin said, jerking his head sideways at Jamie.
Jamie rolled his eyes. “I am thirty-two.” He pointed at Gracie. “She’s the baby.”
“He’s right,” Gracie said, but she was talking about Kevin. “You’ve got a baby face.”
“I do not!”
“Just you wait ’til people stop carding you,” Alan advised. “Then you’ll look back fondly on these days.” He clapped Jamie on the shoulder. “I hope we’re not staying for more than a week, by the way. I didn’t want to check a bag.”
“Heathen,” Kevin said. He wandered toward Baggage Claim.
“Where’s everyone else?” Jamie asked, falling in beside Gracie.
“Almost all here,” Gracie said. “Lakhesis’s plane just landed, and Chowder’ll be in about an hour from now. It turns out there’s a shuttle flight from San Fran.”
“Chowder is from San Francisco?” Jamie asked doubtfully. “What does he do?”
“He won’t say, but from the hints he dropped, he’s apparently richer than God.” Gracie rolled her eyes. “Which I suppose you’d have to be, to live there. Anyway, everyone else is already taking shuttles to the hotel, and we managed to get a whole block of rooms together.”
“Nice,” Jamie said. She noticed his gaze had wandered, however. He was staring into the distance, chewing his lip.