I finally gave up, turning around and edging past Killian, who was admiring the ring apathetically—perhaps even smugly. “Useful thing—it’s called a Secrecy Ring. When you activate it, you can’t enter or exit. Very useful for a Hedge Magician.”
I got back to the kitchen and considered grabbing a knife off the block, but for all I knew Killian was one more magic rune away from taking me down with Dark Magic. She continued, now looking at me with a determined rigidity to her features. “The coin. Now.” I looked down at the coin in my fingers, swallowing my nerves as Killian wrenched it forcefully from my grasp before I could hand it over. I slid down the side of the counter, crouched on the floor as my legs could no longer support me. “Are you…going to kill me?” I whispered to the redhead I had thought was my friend.
Killian snorted. “No, you idiot, I’m not going to kill you. I’ve been trying to protect you. I’m not doing this for kicks, you know. The head of the group…he’s got blackmail on most of us. Now I thought you might be the key to getting out of this mess, but apparently you’re not. In fact…you’re pretty much useless. And that’s why I’m taking this coin and fixing this problem myself and I’m not having you get in the way.”
I looked up to argue, but she had already turned and walked out of the condo. I heard the distinct snap of my door’s lock clicking shut, and her heels clicking on the tile floor outside. I didn’t move for a very long time, my brain feeling foggy and numb in the silence of the empty condo.
Chapter 14
Knock knock.
I jolted awake, feeling sore and stiff all over. My head was pressed against the tile floor of the kitchen, and one arm had fallen asleep under my own weight. Had I passed out from the stress? It was certainly possible…
Knock knock knock. It was the door. I tried to pull myself to my feet but my legs didn’t want to cooperate. Around the corner I heard my door open—Killian must have left it unlocked. I wasn’t sure if it was Killian returning for some reason or what…but I took a wild guess. “Apollo?”
It was. He dropped onto his knees the moment he entered the kitchen. “Oh my god—Andy, what’s going on, are you okay?”
I nodded, trying to formulate words. I had had a dream. It was terribly prophetic, and full of massive, colorful descriptions, but now I couldn’t even remember. “Killian was here. She…She took the coin from me.”
Apollo looked confused. “Killian? Red hair, sour demeanor, paladin-in-business-causal Killian?” The idea seemed utterly foreign. I spilled the details of what had happened, from Nannette to Killian to now. Apollo shook his head when I had finished relaying the story. “That makes no sense. Killian doesn’t…she doesn’t really work that way.”
I felt the need to clear something up here. If my suspicions were right then I couldn’t be entirely sure Apollo was on my side either. “Are you guys dating? Or did you used to? I mean…you seem to bicker like an old couple. And I just want to be sure that—”
He nodded. “Yeah, we did, a while back. But she has some issues and they were, ah, too much to deal with. But we’re still friends. At least…I thought we were?” He took a breath and met my eyes. “I’m on your side. I promise. You said she said she was being blackmailed, right? I can’t imagine what this Black Magisters group must have on her. And…I mean, I don’t want to sound like I’m backing up a friend who did something pretty crappy, but if she’s in trouble I feel like I want to help her. If you don’t want to, though, I understand…”
I tried to build a response but I couldn’t think of one. It was becoming perfectly clear to me, now, that I was just completely over my head in this one, and that I was treading into dangerous and potentially-lethal territory. I studied Apollo for a moment while he busied himself in cleaning up some of the things on the counter that had been knocked over. “I don’t know. I mean, if I can help somehow let me know, but right now I’m not…I don’t—”
“I understand.” He offered a hand and pulled me off the floor. “It’s going to be alright. You just relax. Get to bed, get some more sleep, and get ready for work tomorrow. I’ll deal with Killian, okay? Don’t stress.”
I gave Apollo a deep look of appreciation before he left, and as I dragged myself up the steps to my room I tried to take deep and relaxing breaths. Even so, my stomach wouldn’t stop doing weird flips and I eventually had to run back down to the bathroom and get sick in the toilet.
“They might try and kill you, ya know,” An awful, wretched stench hit my nose as I heard the familiar voice from behind me and I twisted around to see the Moddey Dhoo, reclined in my bathtub which was filled with slowly-darkening water.
“Oh my god, why are you here? Why didn’t you help me with—?”
“Silencers only get involved if ya might start giving away secrets,” the dog interrupted, and it turned slightly in the tub to wet more of its fur and release more wet-dog smell into the air. “We ain’t gettin’ involved in quarrels, or break up fights, or stop ya from gettin’ killed. That’s not our job.”
I felt another wretch in my stomach and I turned to cough up more emptiness from the bottom of my intestines. When I stopped, I flushed the toilet and slowly turned back to the creature. An idea had suddenly stuck me. “So…here’s a question. If my dad was a wizard…then he’d have had a silencer, right?”
The Moddey Dhoo grinned with a smile full of wicked teeth. “Now yer thinkin’. Go on.”
“So that silencer would have been there when he died, right?”
“Almost fer certainly.”
“So that silencer is a witness, right?”
“An’ there’s the rub. Ya see, we witness all kinds o’ nonsense, but we only share it at the order of the Dragon.”
I frowned in frustration. “You know something, don’t you? Why don’t you tell me?”
“Because if I did know something,” it growled threateningly, “then I couldn’t share it neither. But ya need to pull the gunk outta yer ears and listen. We only share secrets at the order o’ the Dragon, but I’m not saying not to ask around. There’s more’n a few answers ya can find if ya look for what can’t be found.”
I let out a frustrated groan. “Can’t you just be straight with me here? Where would I even look? I—” I stopped, remembering the pristine Sorcera building where I had taken my exam. The glass lasered door was etched into my mind from the anxiety it had caused. “Moddey Dhoo, all of the silencers are part of the Empyrean society, right?”
It nodded slowly, its grin becoming even wider.
“Where exactly is the Empyrean Society office? I was told every city has one.”
“I can’t give ya answers, kid.” I deflated. Another dead end, then. “But who told ya there’s an office in every city?”
“A guy I work with. Devin. Huge slimeball. He said that—” I jolted upright in realization. “He said he knew where all the offices are. I mean, he might have just been bragging, but if he wasn’t then—oh, oh!” I clambered up into a standing position. “I need to see Devin. Like…right no—” I pulled out my phone to look at the time and was disappointed to see it was still in the middle of the night. “…first thing in the morning.”
“There ya go,” The Moddey Dhoo said, turning over in the water, which by now was an inky black, “Tha’ wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
I scowled and leaned against the sink. “You never said why you were here,” I added.
“Needed a bath. I like yer bathtub. Very roomy. Speakin’ o which…” it pulled the shower curtain closed with its jaws. “Can a pup get a little privacy?”
I closed the bathroom door to keep the smell from escaping and returned to bed to try and get some sleep, but my mind wouldn’t stop working. It was trying to devise a plan on the best way to extract information from Devin’s stupid face.
~
The next day I arrived at work early, a hot cup of coffee in my hand. The coffee shop had been entirely devoid of my favorite barista, which was mildly concerning, but I had to focus on the task a
t hand. I was ready to start my search when my phone buzzed and I checked it. It was an email from Carrie. Conference room as soon as you get in. I took in a sharp breath as I read it, and hammered the button for my floor. Hopefully I wasn’t getting assigned another different task to handle. The storeroom was nearly clear, to be sure, so maybe I could manage it. I was feeling pretty confident in my abilities as I dropped my bag off at my cubicle and headed along the edge of the cubicle farm toward the conference room office.
I rapped gently on the glass door and then went in. At the far end of the table sat Carrie, along with the sour-faced Baba Yaga from the coffee shop and two other people I didn’t recognize. On the desk there were a few papers and two copies of the 50 Thousand Employee Handbook. My elation dissipated and I suddenly felt a chill, as though an ice cube had slipped down my throat and landed somewhere in the depths of my stomach.
Carrie gave me a half-encouraging grimace. “Please take a seat.”
I slowly made my way to a chair and sat down, trying hard not to start shaking. “Hi, how is everybody this morning?” I said as jauntily as I could muster.
One of the people I didn’t recognize sat a folder in front of himself and then opened it. “LaFayette. I appreciate the time you’ve taken out of your morning to meet with us. My name is Stan, and I’m with Human Resources. This is Carol, our HR employee advocate.”[20]
I nodded politely.
“I’ve had some discussions with the partners upstairs and it looks like you’re not quite the fit we had hoped for here at the company. While we appreciate and respect the short time you’ve been with us, it’s in the best interests of everyone involved that we sever our relationship at this time.”
I blinked. “Wait…hang on. You’re firing me? After a week and a half?” I looked over at Carrie. “You’re my supervisor—have I done something wrong?”
“Of course not,” Carrie protested, glancing at Stan. “But I don’t make these decisions…you understand, right?”
I shook my head in protest. “No, I don’t understand, actually. What prompted this? Yesterday, I was being congratulated by the Dragon of Cincinnati for being a ‘rising star’ and ‘the future of sorcery in Cincinnati’. Today I’m losing my job? This makes no sense.” I glared across the table at Stan, but his face was completely unreadable. “What is really going on? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Stan shifted a piece of paper toward me that had a check embedded at the bottom. “It is fortunate that Fifty Thousand Consulting has such a…robust severance program, however, which hopefully will make this situation all the more palatable…”
I looked down at the check and my eyes went wide. For a moment I actually almost gave into the urge to just pick up the check and walk out, but I caught myself. “This is…hush money? Are you trying to quiet what I know about Nannette?”
Stan looked mildly irritated. “I don’t know who that is or to what you’re referring.” he picked up another piece of paper. “This is your official termination letter, which you will notice bears a shell company letterhead and is a registered company with Hamilton County—”
I wasn’t listening at this point. I had been found out and I was losing everything. My luck had officially ran out, and I considered whether or not the fact I had lasted this long was attributed to the coin and its magical luck powers. I had to get to Devin and I had to get out of here…but causing a scene wasn’t helping anything.
I made a very visible effort to take a calming breath. “OK, I understand. I—I’m sorry. I’m just going to take this, get my things from my desk, and go. Is that OK?”
“Actually,” Stan said with what seemed to be mock sympathy, “We have Security on their way to—Hey!”
I grabbed the check and a copy of the Handbook, and headed out the door. Security meant Killian and Killian potentially meant death. I couldn’t take the chance on whatever the betraying witch had in store. I ran to the elevator and threw my hand into the closing doors to stop it and jutting myself between them. I didn’t know how much time I had before I was caught, but I was ready to comb the whole blasted building for the cubicle of the “Senior Apprentice”, which I could only assume was adorned with executive ball clickers and probably a brass engraved nameplate or two. I remembered Devin had gotten off on the 2nd level, so that was my first stop. This floor was laid out almost exactly like my own, with minor differences, and the search for the mucosal man-child was not a very tedious one; I found him hunched over his cubicle desk with an open notebook and a pen. “Devin,” I hissed.
He startled and looked up at me as though he had never been interrupted at his desk before. It occurred to me that he probably hadn’t. “Oh. It’s you. Sorry, I thought it was someone important…”
I glared at him with the utmost contempt. “I don’t need your crap, I need some answers and you’re—” I stopped and I glanced down at the notebook, where Devin was apparently writing “Devin A. Birch, Senior Wizard” over and over. “Are you kidding me? What is wrong with you?”
He covered the notebook with his hands. “What do you want?”
I took a breath. “I need to know where the Empyrean office is in Cincinnati. You said you knew where they were and I hope to god you weren’t just trying to make yourself sound cooler.”
He looked highly affronted at having his fragile ego pecked at. “I will have you know that I—”
“I really don’t care, I don’t care,” I interrupted, waving my hand to dismiss him in the way one dismisses an annoying app notification, “I need an answer.”
Devin leaned way far back in his chair, a smug grin spilling across his face and his arms moving behind his head in a way I thought people only did in bad workplace comedies. “And what exactly are you going to do for me if I give you this information?”
I heard a shout and looked over the cubicle farm to see one of the walking bags of muscle from the security office starting toward me and I knew I didn’t have time to lose. I don’t recall exactly how Devin’s monogrammed brass letter opener (utterly unused, probably) had ended up in my hand, but now it was pointed at him and I was seething. “What I’m going to do for you is not stab you in your slimy—” I released a string of profanity that included intertwined insults about his hair, his mother, and the fact that he enjoyed the pleasant company of multiple kinds of animals—”if you don’t tell me right now!”
Devin moved to roll back from the brandished letter opener and ended up only losing his balance, tumbling over backwards and landing in an exceptionally undignified heap, sputtering something that sounded vaguely accusatory. Grabbing Devin by the front of his monogrammed shirt, I jabbed the point of the letter opener right at his throat. He coughed and squirmed but I think he did believe me that this crazy random Casting Technical Assistant might just do exactly what was promised and stab him, which would not only hurt but also have the very unfortunate side effect of spilling blood on his nice shirt. “The Betts House!” he squeaked. “Under the front porch!” The words had barely left his mouth when I had dropped him and took off down the hallway, digging in my pocket. I nabbed one of the one-time-use defensive reagents Killian had bought for me and threw it behind me as I headed for the stairs, glancing back to see it explode in a cloud of shiny green glitter which had, as Killian had described, “sufficiently stopped them and stripped them of their dignity all at once.”[21]
I hit the door to the stairs a little harder than I had intended, leaving a tingling feeling in my shoulder as I skipped down them, two at a time, hoping that another pair of security guards wasn’t waiting for me at the bottom. Once I reached the bottom landing I barreled through the exit door and out onto the street. Where could I go? My first stop would need to be Apollo. I had completely forgotten my bag upstairs, so I wouldn’t be able to text him. I started off in a run, dashing down the sidewalk toward the coffee shop.
I pulled the door open and quickly stepped inside, out of breath and sweating. “Apollo,” I croaked.
He look
ed up from where he was cleaning the bar and immediately hopped the counter to come over to me, seeing my distress. “What’s going on? What happened?”
I opened my mouth to speak but a sudden jolt of pain in my arm made me yelp and drop the employee handbook to the floor.[22] I watched in horror as the mark that signified my employment to 50 thousand began to darken and wrinkle as though my skin was being seared off. I gasped out a painful squeak as the symbol completely disappeared, leaving unmarred skin beneath.
Apollo watched with growing horror. “Oh no. You…you…”
“I got fired, yeah,” I said, trying to catch my breath and calm my anxiety at once. “I have no idea what to do but I need to get to the Empyrean offices at The Betts House right now.”
Apollo’s face drained, making him look more like a cheap hot chocolate than a mocha, and he swallowed his fear in a somewhat visible manner. I recalled his previous reactions to discussions about Silencers and for a moment I was sure he would bail on me and tell me I was on my own. But then I saw something cross his face—at the time I thought it was some kind of anger but looking back on it now I realize that it was a kind of determined sense of loss—the kind felt by someone who knows they’re too involved to go back now.
He grabbed a broom that was leaning against the wall near the door. “Alright, coffee shop’s closed. Everybody gulp down your lattes, time to go. You—hipster kid. You can wax your mustache later. Come on.” He started ushering people out of their chairs and to the door while I watched, rubbing the skin where the 50 Thousand marks had once been.
Apollo and Killian
They met in June. She had been working at 50 Thousand for a few months and had really honed her Hedging skills. She was happy to be in a new place, but less so that it was Cincinnati of all places. The city bored her. It was too quiet, too orderly, too overlooked. Nothing interested her.
The Wizards on Walnut Street Page 16