“How did you learn spells?” Ree asked.
Ellen blushed. All her resolutions about how much to tell Ree went right out the window. Aw, what the heck! Ree was probably the one person she could talk to about what happened, besides Louis. “I met a wizard, and he taught me. He said I was a very powerful witch. That’s why he picked me out. He…well, he was a Falisa sympathizer, and I wound up staying at his house. It was a very sticky time, especially since he was trying to figure out who I was and where I came from.”
Ree stared at her in wonder. “What did you do?”
Ellen bit back a smile. “I killed him in the end.”
Ree gasped. “Wow! Are you okay? Does Louis know?”
“He knows everything.” Ellen laughed heartily. Man, it felt good to laugh like that again. “He knows a lot more than you think. I even told him about Gavin.”
Ree sat stunned for a moment before she burst into action. “Well! I want to hear everything—and I mean everything—but right now, we better get to work before we wind up with a mutiny on our hands.”
Both women got to their feet.
“The only reason we have a mutiny on our hands,” Ellen replied, “is because you were out of your gourd these last few weeks.”
“Well, I’ll be back in it, now that I’ve got you at my side,” Ree returned. “That’s all I really needed—someone to confide in. I hated to lose you, but I didn’t know how to stop it.”
“You never have to worry about that again. Come on.”
They headed out of the building, caught a cab, and rode the elevator up to Ree’s office. “Do you have any way to contact Malcolm?” Ellen asked. “We should send word he’s all clear.”
“I don’t have any way to do that, but we can send a message to Ben Harris,” Ree replied. “He’s in communication with Allied, and he can get a confidential message to Malcolm. I’m sure Malcolm will be relieved his cover is intact.”
“Ben Harris,” Ellen mused. “You mean Gilias Luga.”
Ree flashed her a brilliant smile. “The very same. That guy scared the crap out of me when I first met him on the Prometheus. I thought he was going to rape me and throw my entrails to the sharks.”
Ellen laughed again. She wanted to hug Ree and never let her go. “I’m glad you met him first and softened him up, and I’m glad he’s on our side. All the Falisa I met gave me the creeps.”
Ree cocked her head to one side. “It’s weird, you know. All the Gunns I met turned out to be nice people. The only one who really gave me the creeps was Malcolm, and after all that, I found out he was really one of us.”
Ellen pulled her to a stop in the middle of the hall. She studied her friend up close. “So…do you consider yourself Angui now? Are you really one of them?”
“I guess I am,” Ree remarked. “I’m up to my eyeballs in this formula, and I’ve even fought the Gunns with weapons and killed as many of them as I can. I guess that makes me just as Angui as the next person. What about you? Do you consider yourself Angui?”
“I’ve spent so long telling myself I wasn’t,” Ellen replied, “but I guess now I am. I’ve fought the Gunns and killed a few too, so I guess I am. I can think of worse things to be.”
Ree threw open her office door. She called back over her shoulder. “Angui is as Angui does. If you do it, you are one. That’s the way I see it.”
“What’s Angui?”
Ree and Ellen whipped around at the strange voice intruding on their conversation and came face-to-face with Vic Doyle.
Ree glanced around. “Vic! What are you doing in my office?”
“I came in here to try to find you, and I did,” Vic returned. “We’ve got a major problem with the Prometheus Formula.”
Ree and Ellen exchanged glances. “What is it?” Ree asked.
“First of all,” Vic replied, “the wicknot root you told me about is native to the outer islands off the western Scottish coast.”
“Yeah?” Ree asked. “So?”
“So…the rhizomes you wanted me to study get destroyed by increased atmospheric pressure,” Vic went on. “That means if we got wicknot root sent over here by express delivery, the added atmospheric pressure of flying in a plane to get here would destroy the rhizomatic organisms we want to study. The only other option is to get them shipped over by sea, which could take months.”
Ree slapped her hand against her forehead and groaned. “Please, God, tell me there isn’t any other problem.”
“Only about five other problems,” Vic replied. “Shall I list them all? Second, you sent me a bunch of information on the so-called hefmorquen flower that’s supposed to be fired in the rotary kiln. As far as I can tell, the active ingredient we’re supposed to be refining from the flower to add to the formula will be converted at high heat into a completely different compound that would nullify the age-defying properties of the finished formula. Third, the—”
“Stop!” Ree held up her hand and clamped her eyes shut. “I don’t want to know any more. We have to make this formula. We just have to. There’s no question about that.”
Vic arched an eyebrow. “So you admit we’re making it instead of testing it. That’s a different story from the one you originally told us. What’s going on, Ree?”
Ree opened her mouth to reply when Ellen intervened. She waved at Ree. “I’ll handle this. You get busy with your own end of the bargain. Vic, you and me are going down to the lab. We’ll work this out, one way or the other.”
“Good,” Vic fired back, “because that supervisor is already down there sticking his nose into things.”
Ellen paused on the threshold. “Supervisor? You mean Louis Kirk?”
“Yeah, that’s him, and you better watch out for him—both of you,” Vic warned. “He’s a shark, and he never misses anything. If you’re trying to pull the wool over his eyes, he’ll pick up on it. He could get us in a lot of trouble with the City Council—not to mention the rest of the business world.”
“Okay. I’ll handle it.” Ellen ushered Vic out of the office.
Just before she closed the door behind her, she cast one last backward glance at Ree. Her friend looked at her at the same moment, and the two shared a silent knowing gaze.
Everything was going to work out, now that they had each other back after years of agony and alienation. They wouldn’t quit until they used their combined knowledge to hammer out the future they wanted and fulfill their wildest dreams of immortality.
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Spellbound by the Angui - Cipher's Kiss Book 2 Page 24