The League of Skull & Bones

by MJ Fletcher

  “Not too long ago, sweetie,” I said still smiling.

  “Oh good, I’m right in the middle of working out a particularly hard dimension to access.”

  “That’s nice, Edgar.”

  Edgar was brilliant, but lived in his own world and I loved him for it. However, right now I needed my information.

  “Were you able to learn anything about Merric?”

  “As a matter of fact, I found nothing,” Edgar said with an oddly happy grin. He grabbed his satchel from beside him and pulled it open, searching through it. He tossed one Map after another onto the table with random pieces of paper thrown in for good measure. He let out a low whistle and pulled out a set of papers that he had tied together and placed them onto top of the rest of the mess on the table. He thumbed through the pages until he found the correct one and pulled it out. “Merric Vale pops up, about a decade ago, out of nowhere.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Here.” He handed me the paper that listed numerous books and appendices with date notations near each of them.

  “What’s this?”

  “This is a list of places that suddenly began mentioning him ten years ago, before that, nothing. It’s like he’s a ghost. The man doesn’t exist.”

  “But—” I slid my finger down along the dates of the books and they all started around the same month ten years ago. “What the hell does that mean?”

  At first, I thought it might mean he was in some type of witness protection program. But after doing some digging, I didn’t think that was it at all.”

  “Why?” I asked my stomach churning. Something about Merric had screamed at me that he had been through a lot. His eyes had been filled with pain and hurt, and I had a feeling all of this was somehow connected. Was digging into this going to make things worse? I needed to know if Merric was going to be a problem for me. But was that really the reason I was having Edgar check him out? Or was it something else? Was it because I had this strange burning interest in wanting to know all I could about him?

  “In most of the instances when Merric is mentioned, it is because the Old Kind doesn’t know how to respond to or deal with him. He seems like an Old Kind, but whatever abilities he may have, they’re shrouded in mystery. It’s known he can travel the dimensions, but no one has seen him do it. Not to mention that bar of his. They’ve been trying to figure out what it is he uses to prevent our powers from working properly inside.”

  “So no one knows anything about him?”

  “Not really, but the Council has used him as a consultant. He’s also active on the black market for Old Kind devices and vessels.”

  “That I know,” I said.

  “The man’s an enigma and that’s saying something among Old Kind.”

  Edgar sounded impressed and that worried me. Merric was an unknown and that didn’t help my situation right now. I still needed to find out more about Nyla Foxglove, and I didn’t need to have Merric as a problem in my rear view.

  Then there was Ronan and that spectacular grin of his that kept popping into my head. At least he had helped me by giving me Nyla’s name and fighting alongside me at the Diesel Factories. There was something about him as well that I couldn’t get out of my head.

  How the hell had I gone from not being worried about the men in my life to being stuck thinking about two? I didn’t need these types of complications at the moment.

  I trust Edgar’s opinion and have always felt he was one of the few people who I could talk to freely, so I asked. “Merric moved a Timelock on the black market, to someone who is out to get me. You think I need to worry about him?”

  “From everything I found on him so far, he is cautious to the extreme and doesn’t get involved in Old Kind business. If he moved a Timelock, I doubt he was anything more than a courier. I don’t think he’s someone you have to worry about.”

  I wanted to agree with him, but it didn’t help me get the man out of my head. There was something about him that I refused to let go. Maybe it was nothing more than my curiosity, but regardless, I had to put him aside and deal with the trouble at hand.

  “Excuse me,” a young redheaded woman stepped up to the table, smiling and staring at Edgar.

  “Can we help you?’ I asked.

  Edgar was looking at his Maps and barely noticed the woman staring at him so intently. I thought she might burn a hole into his skin. If she was interested in Edgar, she was going to find herself sorely disappointed. He was already taken. He was dating a regular human woman, but he also didn’t have time to deal with that type of nonsense as I’d heard him say time and again.

  “Are you Edgar Magnus?” she asked.

  Edgar looked up at the sound of his name and grinned. “Yes, I am.”

  “Of the Mapmakers Union?” she continued.

  “That’s me,” he said.

  “Oh good.” She stretched her hand out and my arms began to tingle at the presence of a Skeleton Key.

  The crimson light of Guild energy surrounded her hand as she formed a knife and lunged at Edgar’s throat with a growl.

  Chapter 14

  “Edgar!”

  His name tore from my lips as I lurched forward, grabbing the woman’s wrist a moment before it touched his throat. Edgar was pushed back into the booth, staring at the blade hovering near his neck with a bemused look.

  “Magnus must die,” the girl yelled.

  “Big mistake dumbass,” I said.

  I turned my hand, twisting her wrist back and pulling her away from Edgar, and then shoved her away from the table. I stood, placing myself between her and Edgar. I didn’t activate my abilities, but I was ready for anything.

  “Out of my way,” she said barely looking at me, her eyes focused solely on Edgar.

  “What did he do, break your heart or something?”

  “I don’t even know her, Jess,” Edgar said sounding wounded at my comment.

  I didn’t have time to explain to him that I was joking. I shoved my hand in her face. “You need to back up now, girl.”

  The customers around us were backing away, some even left. Most of the people in the Beanery were Old Kind, so they knew it was best to stay away. As for regular humans, their senses wouldn’t be able to comprehend what was happening anyway.

  “You don’t understand.” The girl finally looked away from Edgar to me, and her eyes widened in shock. “You?”

  “Did Nyla send you?”

  Her mouth shut closed and her eyes narrowed as she rushed forward. She lifted her knife and slashed at me in a wide motion. I sidestepped the attack and came around with a left hook, catching her on the temple and rocking her. She stumbled and I pressed my advantage, jabbing with my right hand and catching her chin, knocking her backwards.

  She hit the wall and slid down, landing in a pile on the floor. I stepped over her and pushed her with my foot to make sure she was really out.

  I looked around the Cape Beanery and most of the customers were returning to their drinks. A few still stared curiously at what was happening. A set of teens poked their heads around a booth and a striking woman with a Mohawk and tattoos smiled at me as she exited the store.

  “What the hell was that?” Edgar asked.

  “You’ve never seen her before,” I asked.

  “I have no idea who she is.” Edgar was shaking his head as he grabbed at his Map’s and stuffed them back into his satchel.

  “I think it has more to do with me than you,” I said pointing at the Skeleton Key sitting in her limp hand.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Trouble,” I said with a spark of anger.

  “Again,” Edgar said a weary tone in his voice. He’d been through the war as well and neither of us wanted to repeat that experience.

  “Seemed like I can’t stay out of trouble,” I said.

  “You’re unworthy,” the girl whispered.

  I spun in time to see her creating a knife. I lifted my hands ready for a fight, but she didn’t atta
ck. Instead she rammed the blade through her own chest. Blood poured out as she gagged and struggled to breath. Her eyes never left mine as I stared in shocked disbelief.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Unworthy,” she said with her dying breath.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Edgar said in a high-pitched voice.

  The usual calm and reserved Old Kind in the Cape Beanery shrieked and yelled in horror. Most of them ran for the doors while a few stood around in mute dismay. I looked around at the disbelief and revulsion on people’s faces and stopped on one person.

  The woman with the Mohawk who had smiled at me was standing outside the front window of the Cape Beanery still smiling. But it wasn’t any smile, it was a knowing one, and she was staring directly at me.

  “Stay here,” I said to Edgar and pushed my way through the crowd of the Beanery till I forced my way out the front door and looked around for the Mohawk woman. I didn’t spot her, so I walked to where I had seen her standing last and clenched my fists, my anger growing, when I couldn’t find her.

  I couldn’t track her with all the portals being opened as people ran to get away from the mayhem. That woman was involved somehow, and I had a pretty good idea who she was. I looked down and my blood boiled by what I saw lying in front of the Cape Beanery.

  A bell shaped set of purple flowers rested against the building. I leaned down and seethed at the implication. I’d seen the flower before, it was Foxglove.

  Chapter 15

  “This bitch is going after my friends,” I said.

  I stood in the Council chambers of the leader of the Skeleton Key Guild, who also happened to be my grandmother, Maura Grimm. She sat behind an onyx desk with a pair of crossed Skeleton Keys etched into the front of it. She wore a dark blue dress and her white hair hung loosely around her face.

  A rail thin man, wearing a grey suit and with salt and pepper hair, stepped from where he stood beside her desk, waving his hands at me. “You can’t be here,” he said angrily.

  “Winslow, it’s alright,” Gran said waving him off.

  He looked me up and down with a critical eye and his nose wrinkled in either annoyance or disgust. He lifted his chin and turned away as if snubbing me.

  “Very well, madam, I will be outside if you need me,” Winslow said as he exited the room and swung the black double doors closed behind him.

  “Who’s the jackass?” I said jerking my thumb over my shoulder in Winslow’s direction.

  “My new assistant, I need someone to help me deal with all of this.” She waved at the piles of papers the covered her desk.

  “You know what happened?” I asked.

  “Yes, I heard. Is Edgar alright?” she asked.

  “He’s a rock star, nothing fazes him. But she sent that psycho after him because of me, Gran, besides what they did to Slade.”

  “So it would seem.” Gran nodded in agreement and placed her hand on her chin as she thought through the problem.

  “What the hell are we going to do about it?”

  “I’ve been working on that,” she said.

  “Really, because it seems like the only one who has helped me at all is Ronan Sparrow. Hell, at least he warned me.”

  “Sparrow, yes I know about him.”

  “Then you know the League knew about this Foxglove woman.”

  Gran looked up at me with a stern expression just as she had done when she was about to get angry with me over something I had done.

  “It would seem the League knew, but that doesn’t mean that I knew, Jessica.”

  “What?” I said honestly shocked.

  “Listen to me carefully, there is a great deal more going on than you know. The Guild is in—let’s be diplomatic and say—disarray.”

  Gran tapped her finger on the desk as she spoke. Obviously, she was telling me more than she wanted to, but if she couldn’t trust me, then who could she trust?

  “Is everything okay?” I slid into one of the chairs facing her desk.

  “No, Jessica, it isn’t. There are many factions in the Guild and each one of them is doing their best to make my job difficult.” She slipped her thumb and forefinger over the bridge of her nose and squeezed tightly.

  “But why?”

  “Power, my dear. If they can depose me, then one of them might get a chance at this chair.” She waved around the room theatrically.

  I leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees and cupping my chin in my hands. “So you think someone in the Guild is helping her?”

  “I think it is a very real possibility,” she said.

  “Who?”

  “Sadly, there are many possibilities. I’ve been changing a great many things in the Guild and some are very unhappy about the course I’ve laid out and feel I should be removed from power.”

  “I haven’t heard anyone complaining,” I said.

  “You wouldn’t. Most of the people I’ve angered have a position or power in the Guild that is unseen. That makes them very dangerous, to not only the Guild, but us as well.”

  “Like the League of Skull & Bones,” I said.

  “Exactly.” She nodded. “The League is run by LaReina Graves. She’s powerful and cunning, and she also doesn’t like me very much.”

  “You think she’s helping Nyla?”

  “She could be. I don’t have anyone in the League who can find out what they’re up to.”

  “What about Ronan?” I asked. “I’ve spoken with him, perhaps he is someone we could use to learn what this LaReina woman is up to and if she is helping Nyla. I wanted to talk with him again anyway and see why he had come to me in the first place.”

  “Ronan was recruited by the League after he graduated the Paladin Academy. He is one of their best operatives, but we don’t know enough about him to trust him, not yet. No, I need someone I know is working for our best interests.” Gran shook her head and took a deep breath.

  I felt bad for how angry I’d been with her earlier. Her shoulders sagged and the dark circles under her eyes betrayed her lack of sleep. She’d been dealing with a lot lately, and I hadn’t been around to see it, being too busy with my own life. I hadn’t made the time to stop home and see her or my young cousin Erin. And I was feeling guilty about it, but then there were more pressing matters that required my attention.

  I shook the guilt off and turned my attention where it was needed. “Gran, are the stories about the League true?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What they do for the Skeleton Key Guild, is it true?”

  Rumors of the League’s existence and the very dark deeds they carried out for the Guild were legendary. If they were true, then I had an idea.

  “The League carries out the Guild’s more unsavory business, so yes that is true.”

  “Good,” I said.

  I’d been hearing the gossipy whispers for months, so I was aware of what people thought of me. When I walked in a room, they moved away, and it wasn’t because of my scars or the Artifact. I’d gotten reputation since the war, one that had worried me.

  People called me a killer and much worse. The problem was that they were right. I was good at killing people, and it bothered me, but for the first time I was going to put it to good use.

  “What are you thinking, Jess?” Gran asked.

  “I’m thinking if the League is doing anything to help that bitch Nyla, then we need to find out and deal with it.”

  “Agreed, but how?”

  “The League does our dirty work, so they must need members,” I said.

  “They are understaffed since the war like everyone else.” She shrugged, and then her eyes widened and she shook her head adamantly. “No, I forbid it. I will never allow it.”

  “Why not? I’m the perfect candidate for the League. Everyone already thinks I’m a killer.” I was blunt. There was no other way to admit a truth like that, and I saw a moment of sadness cross Gran’s face before she returned to stoic resolve.

  “Jess, I appreciate
it, but you don’t have to do this,” she said.

  “I want to help you, Gran, and this is not only for you, but me as well. Nyla is after me and apparently everyone I know is at risk. I want this bitch out of my way, and if the League of Skull & Bones is helping her, I want to know and bring them down.”

  “It would be extremely dangerous,” Gran said.

  “I’m at my best when I’m in danger,” I replied, sensing she was beginning to realize how well this could work.

  “Jess,” —Gran lowered her chin and sighed— “this isn’t what I wanted for you.”

  “I know, Gran, but this isn’t your fault. I chose this path and I intend to follow through on it.”

  Gran got up from her seat and stepped around her desk, coming to stand in front of me. She reached out, slipping her hands around mine and squeezing them tightly. “I love you and don’t want to place you in harm’s way. If we choose to do this, then you must know that you will be joining a very dangerous game.”

  “One that others have already forced me to join, Gran. I need to do this; you know I do.”

  “I know,” she said with reluctant resignation.

  “Can you get me into the League?”

  “The head of the Council is able to nominate people for membership to the League,” she said with a nod.

  “Then do it,” I said.

  It took her a few moments to concede completely. “Very well.”

  I stood and hugged her, giving her a quick kiss on her cheek and turned to leave.

  “Jessica.”

  She used my full name and it stopped me in my steps.

  “Please be careful, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  I looked over my shoulder and smiled at her. “It isn’t me you need to worry about getting hurt, Gran.”

  Chapter 16

  Ronan Sparrow weaved through the crowded streets of the Diesel Factories with speed and agility. His custom tailored navy blue suit stood out in sharp contrast to the men who wore top hats and monocles or the ones with overalls and shaved heads.

  The Diesel Factories is a way station between dimensions used by all Old Kind. It is a port of call that no one owns or controls and is one of the most popular destinations for any type of Old Kind activity.