by S. M. Boyce
What could go wrong?
“Victoria my love, you look as ravishing as ever,” a familiar voice said from her doorway.
She rubbed her face and didn’t bother to stifle her groan. “Don’t you have a city council to run, Diesel?”
“I do, but I had to see my lady off. I will miss you, dearest.”
Goddamn it. She ignored him and continued to stuff her clothes into her pack without noticing what she was putting in.
Behind her, he snapped his fingers. The clothes that were still piled on her bed folded instantaneously and leapt into her bag, while the clothes and other things within folded themselves or tucked themselves into the various pockets. In seconds, her packing had been done for her.
Even the underwear.
She shot him a glare at the thought of his touching—even magically—her personal effects, and he flashed the charming smile that would have dropped most women’s pants. Victoria, however, merely rolled her eyes. “Thanks.”
“Anything for you.”
Victoria was about to tell him—again—that she wasn’t interested, but a wayward thought crossed her mind. She cast a glance over her shoulder at the wizard who had gained the king’s trust. “Is King Bornt still alive?”
Diesel’s smile faltered, and he leaned against the doorframe. “No one has seen him in three weeks. He sends orders from his locked room, but will allow no one to enter. I suspect he’s long dead, and that the orders are coming from Luak himself. Luak is slowly taking over the council, buying the loyalty of one member after another. I don’t think we have much time before he takes over completely.”
“Fabulous.” Victoria rubbed her temples, frustrated. Her enemy would soon have access to Fairhaven’s treasury and Army to hunt her down, as if things weren’t already bad enough.
Diesel rubbed his jaw. “Speaking of which, you have become Public Enemy Number One, Victoria. There’s a hundred-thousand-denni reward for anyone who brings you to the throne room alive, and a death sentence for anyone who kills you.”
Victoria tensed, grateful Diesel was on her side even if he was annoying as hell sometimes. “Where do they think I am?”
“In the tunnels below the city.”
She frowned. It wasn’t far from the truth, and the memory of the tingle of eyes on her back sent a shiver down her spine. Something had followed her through the tunnels about half the times she had gone down there. Though she had lost it several times, there was always the chance whoever it was knew where she had been hiding, or at least the general area.
But why hadn’t this person attacked?
“Something has been following me in the tunnels,” she confessed, fussing with the snaps and pockets on her pack to distract herself.
“Oh, that was one of my spies. I wanted to ensure you’re safe. You’re quite good at losing him, though.”
Victoria smacked Diesel’s shoulder. “What the hell?”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “I needed to know you were okay, my love. I worry, you know? You never write, you never visit me…”
She ran a hand through her hair and threw the pack over her shoulder, glaring at him but simultaneously grateful the mystery had been solved. “At least it’s not Luak. I was wondering why I hadn’t been attacked.”
“I wouldn’t have allowed it.”
She shook her head, but couldn’t suppress the chuckle. This damn wizard is unrelenting.
Her smile fell, however, when she thought again of the probably-dead king. This had to stop.
Victoria tightened the strap on her shoulder. “Keep a lookout while we’re gone. Luak won’t trust anyone with specifics of his plans, but gather whatever you can.”
Fyrn’s heavy footsteps thudded as he climbed the stairs. “He’s coming with us,” the old wizard said absently as he passed the door. In seconds he was gone, as though he hadn’t pulled the rug out from under her with a simple statement.
Diesel grinned. Victoria did not.
“Are you joking?” she shouted.
Fyrn’s voice thundered through the corridor from somewhere down the hall. “We need all the help we can get, Victoria. I don’t like it either.”
Diesel took a final step into the room, his frame as tall as the doorway as he leaned against the wall and casually slipped his hands into his pockets. Any other woman would have swooned at the imposing man standing in her bedroom, but Victoria knew him better than most.
His smile widened. “I see you can’t bear to be away from me, darling Victoria. Secretly asking your mentor to allow me to come while protesting the decision in order to preserve your fierce public persona? It’s endearing.”
“Don’t you pack yet.” She pointed a finger at the handsome wizard and pushed past him, crossing the hallway to give her mentor a piece of her mind.
The door at the end of the hall stood open, and she leaned against the frame. “Fyrn, a word.”
“Not now, Victoria. Finish packing.” The old wizard pulled more vials filled with glowing green liquid off the shelves.
“Wait, what are those?” She pointed to the various bottles.
“I brewed healing tonics and a few explosives to be on the safe side. I figured it would be best that you have a small armory should an invasion take place.”
“And you were going to tell me about this when?”
He shrugged. “I was getting to it.”
Victoria rolled her eyes, but figured she should choose her battles wisely. “Diesel can’t come.”
Fyrn, to his credit, smirked and lifted one scraggly eyebrow. “You are giving me orders now?”
Exasperated, she pointed through the wall in the general direction of the celebrity wizard in her bedroom. “Yeah, if it’s about him joining us on yet another long and grueling journey, Fyrn. He’s not coming.”
“We need him.”
She sighed, already having a hunch what this was really about. “He helped us escape Atlantis. I appreciate everything he did. I doubt we could have escaped without him, but—”
“I believe you could have escaped without him, but as I expected, he was an asset. He may have saved your life, Victoria.”
She sighed, hands in her pockets as she stared at the floor. She hated to admit she owed Diesel anything, but he had become part of the group. He had dropped everything to come with them once, and she was sure he would do it again. “Yeah, but—”
“But you’re sick of his advances,” Fyrn finished.
Victoria nodded. “It’s exhausting and distracting.”
Fyrn shrugged. “Get over it.”
“What?”
“Get over it,” Fyrn repeated, as though she hadn’t heard him.
She gritted her teeth. “Fyrn, when a woman says, ‘What,’ it’s not that she didn’t hear you. She’s giving you a chance to change your answer.”
He huffed. “Diesel is a powerful asset, and loyal to you. He would never dream of hurting you, and he would follow you to hell if you asked him to. If it were me, I would consider it a small price to pay and gladly accept him on my team.”
She grimaced a bit at the image of Diesel fawning over her grumpy old mentor, and quickly pushed the thought away. “Well sure, but he’s not inches away from pinching your ass at any moment.”
Fyrn sighed. “Victoria, we need to get out of the city soon. One of my spies just visited and said Luak’s plans have changed. I’m not sure what happened, but that psychotic elf is moving everything forward. All the murders. All the raids. Everything. Perhaps he has a general idea where you are. If so, he’ll begin burning houses to flush you out.”
Victoria’s jaw snapped shut with an audible click. She couldn’t speak for several moments, and when she did it came out as a harsh whisper. “Shit.”
Fyrn nodded. “To make matters worse, there are rumors of assassinations and missing political figures in the castle. Important senators and generals have disappeared, some as recently as thirty minutes ago, according to my spies. If Diesel hadn’t been here c
hecking on you he would have already been detained, or possibly killed. He’s powerful, but not even he can take on a whole army by himself. The bloodshed in the castle right now is unheard of. His affection for you saved his life.”
Victoria’s body went cold, and she could feel the color draining from her face. Diesel was one of her own, even with his annoying personality. She cared about the wizard, and wanted him on her team. The close call sent a shiver through her body.
But after the chill came the rage. She had almost lost yet another person she cared about to that power-hungry Light Elf. Her panic quickly faded into hatred. Anger. Bloodlust.
She would fucking destroy Luak, and he would be in utter agony every second of his death. She would see to that.
Fyrn paused in his packing and scanned her face. “Now that you fully understand the threat, can Diesel come?”
She nodded. Damn it. “I’m glad he isn’t dead.”
“As am I,” Fyrn said softly, a look of sadness on his face as he shoved yet another green vial into his seemingly bottomless bag.
“But I’m going to set boundaries,” Victoria warned.
Fyrn nodded. “Good. We don’t have any time to lose.”
Victoria walked into the hallway, mind still stuck in the realization that she had almost lost one of her friends. If Diesel hadn’t left the castle to see her off, he would be dead.
She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it.
“Is everything all right, Victoria?” Diesel asked, his pestering charm dropping for a moment into true concern as she stepped into the hallway.
Victoria eyed him for a moment, then hugged him. Her arms wrapped around his solid midsection, and she pulled him close without saying a word.
Apparently baffled, he hesitated briefly before wrapping his arms around her.
“Don’t die, you big idiot,” she said softly. With that, she trotted down the stairs, leaving a thoroughly confused wizard in her wake.
They had to get the hell out of here. The sooner they got this new Rhazdon Artifact, the sooner she could stop Luak’s tyranny.
Chapter 9
After the purely platonic hug, Diesel didn’t seem to understand Victoria’s concept of boundaries.
Ugh.
When they boarded the plane to Sedona, their appearances changed by the glamours Fyrn had put together for them, Victoria took one of the four first-class seats she had bought with her parents’ insurance money.
If they were going to fly, they were going to do it in style.
Across the aisle, Fyrn sported a crisp black business suit. Though he wore his wizard robes in reality, the glamour affected everything from his shoes to his hairstyle. He had short hair, which honestly suited him far better than the scraggly-wizard look. Two flight attendants had already stopped by to offer him liquor and fruit no one else was getting, and Victoria couldn’t help but roll her eyes at their obvious flirting.
They had agreed on their story on the way over. Fyrn was playing the part of a rich tycoon of some sort, which was easy for him since he was used to bossing people around. Victoria and Audrey had been glamoured to be his raven-haired daughters and wore sleek black dresses, because apparently black was Fyrn’s favorite glamour-color.
At Victoria’s request, Diesel had been dressed to look like their butler.
Styx was hidden in a luxurious and charmed carry-on bag in the bins above their seats, no doubt devouring the oranges she had left in there for him. She eyed the overhead compartment, wondering if she should make sure he had enough air, but Fyrn had assured her at least two dozen times that her pet pixie would be safe in the bag.
Much to her surprise, Fyrn had also put his and Diesel’s staffs in the upper compartment, having charmed them both to look like very long poster tubes.
Diesel had finagled himself into the seat beside Victoria, and now rested his arm over her shoulders. Though she continually reminded him it was improper for the butler to hit on his boss’s daughter, he didn’t seem to care about keeping their cover story alive.
His arm had been resting behind her head for at least an hour, but it was easier to roll her eyes than push him away.
If it were anyone else being this persistent, Victoria would have kicked him in the chest or slapped some sense into him. But this was Diesel. He was harmless. Annoying, yes. But harmless.
Something shifted in Victoria’s peripheral vision and she lifted her head to see Audrey waving to get her attention. Victoria raised one eyebrow to communicate. What?
Audrey nodded at Diesel and made a kissing motion with her lips.
Victoria flipped her best friend off, and Audrey just laughed.
Back in the airport, Audrey had called her parents while they waited for their flight. Victoria’s chest had tightened at the reminder of what she no longer had, but she had forced herself to listen anyway. It was neat to hear the way Audrey’s voice shifted when she spoke with her parents. She always sounded so happy. Audrey had made it sound like they were jet-setting off to yet another foreign country, keeping the lie of their backpacking trip through Europe alive and well.
Victoria still didn’t like lying to Mr. and Mrs. Xavier, but it was better than telling them the truth. At least Audrey was keeping in touch with her parents. The fact warmed Victoria’s heart, even if that organ panged with her own loss at the same time.
As the plane rumbled beneath her, Victoria surveyed the first-class cabin. Most of the travelers conversed in hushed tones, no doubt networking or trying to rub elbows with someone important. A few wore headphones and nodded silently to themselves, eyes closed as they listened to whatever piped through their speakers. One little girl in the back kicked her feet at the seat in front of her, her short legs missing the chair by inches.
A thin curtain separated the first-class cabin from coach seating, and Victoria couldn’t help but think it was weird to be up front. On the rare occasions she had flown in her life—tickets were expensive, after all, and she had always been poor—she and her parents had always traveled in cattle class.
Being rich was weird. Awesome, but weird.
Being back in the human world after living in Fairhaven for so long was also surreal. To see her fellow humans munching on apple slices and perusing the complimentary tablets for a movie to watch reminded her of her life before magic. Before Fairhaven. Before Luak. Before—
Before her parents were killed.
Gritting her teeth, she settled into her chair and did her best not to seethe with hatred. Her grip on the padded armrest tightened, and she glared at the seat in front of her.
“Are you all right, my dear?” Diesel asked, setting one hand on hers.
She shook him off. “Boundaries, man. Boundaries.”
He lifted his hands in defeat. “I apologize, but my question still stands. Don’t make me get out my truth dagger.”
The chair in front of Victoria shifted and a man peeked over the headrest, quizzically glancing at Diesel.
Victoria grinned. Out of context, it must have sounded like Diesel had used an innuendo. To let off some steam, she winked at the man in front of her who was butting into their conversation. “Do you want to see his truth dagger for yourself?”
He blushed and settled back into his seat, clearing his throat a few times too many for it to be natural. Victoria stifled her laughter and added below her breath, “It’s my truth dagger, remember?”
Diesel grinned. “Of course, my love, but couples share.”
With a groan and a chuckle, she leaned against the cushy headrest and tried to relax. It was only a two hour flight, so she could suffer through his advances a little while longer. Their journey, however, would be a long one. She might as well enjoy first class while she was here.
***
On a dusty desert road near Sedona, Victoria panicked and grabbed the handle above the window of their rented four-door sedan. Rocks protruded from the road like icebergs waiting to carve open something important in the bottom of the car, and she
didn’t like this one bit.
Styx clung to her hair, hiding in her locks in case anyone passed them on the empty road. So far they had only seen one dusty red pickup as it sped by, the driver laughing and shaking his head as he surveyed the tiny four-door sedan.
They had left the highway several miles ago, and it seemed as though they were in way over their heads. Their car that would be torn open by the rocky road at any minute.
Diesel drove as fast as he safely could while dodging the biggest obstacles, grumbling to himself about being able to flatten the road magically if only the Order of the Silver Griffins would let him perform magic on Earth. Even when it seemed like no one was watching, someone probably was. He couldn’t risk it, and thus they followed the bouncy road and cringed with every scrape of rock against the car’s metal underbelly.
“Why didn’t we just use a portal?” Audrey asked from the backseat, her arms pressed against the windowsill and middle seat to keep her balance in the chaotic car.
Fyrn huffed. “Portals are dangerous, and in most cases illegal. Mundane travel is safer. There’s less chance of you getting lost in the in-between. Would you rather live for eternity as a ghost lost between worlds?”
Audrey grumbled and stared out the window as the car hit another rock-berg. She winced. “Maybe.”
Victoria chuckled to herself as Diesel drove them around a particularly large boulder. “I can’t believe this is the best route.”
“I’m following the little magic man, okay?” Diesel snapped, uncharacteristically tense.
For a moment Victoria felt bad for pushing his buttons, but then her brain caught up with what he had said. “’The little magic man?’”
Diesel gestured to the GPS he had rented with the car. The arrow representing their sedan blinked along a blue route, and the estimated arrival time kept creeping backward as they drove under the unpaved road’s ludicrously high speed limit.
“If you don’t know what a GPS is, I’m astonished you know how to drive,” Victoria said.
