“Kat! Wake up!” Alex’s warm hand on my arm shook me awake.
“Stop. That’s not how you wake someone up.” I grabbed a pillow and rolled over, hugging it as I tried to fall back asleep. Before I got comfortable, my body was lifted from the bed by my arm.
“Kat, you have to wake up now!”
I scrambled to get my feet under me and wiped the sleep from my eyes. “What is it? What’s going on?”
“The guard is dead.”
That worked better than a bucket of cold water to perk me up. “What do you mean? How? Where?”
“I did a patrol when I woke up, and I came upon his body. There’s no sign of how he died. Definitely not a shifter—something magic.”
I fiddled with my talisman to reassure myself that it still sat around my neck. Fidgeting with the stone had become something of a habit during moments of stress. “So what do we do now? Is the killer still here?”
“There’s no one here. My theory is that the guard found the person who’s been watching you. Whoever it is doesn’t want you dead because they want the same thing you do, and they intend to follow you to get it.”
My mind raced through dozens of different paths this morning could take. I kept circling back to one thing. “We need to get back to Earth.”
“The Council won’t let you go. Despite your recent experiences with them, they don’t like violence. They won’t risk your life, no matter how big the gain.”
My mother had been the exception because they viewed her as a threat. I had wanted to exonerate her, to prove that her death was an atrocity, but now I wanted the truth more than anything. It appeared I was the only one holding onto any hope that Meglana had been a good woman. I still wanted that to pan out, but there were other things in the equation now: a father and extended family. I needed the truth even if that truth led me to unpleasant conclusions about my mother.
“Whatever we do, we need to do it quick,” I said. “The Council will notice sooner rather than later that the guard is dead. If we can’t use the Council, are there shifters you can contact to get us a portal?”
Alex shook his head. “I could find someone given time, but time is something we don’t have.”
“Then what? If we don’t get to Earth, we’ll never find out what this key goes to, and whoever killed that guard isn’t going to stop if I stay here.”
“My guess is once the Council finds out their guard is dead, they’ll take you back to the Citadel. You’ll be safe there.”
“Safe and a prisoner. This has gone beyond fulfilling the Council’s wish and trying to exonerate my mother. I need to know the truth, Alex. If I let the Council take me to the Citadel, that’ll never happen. And they don’t have the best track record for catching people, so I’ll be a prisoner there indefinitely. I have quite a bit of experience being hunted. Hunters don’t give up.”
“Then there’s one option: Millhook. Let’s hope he was serious when he told us to summon him if we needed help.”
Brilliant. I had forgotten about the imp’s offer. “Can we summon him using one of the trees here, or do we need to be off the property?”
“He won’t be able to appear here. We need to go outside the property line to call him. Grab everything you need to take with you.”
I was already ahead of him. I grabbed a satchel I had found in my mother’s closet and stuffed her journal, the box with the key, my dead cell phone, and some clothes into it. One last check to make sure my medallion was still on, and I nodded to Alex. “Let’s go.”
Alex shifted, and I rode on his back to the road. It was the only firm boundary line for the property we knew of. As soon as my feet hit the ground, Alex shifted to his human form. “We don’t have much time. I think I heard someone on this road.”
I carved Millhook’s name into the first tree we found, hoping that this strange tree teleportation messenger system could read sloppy English handwriting. “So how long should this take?”
“I have no idea. I’ve never done this before.”
“Great. You know, you might want to think about staying in one world long enough to become an expert in it.” My tone was more acerbic than I wanted. Constantly being hunted did that to a person. Before I could apologize, Millhook appeared before us.
“This better be an emergency. I was just getting ready for my bath. Can’t take a minute to myself without being summoned by mages, shifters—”
“Millhook, we don’t have time,” I said. “It is an emergency. Can you get us to Earth?”
“Eh, what now?”
Alex grabbed the imp’s shoulders. “Focus. We need to get to Earth, and we need to get there now. There are people coming down this road who will lock us up if you don’t get us out of here.”
Millhook looked over Alex’s shoulder, and I followed his gaze. A cloud of dust moved toward us on the dirt road, likely caused by a vehicle full of Council guards.
“Well I’ll be. You two just can’t stay out of trouble, can you? Thought that’d be the case when I met you. That’s why I told ya how to get a hold of me.”
“Millhook. Earth. Now,” I said.
“Hey, you! Stay right there,” a guard called from the open-topped vehicle.
“That’s her, Kat, Meglana’s daughter. Get her to safety!” mages from the wagon yelled. Lilibet’s worried face peered around them. She’d likely insisted on coming along to provide moral support for me. A twinge of regret at leaving her without a word momentarily distracted me, but not long enough to miss a spark of magic building inside a wand pointed at us.
I grabbed Alex’s hand and Millhook’s, determined that we wouldn’t be separated, and shouted, “Millhook, now!”
The cottage and road disappeared, and in their place, fire surrounded us.
Chapter 17
Even though flames engulfed the world around me, no heat touched my skin. Fire consumed trees that appeared unburned. Up above, two suns shone brightly. “This isn’t Earth.”
“Well that’s obvious, now isn’t it?” Millhook said. “Of course we’re not on Earth. Did you see me make a portal? No, you didn’t. That’s because despite popular belief, imps are not just tools of mages to be summoned and ordered about on a whim. We’re in the Flamewood Forest.”
I should have known.
“Thought the trees would have given it away, what with them being in flames and all,” Millhook said.
“But I don’t feel any heat.” I stretched my hand toward one of the trees, but the air temperature didn’t change.
“Why would you? These ones aren’t mature yet. Once they’ve lived out their life, they’ll burn up and their ashes will produce more trees.”
“Oh, like a phoenix.” The parallels between Earth mythology and Elustrian reality fascinated me.
“What’s a phoenix?”
“A bird that rises from the ashes.”
Millhook scrunched up his face and shook his head. “No, nothing like that. I’ve never heard such a ridiculous thing. A bird rising from the ashes? Nonsense.”
“As educational as this is, we need to get going,” Alex said, gesturing with his hand to hurry it up.
“Right. I’m sorry, Millhook, but we didn’t know what else to do, and you did say to contact you if we got into trouble.”
“Yeah, yeah, that I did. Moment of softness on my part. Won’t let it happen again. What kind of trouble are you two in?” Millhook narrowed his eyes and looked between me and Alex.
“The kind that needs us out of Elustria,” Alex said.
“I can get you to Earth, don’t you worry about that. I just needed more than a few seconds to conjure up a portal. Did the Council turn on you? Bunch of two-faced mages.”
“It’s not that simple.” While I appreciated Millhook’s enthusiasm, I didn’t want him getting the wrong idea. “The Council assigned a guard to us, and we found him dead this morning. Someone’s been watching me. If we had stayed, the Council would’ve taken me to the Citadel for my safety, but we need to get
to Earth.”
“Ah, the Council wants to keep you safe. Can’t have that, now can we? You two have a mighty odd definition of the word trouble.”
“Can you help us or not?” Alex asked. The imp always wore on his temper.
“Don’t get your fuzzy little head in a tizzy over it, Furball. I’ll have your portal ready in just a few minutes. Where exactly on Earth am I sending you?”
Alex and Millhook both looked at me expectantly. It was a great question that I didn’t have an answer to. I no longer had a home on Earth, and I’d need more than an unreliable car to find my mother’s secrets. There was only one person on Earth whom I could count on: my gamer friend GreyMist, or rather, Nicole. She’d been my best friend for years even though we’d only met in real life a handful of times. It didn’t seem fair to pull her into this, but I had no other choice. “Do you know how to create a portal to Portland, Oregon? I have a friend there. She might be able to help us.”
“Not familiar with that name. Which landmass do you want me to take you to?”
Hell, this could take a while. “The same one you came to when you got me.”
“And whereabouts on it are you going?”
“How about I draw it for you?” I picked up a stick and drew a rough sketch of North America then stuck the stick into the ground where Portland would be.
“I can do that.” Millhook got to work using magic from his hands to conjure a portal. At first, it was tiny, too small for even him to fit through. The first picture we saw through the portal was the west coast of the United States. I pointed to Portland.
“Yeah, yeah, I see it.” Millhook zoomed in on the cityscape then manipulated the portal until it showed us a wooded area near a road. Satisfied, he pulled his hands apart, and the portal grew in size. “There you go. Don’t want to just appear out of nowhere in the middle of town.”
“Thanks, Millhook. You’re the best.”
“Course I am. Now I’ll be coming with you. You’ll need a way back once you’re done with whatever it is you’re doing.”
Despite what he would like others to believe, Millhook was all soft and sweet in the center. “I don’t want to put you at risk like that, but thanks for offering.”
“Did I say I was offering? No, I’m telling. You’ve got more magic in that talisman than you know what to do with. It’s like watching a toddler try to operate a cannon. And this one here”—he pointed to Alex—“has about the most useless form of magic there is. What’s he gonna do? Catch some mice for you? Nah, I gotta come along to keep you safe. Won’t have an innocent girl like you dying on my watch. Besides, the Council will figure out that I helped you. They’ll find me, and if you end up dead, it’s me they’ll blame. No siree, I’m not going in for that kind of trouble. Better to stick with you and make sure you get back here in one piece.”
He had a point about the Council, but we both knew that wasn’t why he was doing it. “Thanks. We won’t take it as a sign that you like us or anything.”
“Quit your gabbin’. I finally get a portal for you and you’re sitting here talking instead of going through it. Get on with you. I’ll be right behind.”
I suppressed a smile and stepped through the portal. Alex followed and then Millhook, and the portal vanished. There we were, a half-mage half-sorceress, a panther shifter, and an imp standing by the freeway without a working cell phone, money, or a clue what to do.
The only option we had was to either walk or hitchhike to some place where I could charge my phone.
“How are you going to get around, Millhook? You kind of stand out.” I had grown accustomed to Millhook’s appearance during our time together, but I still remembered how much it had shocked me the first time we met.
“You let me worry about that.” With a snap of his fingers, his hair and skin smoothed out to look more human, the color of his skin lightened from the faint purple to more of a pinkish tone. Clothes covered his body. At a glance, he was passable for human, though he most definitely still looked like Millhook.
“I didn’t know you could do that.”
He shifted his shoulders and fidgeted around. “Yeah, I don’t like it. It’s itchy.”
“Let’s go,” Alex said.
Our little party stepped onto the shoulder of the freeway and started our walk. The signs for the nearest exit said it was two and a half miles away. That wasn’t so bad.
It took a little while for Millhook to stop jumping at every car that sped past. The fact that no one stopped to offer us a ride left me a little disheartened. The feeling quickly fled in favor of dread when a car with flashing lights pulled up right behind us, and a state trooper stepped out. This couldn’t end well.
Chapter 18
Whatever the trooper wanted, it couldn’t be good. That wasn’t the sort of luck I had. Before I could warn Millhook to keep quiet, the little imp strode up to the state trooper and went right in.
“Hey, thank you for stopping. Might you give us safe transport to where we’re headed?”
Astonishment rendered me speechless. Alex, seeing the frozen state I was in, intervened.
“Excuse my friend here, sir. We’re just walking to the next exit.”
“You know,” the trooper said, “you’re not supposed to be walking on the side of the freeway. It’s dangerous.”
It was my turn to step forward. “Oh, we know, Officer. We were just stranded and my cell phone died. We’re looking to get somewhere I can charge it and call a friend for a ride.”
“Hmm, I didn’t see any cars broken down.”
“That’s because we were out hiking in the woods over here and got separated from our friends. They have the car. Like I said, my cell phone died, and we’re just hoping a gas station up ahead has someone with a charger who will loan it.”
The trooper narrowed his eyes. “There’s no hiking trails in those woods.”
I shrugged. “We’re adventurous like that.”
The officer looked at each of us. “And you don’t look outfitted to be hiking.”
“Sheesh with all the questions.” Millhook pushed his way past me. “We require your vehicle and that’s all you need to know.” He furrowed his brow and stared into the trooper’s eyes until the man visibly relaxed.
“I’m happy to take you anywhere you need.” He stepped aside and gestured toward his car.
“What the…” I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen.
“Don’t worry, it only works on humans. Creatures without magic have very weak minds indeed. Go on, get in. I’m sitting up front, you two can take the back.”
The trooper took us to the next exit, though I had no doubt he would’ve taken us anywhere we wanted, no matter the distance. I didn’t want to press my luck, though, and I wasn’t even sure where GreyMist lived.
When the officer let us out at the truck stop, Millhook said, “Thank you. Now sit here for a few minutes and ponder your life, the world, everything. In two minutes, you’ll drive off with no memory of this encounter.”
“You’re a funny little man,” the trooper said.
“Humph, that’s offensive. I’m not little, you’re just big and oafie.”
While I trusted that Millhook’s magic would work, I still wanted to get away from the officer before trouble came calling.
“Come on, let’s go inside.” I pulled Millhook inside the truck stop.
It didn’t take long to find someone who let me borrow their charger. I didn’t have any money with me for food, but at least the Wi-Fi was free. If all went well, and there was no reason to believe it would, we’d be with my old guild mate GreyMist soon, and she’d be able to help.
As my phone turned on, I marveled at both how foreign and how familiar this felt. It seemed as if it had been ages since I last used this technology, but at the same time I slipped right back into it as if no time had passed.
“All right, I’m going to call Nicole, and if I get a hold of her, I’m pretty confident she’ll come pick us up.”
&nb
sp; “Let me talk to her.” Millhook held out his hand.
“No! Let’s get one thing straight, Millhook. Under no circumstances are you to do that magical brainwashing thing on my friend.”
Millhook crinkled his brow and waved off my concern. “What’s the harm? They don’t even remember it afterward. It’s so much easier.”
“I don’t care. You don’t go around messing with people’s free will like that, or at least not the free will of my friends.” I had to admit, his trick had come in handy, and I didn’t want to be too rash and rule it out for all future circumstances. “Are we understood?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s the problem with you people raised on Earth. You never take advantage of what’s rightfully yours. Always want to make things more difficult for yourselves. But then it’s me you send to run all your errands. Oh, the Council, they don’t like what I do either, but that sure doesn’t stop them from hiring me to be their little errand boy anytime they need it. Millhook, go here, Millhook, go there. Millhook, fetch the crazy mage who killed our assassin. On and on, nothing but orders and no thanks.”
“Shut up,” Alex said between gritted teeth. If it weren’t for the seriousness of our situation, watching Alex and Millhook argue would be entertaining.
I clicked on Nicole’s picture in my phone and waited as it rang. I didn’t know where she’d be at this time, and I hadn’t checked what day of the week it was. If she was raiding with our guild, she wouldn’t answer the phone for anyone.
“Hello?” Nicole’s voice was hesitant on the other end of the line. I had called her from this number before, but I doubted she had saved it to her phone.
“Nicole, it’s Kat. Serafina.”
“Kat!” I had to hold the phone away from my ear to escape her high-pitched squealing. “It’s really you. Where have you been? You said you wouldn’t be online that much anymore, but I guess I didn’t believe it. I’ve been worried about you. You could’ve at least let me know you’re okay.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve been somewhere where I haven’t been able to contact anyone. It’s nothing bad or anything, but I could use your help now. I’m stranded at a truck stop outside of Portland. I was wondering if you’d come pick me and my friends up?”
Magic Unknown (The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born Book 2) Page 10
