“Of course, that’s not a problem. But are you sure everything’s all right?”
“That’s a complicated question. And it’ll be easier to answer in person. I’m safe right now. That’s really all that matters. I promise we’re not bringing any trouble to you.” That was a half-truth, but I wouldn’t let any trouble befall her.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m here for you no matter what. But who’s we?”
“My friends Alex and Mil…ford.” Millhook sounded too strange, but I had already committed to his name, so it morphed into Milford. Millhook glared at me and I gave him an apologetic shrug.
“Is this the same guy who came over to your apartment? The one who you were telling me about before?”
“Yep, that’s him.”
“All right, I’m on my way. If nothing else, I want to meet this guy who finally got you out of your shell. Text me the address.”
I sent her the location from my phone’s map program. “Did you get it?”
“Yeah. It should only take me about thirty minutes to get there.”
“We’ll be waiting outside for you.”
As soon as I hung up, Millhook started in. “Milford? My name is not Milford. It’s Millhook. Hook, as in I’ll hook anyone who dares to call me Milford.”
“I’m sorry, but that name just seems a little too weird. I didn’t want to freak her out. We really need her help.” While I intended to keep her safe, I already felt a little guilty for overstating the safety of our situation.
“Besides, Milford, you shouldn’t have a problem with being called something other than your actual name,” Alex said as he glared at Millhook.
“Ah, Furball’s a cute pet name. You see what I did there with the word pet?” Millhook grinned at his joke for a second before frowning. “It’s nothing like Milford.”
“You two can sit here and argue all you like; I’m going to go hitch a ride.” My phone was far from fully charged, but I had enough juice to take a call or text from Nicole if she needed to get a hold of me. When she got here, I’d be able to use her charger.
While we waited on the sidewalk outside, I laid down some ground rules.
“Millhook, under no circumstances are you to perform magic on Nicole. You’re incapable of being normal, so in lieu of that, at least be silent.”
“That doesn’t seem like very good thanks for saving you. I’ll say what I like, when I like, and you can’t stop me.”
He had a point, but I really didn’t want to drag Nicole any further into this than she already was.
“Please, Millie.”
Millhook jumped in shock and twisted his face as if he tasted something sour. “Millie? Definitely not.”
“That’s what I’m calling you unless you behave.”
Millhook narrowed his eyes at me. I met his gaze until he humphed and looked away.
“How much are you going to tell her?” Alex asked.
That was the question of the day. I’d been firm in my stance from the beginning to not tell her about Elustria. She’d want to see it for herself, and I couldn’t take her there. “I don’t know. As little as possible, but we’ll need quite a bit of help from her. She’s our best chance at figuring out what the key is to. I can’t ask her to do all that and give her nothing in return. If she found out about Elustria, it’s not as if anything bad could happen to her because of that knowledge.” I looked between Alex and Millhook for confirmation.
“You’re right,” Alex said. “The Council wouldn’t be too happy if they knew, but I doubt they’d be upset enough to do anything about it unless she posed a threat.”
“And I don’t see how she would, what with her being a non-magical human.”
“I’d just like to point out that this is something you don’t need to worry about,” Millhook said. “If you end up telling her too much, I can take care of it with just a little wave of my hand.”
I refrained from admonishing Millhook on this one because he had a point. Her safety was the only reason I would condone such an act.
A little while later, an old forest green Taurus pulled into the parking lot. Nicole’s purple hair was impossible to miss. “This is her. Be on your best behavior, both of you.”
I couldn’t contain the grin on my face. She pulled to a stop in front of us, and I climbed into the passenger seat and gave her a hug. As much as I liked Alex and Millhook and even Lilibet, nothing beat having my best friend back.
Chapter 19
During the drive, we kept the chitchat light. I could tell she wanted to ask more but knew to wait until we got back to her place.
“I hadn’t eaten yet when you called. Do you want me to fix some breakfast?”
Wow, breakfast. Was it really still morning? Then again, I didn’t know what the time difference between Elustria and Earth was, but it still hadn’t been long since Alex had shaken me awake to tell me of the corpse in the yard.
“If you don’t mind, I can make everyone something to eat, and that way you and Kat can catch up.” Alex made his charming offer, and I could practically see Nicole melt.
But she played it cool. “I don’t know. Kat, can I trust his cooking skills?”
“They’ve kept me alive so far.”
“Not exactly glowing endorsement from someone who lived off toaster pastry.”
“That’s fair, but give him the chance to prove himself.”
“Very well. I challenge you to make a meal out of whatever you can find in this kitchen.”
“Milford, want to come give me a hand?”
I could kiss Alex for his thoughtfulness. The last thing I needed was the imp staring at me and Nicole as we talked. He’d be staring or talking, and I didn’t know which was worse at this point. Besides, I wondered if he would lend a “helping” hand in a magical way. Magic that resulted in me being fed, I approved of.
“So what’s going on?” Nicole asked as soon as the guys were in the kitchen and we were alone on the sofa.
“I’m researching my birth mom, and I need your help. She left me this key.” I fished the box out of the satchel I still carried, whispered Martholomew to it, and retrieved the key. “She left this for me, but no note as to what it goes to. It’s kind of urgent that I find whatever it is. I was hoping you could help me with that.”
Nicole snatched the key and examined it. “Um, it looks like it goes to maybe a post office box or safe-deposit box.”
“Yeah, I was hoping you could narrow it down a bit more than that.”
“Sure. Let’s see what we can find out.” She grabbed her laptop from the bedroom. “I don’t mind helping, but I would like to know what’s been going on. You go off the radar and then I get a call from you needing me to rush over to a truck stop to pick you up. No mention of how you got there or why this is so urgent.”
“You know I would never put you in harm’s way, and I worry that I might be doing that if I tell you too much.”
Nicole’s eyes dimmed as a shade of hurt overcame them. “I get it. It’s just strange. We used to tell each other everything.”
I did miss having my best friend. Millhook had made a good point. Anything I told her, he could make her forget. Even if I didn’t tell her anything sensitive, it would probably still be best to make her forget this entire encounter. I made the decision so quickly that I think a part of me had known all along that it would come to this.
“You’re right. I’ll tell you everything as soon as we find what this key goes to. That’s too important, and afterward we’ll have all the time we need for us to get caught up.”
“All right then. That’s even more motivation for me to figure it out.” She examined it again for any engravings. Then, using a digital camera with a lens longer than any I’d seen in person, she took pictures of it from every angle. She uploaded the pictures to the Internet to do an image search.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought to do that. I swear, sometimes the easiest answers eluded me.
“So let’s have a lo
ok here.” There were over ten thousand hits on the picture of the entire key, so she cropped it to just show the distinctive markings on it including the number eleven eighty-nine, which I assumed was the box number. Going through all the results manually to find one that was a match was tedious. After clicking through to a lot of worthless pages, we finally found something.
“I think this is it,” Nicole said as she clicked on an image to see the original page it came from. It was a blog by a privacy nut who was convinced the governments of the world were interested in whatever he owned. Judging from the paw prints following the cursor on his website and the black background with twinkly stars and bright green text, I was guessing that what he had were a lot of cats and a massive Blu-ray collection. Hate to break it to you, buddy, but the government’s not coming after your movies.
The specific post was on the best places to store things you wanted to keep private, options like safe-deposit boxes, lockers, safes, etc. The gold standard, according to him, was an anonymous vault service in Vienna. It was the only option to receive his prestigious five-key rating.
“There you have it. It appears your mom left you the key to an anonymous vault. That works out well since I doubt she listed you as a cosigner.”
“Yeah, pretty lucky.” According to the blog, these vaults were completely private, requiring no ID or anything to access them other than a key. Since even the company itself didn’t know who they rented to, it was impossible for any government to get a warrant to search them. This was, without a doubt, what the key went to.
“Thank you so much, Nicole. This went a lot faster than I thought it would.”
“I always told you to learn how to do more with the computer than just game. Now, time for you to fulfill your part of the deal.”
“You’re right. Let’s go eat and I’ll tell you all about it.” I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when I told her what had been going on in my life. She wouldn’t believe it. But a pang of guilt stabbed at me as I already thought ahead to how quickly I could get away from here and to Vienna.
Chapter 20
An hour later, I sat stuffed with food I felt sure hadn’t existed in Nicole’s kitchen before we got there, and Nicole was staring at me in shock.
“There’s no way. You’re shitting me.”
“I promise I’m not. Would I seriously lie to you about something this big?”
She sat back in her seat and shook her head. “I can’t believe it. You have to take me. I have to see this. I mean, are there dragons?”
“What is it with you two and dragons?” Alex asked.
Seeing a dragon was still on my to-do list, though I increasingly felt like I would never be free from this new rhythm my life had taken of either being on the run or performing some task in exchange for my freedom. “I can’t take you to Elustria. I would if I could, but non-magical creatures can’t come.”
“That sucks. Can you at least take pictures to show me?”
Surprisingly, I hadn’t even thought of that. My phone had been with me the entire time in Elustria. Even though the battery did drain, I could take it with enough juice to snap a few shots. I wondered how that would work, if the pictures would even be visible.
“I didn’t even think to take pictures. Maybe I’ll bring you back some next time.” I knew very well there wouldn’t be a next time. The only reason I could tell her any of this was because Millhook would erase it from her mind.
“I might not be able to go to Elustria with you, but I can at least go to Vienna. We should see when the next flight is.” Nicole pulled out her laptop and looked up airfare.
Even if we wanted to travel by plane instead of just having Millhook port us, we didn’t have the appropriate identification papers. Nicole seemed oblivious to this as she started rattling off flight times.
“Ooh, there’s one leaving at eight o’clock tonight. Perfect. We can sleep on the plane and go right to the vault when we land.”
I let her buy the tickets, figuring she could get a refund or dispute the charge with the credit card company later. A twinge of guilt stabbed me, but I squashed it down.
“What’s your last name for the ticket, Alex?” Nicole asked.
“Wilders.”
“I didn’t know that.” I looked at Alex, surprised that it had taken this long for me to learn something so basic about him.
“And you, Milford?”
“It’s Millhook. That’s what most people call me.” He glared at me and Alex.
“All right, we’re all set. This is exciting!” Nicole grinned.
“Kat, can I have a word with you in the kitchen?” Alex asked.
“Sure.” I turned to the imp. “Millhook, behave yourself.”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll amuse ourselves,” Nicole said, a twinkle in her eye. I could only imagine the questions she’d ask him about Elustria.
Nicole’s kitchen was separated from her living room by a long hallway. There was no chance she’d overhear me and Alex.
“What are we doing, Kat? We can’t fly to Vienna.”
“I know. Before it’s time to leave for the airport, we’ll have Millhook wipe her memory and then port us to Vienna.”
“We should leave now. Have you forgotten that you’re under a deadline?”
“No, I haven’t.” Frustration boiled to the surface. “Have you forgotten that my life has been turned upside down too many times to count, and I haven’t been able to talk to my best friend about any of it? Ever since you showed up at my door, I’ve been running from one thing to the next. I haven’t had time to process any of this. All I’m asking for is a few hours. This is my one chance to talk to someone. Don’t take that away.”
“You know, you can always talk to me. I know things were a little weird between us after the attraction I felt toward you because of the talisman, but I had hoped you’d at least consider me a friend.”
“I do, but it’s not the same. Maybe we’re more than that, and maybe we’re not. I don’t think we’ll have a chance of knowing until after this is all over, but I do know you’re a friend, probably my best friend now. But this might be the last time I ever see Nicole. And I’m aware that if I don’t meet my deadline, it definitely will be. I don’t need any reminders. What I need is to talk to someone who gets how weird this all is.”
“I understand. I do. But just so you know, this is weird even for a shifter.”
For the first time it occurred to me that he might need to talk about what was going on. After all, his dad had died and there was something up with his family that made him not want to visit or even inform them that he’d returned to Elustria. Before I could say anything, he smiled.
“Go. You shouldn’t waste any time with me when you have so little with her. Do you want me to get Millhook out of your way?”
“No, that’s okay. Both of you can answer questions Nicole and I might have. I want a few hours of normal; that’s all.”
Alex nodded and gestured for me to lead the way back to the living room.
Nicole had her laptop out, and I recognized the account screen for Wizards and Fae.
“What are you doing?” I asked. It seemed odd for her to log in and play.
“I’m deleting my account. I haven’t been playing much anyway since the guild booted you.”
“What? They actually deleted me?” The last few years of my life had been wrapped up in that group of people. It shouldn’t matter since I’d never play again, but it did.
“Yeah. I argued that we should keep you on the roster in memorial since you were a founding member and a Hades Killer, but they were insistent that if you weren’t active, you had to go.”
That hurt. I would have expected more from the people I considered friends. “You don’t have to delete your account for me. That’s years of work.”
Nicole shrugged. “I’ve moved on. After what you told me about Casper, I don’t want to be associated with Wizards and Fae at all.” She confirmed the account deletion then clo
sed the laptop. “So you finally met your birth family? That had to have been weird. Did they tell you a lot about your mom?”
“Not really. They didn’t want to talk about much except about the mage they all think my mom should have ended up with. I got an earful about what a disappointment she was. They wouldn’t even tell me about my dad. My mom’s sister had to come back and tell me that in private.”
A spark of intrigue entered Nicole’s eyes. “Why? Who is he? Is he alive?”
“He’s a sorcerer. Apparently that’s verboten. I don’t know if he’s alive.” So far, finding my family hadn’t been a wholly positive experience. It might be best to not go looking for my father. Family was overrated. I’d had a great one, but they were dead now. Time to move on.
“So you’re not just a mage, you’re half-sorcerer too?”
“Yeah.”
“That is so cool.” Awe filled Nicole’s face.
“It doesn’t seem to be much different from just being a mage. I don’t have any other cool powers, at least that I’m aware of. What has been made clear to me is that I can’t have magical children.”
“You never wanted children, anyway.”
True. Losing my parents had tainted my view. I’d never thought about being a mom before they died, but afterward I didn’t want to have a child. It didn’t seem right to put them through the pain of losing me someday. That feeling might have changed, but now it was best if it didn’t.
“This is exactly what I was saying back in the Flamewood Forest.” Millhook interrupted my thoughts. “You don’t even know what makes you different from mages. You can practically smell the sorcerer magic on you. That talisman has more power in it than any mage has a right to.”
Shocked, I looked at Millhook. “Wait, you knew?”
“Of course. Why do you think I called you ‘halfling’ back at the Citadel?”
“I thought that was because I was half-human or something, having been raised on Earth. Does the Council know?”
Magic Unknown (The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born Book 2) Page 11
