“You can’t make anything easy, can you?”
I thought I was making it super easy, so I ignored him.
He growled for a second and then turned to face me, the fur slacking. I edged back, not sure what he was going to do. He shifted, turning toward me and then turning me, pulling my back snug against his chest. It seemed like every inch of my back had part of his front attached to it.
Every. Single. Part.
Every muscle fiber froze, but I couldn’t bring myself to pull away as heat seeped into me, thawing me from the outside in. Still, I was as stiff as the icicle I felt like. I closed my eyes, pretending that Callon wasn’t lying behind me. I was cozied up to a hearth.
“Relax. We’re sharing body heat. That’s it. You’re as stiff as a vir—”
“Shut up.” I jabbed my elbow indiscriminately. It wasn’t a hard jab. Partially frozen limbs moved slowly, but it stopped his words.
He lay there silently for a moment, exactly long enough to give me false hope he’d stay quiet.
“Really?” he asked, his breath tingling on my neck.
“Shut. Up.” After what Tuesday had told him, the confusion would be obvious. If I’d heard the story, I would’ve assumed the torment wouldn’t have stopped short of the whole shebang too. It wasn’t something I was willing to offer a play-by-play on. Living it had been enough. There would be no reliving for his enlightenment.
He gave me another pause full of false hope.
“So, nothing—”
I tried to push away from him, but his arm moved around my waist and was too strong to budge. My body might be freezing, but my face was burning up.
“Calm down. I’m too tired to discuss it anyway.”
“You’re an—”
“You don’t get to call me names while I’m saving your ass.”
I would’ve argued, but every time he spoke, his chest vibrated through mine and his breath whispered over my skin. I’d let him think he was winning this one.
I was poking the fire the next morning, avoiding looking at Callon. Waking up next to him had felt much more personal than going to sleep next to him. One good thing had come out of it. When I’d woken with my arm wrapped around his stomach and my head planted to his chest, I’d heard his heart beating. Up until now, I hadn’t been sure he had one. I’d untangled myself, and neither of us had said a word to each other since.
Koz’s head jerked up and looked East, those beast ears picking up on sounds un-hearable by a human.
Before worry could set in, Callon stood and said, “He’s back too soon.”
Even Tuesday was paying attention.
I straightened, looking at the woods. I couldn’t hear or see a thing, but I followed Callon’s stare, fully confident that Hess would walk into the clearing at any moment.
When Hess walked back into camp, he looked like he was towing five tons of stone behind him. He tossed down his sack and exhaled a long, weary breath.
Callon looked at him, assessing.
Zink was squatted by the fire, in between Callon and myself. “How bad?”
I chewed away a piece of cuticle as I waited. Tuesday moved until her arm was brushing mine.
“We can’t settle up with Turrock,” Hess finally spat out. “There was a message waiting at the pigeon stand when I got there. My guess is, the same message is at every pigeon stand a hundred miles from here.”
That was the big issue? That wasn’t good, but it wasn’t that bad. Now that I saw what Callon’s crew could do to the pirates, was anyone overly concerned about Turrock? Turrock was no threat against what these guys were packing. Actually, if Turrock put up a fight, this might work out to my benefit. A world without Turrock wasn’t a bad thing. I’d planned on going back and killing him myself one of these days, and I wouldn’t be picky about how his death came. I wasn’t a forgive-and-forget person, not when the things I was supposed to forgive were too horrible to ever forget.
“What did it say?” Callon asked, clearly put out over having his easy fix ripped away.
Hess scratched his head, buying himself a second. “The message wasn’t from Turrock.”
Callon crossed his arms, feet braced apart. “Who was it from?”
Hess let out a breath so strong it blew out his cheeks before he dropped the bomb. “The Magician. And he wants his property returned.”
There was a chorus of groans interrupted by the silence of Callon. There were a lot of grave looks passing in between everyone, but no one was explaining why this was so bad.
I glanced at Tuesday, looking to see if she knew something about him.
She mouthed, I never heard the name. She shrugged.
“Who’s the Magician?” Tuesday blurted out, as impatient as I was to get more details. It made my gut clench to know the person I was now running from unsettled these men.
“You don’t know?” Zink asked, and something happened that I’d never thought could. He blanched. Zink had tan skin to begin with, so to see him lose his color was shocking.
“No.” Tuesday’s shoulder banged into mine. “Who is this person?”
For once, I was glad she was doing the talking.
“I’d use the term ‘person’ loosely,” Zink said. “He might’ve been human once upon a time, but now the Magician is more monster than anything. He’s been on our radar for quite some time, but we’ve avoided conflict so far.”
“Had,” Hess added, running both hands through his hair.
Zink nodded toward Hess before continuing. “After the country of Newco collapsed, he filled the power vacuum. The people in charge before weren’t good, but it was more of an evil under the radar. The Magician doesn’t believe in being so subtle. He’s been trying to expand for some time, and by any means.”
“Do you think you could…” Tuesday was chewing on the side of her lip as she fumbled her way around phrasing the next question.
“Can you take him?” I asked, helping her out.
“Does this Magician guy know you?” Tuesday added.
Even though Zink had done most of the explaining, I shifted my attention to Callon. This was one answer I wanted from him.
Callon looked at me for the first time that day. “I believe we’re on his radar as well.”
I nodded, absorbing what he said, and what he didn’t. Neither Callon nor the Magician knew who would win, but it would be a hell of a fight.
“We need this settled. I’ll head out alone and…” Callon looked back at me, as everyone else was. “That’s right, I can’t go alone. Fuck. This just keeps getting better and better.”
“Now what?” Zink asked, verbalizing what everyone else was wondering.
Callon stood silent for a moment. “I can’t bring her with me to negotiate and I can’t leave her behind. There’s only one person that might be able to undo a death spell. We head to Hecate.”
Hess groaned, and Zink and Koz didn’t look so hot either.
“Who’s Hecate?”
“A witch. If anyone can fix this, it’s her.”
Great. Another witch.
18
The sun was high in the sky when the guys realigned themselves. Callon, who’d been walking ahead, dropped back until he was behind me and Tuesday. Koz fell in beside him. Zink took the lead and Hess covered the side.
Koz was whistling, and Callon’s shoulders looked relaxed, but something was off. I veered off to the left and Koz herded me back into the center. A step to the right and Callon edged me back in.
They could whistle all they wanted. Shit was about to go down. I grabbed Tuesday’s arm and tugged her closer to me. She turned, a question in her expression.
I gave a short shake of my head. My hair was still waving with the motion when I was rushed from the back and taken down to the ground. I didn’t know what happened, but I instantly recognized Callon’s scent when he shoved me into the crevice of a fallen tree, his body on top of mine. Callon was tall and solid, but it was like his flesh was packed with heavy metals instea
d of muscle, he weighed so much.
His hand went to the back of my head, forcing it closer to the log until I was in jeopardy of chewing on rotting leaves and bark. Shots whizzed overhead, and I decided maybe soggy old leaves wouldn’t taste so bad.
Callon was signaling over me, his body moving with the action. Zink crawled over to where we were hunkered down beside a log.
“I got her,” Zink said.
Callon rolled off and disappeared into the woods as Zink took his place. I put up a hand before he thought about climbing on top of me too. “I’ll stay put. We’re good.”
“Fine by me,” he said, situating himself beside me.
Bullets whizzed overhead, but I knew they weren’t meant for me. Odds were we were getting shot at because they wanted me. I was the safest person here. I could probably stand up, wave my arms about, and still not get shot.
I scanned the forest and caught sight of Tuesday hunkered down nearby with Koz. I couldn’t see Hess. He was probably taking out the threat with Callon, and I had no idea if they’d make it out alive. Yeah, they were tough, but these people had guns.
Very few people had guns anymore—the pirates sometimes had them, but other than that, word was the former collapsed country of Newco had the only large stash left. If they were right and the Magician had filled the power vacuum there, it stood to reason these people were sent by him.
The gunfire stopped after a few more minutes.
There was scuffling and Zink got to his feet. I followed him toward the noise.
Callon wasn’t far away and had a boot to a man’s neck, pinning him to the ground, while holding his arm outstretched.
“Who do you work for?” Callon’s boot lifted to shift to the man’s chest.
The man on the ground shook his head but stopped as soon as he caught sight of me.
“You looking for her?” Callon asked, and then twisted the guy’s arm so hard that I was waiting for a snapping sound.
The guy visibly gulped but said nothing. Hess walked out of the woods, a few guns slung over his back and a smattering of blood covering his forearms.
“Tell me,” Callon said, and this time I did hear the snap.
The guy’s face contorted, turning bright red. “Can’t,” he said, on a gasping breath.
“He’s not going to speak.” I stared down at the man who’d stopped looking at me.
“How do you know?” Callon asked.
“Trust me. I do. He’s not going to say anything, and then you’ll slit his throat.” There was no reason to get into the nitty-gritty about how the blood would spurt out. Callon had killed before. He’d know that part. He hadn’t walked out of those woods as clean as he did if this was his first time.
Zink raised his eyebrows and shifted a step away from me. I didn’t blame him. Times like this, I even creeped myself out.
“Where you going?” Koz asked, as I backed away toward where Tuesday was standing. She’d had the common sense to know this was something you might want to keep your distance from.
“I’ve already seen this.” It had been gory enough the first time it played out in my mind. A second showing in the flesh wasn’t needed.
Tuesday stared over my shoulder, and I knew it was as bad as I’d seen. From the sounds, they were working the man over, but it wouldn’t matter. I grabbed Tuesday’s hand, tugging her along with me back to the fallen log I’d taken shelter beside. She didn’t say much as we sat there, waiting for the noises to stop. After today, I knew there was one less rainbow in her world.
“It’s really good we’ve got these guys to help us,” she said after a couple minutes.
“Yeah,” I said, giving Tuesday the side eye. Actually, there might be a couple more rainbows in her world.
The guy’s moaning finally stopped. Koz made his way back to us first. He stopped right in front of me and asked, “How much can you see, exactly?”
I shrugged. “Varies. If I’m lucky, a few seconds. Bad day? It can get pretty long.”
“Koz,” Callon called out from across the way.
“I know. I got ’em,” Koz yelled back.
I stood, knowing the drill by now. Time to walk while they cleaned up the bodies.
19
Zink stared at me from across the fire. “Do you have any family that can do what you do?”
That question got Zink and Koz’s attention until the three of them were staring. I hated being the center of attention. Nothing good ever came from it. I never should have said anything earlier about how the guy wouldn’t talk. Now they wanted to know things about me.
“I don’t know.” I took another bite of meat, hoping they’d take the hint. I’d rather spend my time chewing this meat than chewing the fat with them. This shit was the best thing I’d tasted in years, maybe ever. I didn’t know how, but Koz could burn some serious flavor into a chunk of meat.
“Are they all dead of something?” Hess asked.
Seriously? My jaw dropped, and I didn’t care if there was some unswallowed gristle available for view. Maybe it would give them a hint.
“I don’t know.” Damn. Last bite. I looked around, seeing if anyone was getting tired of eating. It was like all the hunger from those missed meals had multiplied.
“Haven’t seen them in a while?” Zink asked.
“No.” What the fuck? Didn’t these people take a hint? The only one that wasn’t speaking was Callon, and it was probably because he was too pissed off that he was being hunted by the Magician because he was stuck with me. Or maybe he didn’t like me enough to care? Whatever. I’d take the silence.
I looked around. “Is everyone going to finish their meat?”
Three sticks were held out to me. I took them all.
“When did you see them last?” Hess asked.
Really? Were they going to ruin my meal with constant questions? “Holy fuck. The last time was the day I was born. I was sold as a baby for a couple of coins because, from what I’ve heard, my mother was an attractive plaguer. They thought I’d either be a good whore or have magic, or maybe both. Seeing as how everyone was afraid of me causing them to die prematurely, the whoring didn’t work out so well. Anything else?”
I saw that look pass from man to man, like the Bloody Death itself. I hated that look. The one where they thought they had it so much better.
“I’m sorry, but do you really think what you have going on is soooo great? You sprout hair and fangs. The world thinks you pick your teeth with the bones of babies, after you steal them from their cribs. But hey, if you’re all cool with it, so am I.” I took a big bite out of one of the legs I’d taken.
All three of them shut up. Koz might’ve turned a little rosy. Zink’s scowl was a little fiercer, and Hess nodded as if he agreed with my statement.
There was silence until Callon broke out into the heartiest laugh I’d ever heard. Figured he’d see the humor in that. He was the one that seemed most comfortable having fangs and fur at his disposal.
His laughter didn’t taper off in a normal way. It halted suddenly.
“A representative from the Magician is here.”
How could he know that? Were they talking to him and I couldn’t hear it?
“Where?” I got to my feet immediately, and Callon tugged me back down. I yanked my arm loose, but his palm landed on my shoulder next. How had I ended up sitting beside him? Big mistake. I needed to watch what I was doing from now on.
His grip was firm as he said, “You say nothing. You don’t smile. You don’t grimace. Nothing.”
“Got it.” Actually, I didn’t get it at all, but I wanted his hand off my shoulder.
“Teddy,” Callon said in a way that instantly insinuated doubt.
“I got it. Nothing,” I said, ignoring the way his eyes were so sharp they could’ve sliced bone.
I didn’t have time to ask how he’d known who was approaching because the bushes were rustling.
A single man stepped into the clearing, and even if he hadn’t been sent f
rom the Magician, I still wouldn’t have been able to take my eyes off him. I’d never seen such shiny clothes with flares and ties and shiny buttons. His shoes sparkled, as if he walked above the dirt the rest of us trod upon. Hair slicked back into a long grey ponytail with not a single strand busting loose. That alone screamed some crazy magic.
Everyone was standing but me, who still had a hand planted on my shoulder holding me down. Even Tuesday was standing. To say it chafed was the same as saying sticking my arm in the fire would tickle.
“I’m Harlow. I’m here on behalf of the Magician.” Harlow looked at me, his eyes moving to pause on my shoulder and then back to Callon. “The Magician wanted me to tell you that he is aware of your situation and circumstances. He can alleviate the problem caused by the witch. He can reverse the spell if you hand her over.”
How did he know about what the witch did? There was only one way, only one person left to speak—her son. Had Harlow killed him? Hopefully not.
I would’ve jumped up except for Callon’s hand still planted on my shoulder. Fucking beast strength. It was ridiculous. What I would’ve done for a gun or a knife at that moment.
Harlow took the smallest step toward Callon and me. It was enough to make it clear he only wanted to deal with him.
“The Magician knows you weren’t looking for this situation. He bears you no ill will. He only wants his property returned.” Harlow dipped his head toward “the property.”
Fingers squeezing my shoulder kept my lips sealed, but barely. This was the shit I’d said I wouldn’t take anymore. Here I was, taking shovels of it. This was why I needed to be alone. I never should’ve listened to that witch. At least there was another chance if we ever got to this Hecate person and they could do something.
As soon as Callon told this Harlow to go screw, we’d have to double-time it there before this Magician person showed.
“You’ve already attacked us,” Callon said.
“That was an accident. They were only supposed to observe. They were misdirected,” Harlow said.
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