Metamorphosis Online Complete Series Boxed Set; A Gamelit Fantasy RGP Novel: You Need A Bigger Sword, The New Queen Rises, Reign With Axe & Shield

by Natalie Grey

  “Ohhhh.” Jamie buried his head in his hands.

  “Adorable,” Kevin commented.

  “Huh?” Jamie’s head came up.

  “Nothing.” Kevin headed for his own room, unbuttoning his shirt. “I’ll change, then we can brainstorm lunch.”

  In reality, Lakhesis was Marie Wilson, a former preschool teacher turned receptionist. Her new job, as she had hoped, was less stressful.

  Unfortunately, it was less stressful to the point that she was bored out of her mind. She had already redone the entire office filing system, then she had gone through it again to make new labels for everything. She had organized the supply cabinet, placed orders for anything she could think of, written a chart to show what they had, and optimized their client contact system.

  She was going to go out of her mind if she had to sit here for one more minute.

  Which was why, when the text message came, she gasped.

  “Everything okay?” Her boss, Robert, stopped on his way across the reception area.

  “Uh…” Marie looked down at the text message. “A friend just offered to fly me out for, uh…an engagement party.” She bit her lip and tried to think of a good way to phrase this. “I know the next few days might be busy, so—”

  “I think we’re set up well,” Robert said. “And I’ve seen how hard you’ve been working. It’s probably a good distraction, what with…well, everything.” He gave her a sad smile; she had told Robert about her sister’s death. What with the funeral and the estate planning, she’d had to. Now he gave her a gentle look. “I think some time with friends would be very good for you,” he told her.

  Marie blinked back tears. She had expected anything other than this. Weren’t bosses supposed to get on your case for asking for days off? “Thank you,” she said. “Really. I, uh—”

  “Why don’t you take the rest of the day?” Robert suggested. “Run errands, pack, maybe go see a movie…”

  “Right.” Marie nodded. “I’ll email you the meeting schedules for everyone, then I’ll head out.”

  “I hope your friend has a good engagement party,” Robert said sincerely.

  “Mmm.” She could hardly tell him what this really was. None of the people in her office played video games at all. “I’ll pass that along. Thanks.”

  Ushanas pushed herself away from her desk and rolled her chair across the floor. She was riding high on the fact that she’d finally gotten the promotion she’d deserved for the past year and a half, and she couldn’t see the day getting much better.

  Well, maybe if she got a burger for lunch.

  “Shannon.” Taylor, one of her coworkers, popped up over the cubicle wall. “Your phone’s ringing.”

  “Whoops, sorry.” Shannon scooched her way back across the floor and picked it up. “Hello?”

  “May I speak to Shannon Jeffords, please?” The voice was pleasant.

  Shannon frowned. “That’s me.”

  “Hello, Ms. Jeffords. This is Rosalie Williams at Dragon Soul Productions. As a member of Red Squadron, we’re inviting you to join us tonight at the Dragon Soul Headquarters. We would be paying for your flight out.”

  “That’s…what?” Shannon frowned at her phone.

  “I understand you’ll have received the details from Gracie King.”

  “Uh, sec.” Shannon switched over to her text messages and her eyebrows shot up. Apparently, this day was going to get better. “Yeah, I will be able to make it.” She’d be calling in sick, but that was neither here nor there. “Um, I’ll wait for details from you?”

  “Of course. Your email on file for your player account is the one we should use?”

  “Er, yes.”

  “Very good. We look forward to seeing you this evening, Ms. Jeffords.”

  Shannon hung up and considered her desk.

  “Everything okay?” Taylor called.

  “Oh, yeah, that was just…my sister-in-law. She’s planning my nephew’s birthday party.” Yeah, that hung together. Shannon pressed a hand over her stomach. “You know, I actually don’t feel too well…”

  “The only one we’re waiting for at this point is Chowder,” Gracie told Jay, “and Kevin offered to log on and see if he’s there.”

  “Good.” Jay smiled. They pushed their way out the front door into the unseasonable sunshine, and he got a sudden guilty look. “Uh…my car is a gigantic mess. Please don’t judge me. You know what, maybe let’s just get an Uber.”

  “Nuh-uh.” Gracie laughed. “I wanna see. Also, where are we going?”

  “Well…” Jay gave her a smile. “I’d like to show you all the teams and the offices, but I figured maybe that wasn’t the best idea.”

  “Plus, we’ll want everyone else to see it, too,” Gracie agreed.

  Jay laughed. “Dan and Dhruv are definitely not going to agree to that. Proprietary info and all that.”

  “That’s a load of bullshit,” Gracie told him bluntly, “what with all of the sponsored team stuff in the game.”

  Jay stuck out his tongue. “I didn’t say it had internal logical consistency, I just said they weren’t going to agree to it.” He looked around. “What about this? Why don’t we drop your bags off and then go get some lunch? Uh, wait, where are you staying? Did they get you a hotel, or…”

  It took a moment, but Gracie caught up with his train of thought and blushed. “Oh. Right.” She cleared her throat. “They did get me a hotel room, and it’s pretty swanky. Let’s put my bags there, and, uh…” She was really shit at flirting. “Well, if the whole team is going to be at the hotel, you might as well come stay with us, right?”

  That was about as subtle as dropping an anvil, but Jay played along. That, or he was just as bad at this as she was. “That makes sense, yeah.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah.”

  They both cleared their throats, and Jay fumbled with his keys to open his trunk and helped her load in her bags.

  “So, is Alex coming?” He looked at her. “Please don’t judge me for the car.”

  “I’m not going to judge you for the—are you serious?” Gracie peered in the window. “This is what you think of as ‘super messy?’ You are never allowed to see my car.”

  Jay was startled into a laugh. “Good to know.”

  “Anyway,” Gracie said, sliding into the passenger seat, “Alex is coming. He’s needed a vacation for a while, and he was actually able to bring Sydney with—”

  Jay cut her off with a kiss. There was one moment of silence before she reached out to grab his shirt and pull him closer, and then they were making out like two teenagers in the high school parking lot, even while laughing at the absurdity of it.

  When they broke away from each other, Gracie was gasping for breath. She leaned back in her seat, still laughing, and Jay did the same. She could see his heartbeat racing in his throat.

  He looked at her with a grin. “That was practically torture back there in the conference room.”

  “I hope you never actually get tortured,” Gracie said, stifling another laugh. “You are in for a big surprise if you do.”

  “Thankfully…” Jay started the car and pulled out, “the world of video game development is not quite that intense. So, what do you want for lunch? I mean, there’s obviously seafood.”

  “Oooh! Yes, please.” Gracie settled back in her seat with a happy smile. “That’s the one thing that’s not good in Vegas.”

  “Really? Vegas doesn’t have shellfish?”

  “Oh, they do—but the good stuff is flown in, so it’s all super expensive. Not like somewhere on the coast where everywhere has it.”

  “Good point.” Jay pulled onto the highway. “So, what’s it even like living in Vegas?”

  “Not like you’d expect,” Gracie said. “There’s the Strip, obviously, but there’s tons of other stuff. It’s like any other city in some ways, just…full of very drunk tourists in weird outfits. It’s all scandalous to them, and very normal to everyone else. Like, ‘Oh hey, t
its.’”

  “You know, I just don’t see myself getting to that point,” Jay informed her blandly.

  “It happens, man. Ask Alex.” She grinned and curled her legs up to her chest, watching as the buildings sped by. “I feel like I should be nervous.”

  Jay picked up on what she meant immediately. “About Harry? And…you’re not?”

  “No.” Gracie sighed as she stared off into the middle distance. “I’m angry. I know he might still come back someday, but I want this to be over. Dan and Dhruv? Eh, we’re not going to be best friends, but I can work with them. Harry, though? He’s a lunatic.”

  “You are not wrong.” Jay shook his head. “Well, it’ll be interesting to see what he’s planning. And if you’re not scared, then neither am I.”

  It wasn’t here anymore. Harry’s panic was rising. It had to be here. They could not possibly have found it; he’d hidden it too well, and in a place they would never think to look.

  But he couldn’t find the challenge key. It should be hovering in mid-air, ready to be used.

  Ready to summon Callista.

  He looked up at the sky in frustration, and that was when he noticed it. He remembered this place very well. He remembered the fall of the shadows and the way the sun had gotten in his eyes…

  The sun had been on the other side of the sky when he’d been here before.

  They had flipped the castle.

  He looked around, mentally trying to judge where the new location of the key would be, and paced around the rim of the lake toward it. He could only hope that a flip was all that had happened. If it were more, like a flip and a shift, he might very well never find it.

  He couldn’t even bear to think of that.

  But it was there, a faint shimmer in the air, and his breath left his lungs in a faint whoosh. Distantly, he heard Thad cursing. His team must have lost the skirmish.

  Harry looked coldly toward the group.

  He needed them to be on their game, and he needed them not to ask questions about what happened to those who were lost in the Battle of Kings.

  It was a war, after all. And in war, people were lost.

  Forever.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “There they are!” Gracie said excitedly, jumping up and down to look over the crowd at the arrivals gate. She held up her homemade sign, emblazoned with the words RED SQUADRON. “Mirra! Caspian! Fys!”

  “Hey!” Kevin came over with a ready grin, holding out his hand for a shake.

  Gracie pulled him into a hug. “Good to see you! You’re taller than I expected.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Kevin shoved her lightly. “This is Alan.” He pointed to a man in his early to mid-forties, whose light brown hair was beginning to go gray, and whose clean-cut, classic features echoed Kevin’s. “And this is the baby,” Kevin said, jerking his head sideways at Jamie.

  Jamie rolled his eyes. “I am thirty-two.” He pointed at Gracie. “She’s the baby.”

  “He’s right,” Gracie said, but she was talking about Kevin. “You’ve got a baby face.”

  “I do not!”

  “Just you wait ’til people stop carding you,” Alan advised. “Then you’ll look back fondly on these days.” He clapped Jamie on the shoulder. “I hope we’re not staying for more than a week, by the way. I didn’t want to check a bag.”

  “Heathen,” Kevin said. He wandered toward Baggage Claim.

  “Where’s everyone else?” Jamie asked, falling in beside Gracie.

  “Almost all here,” Gracie said. “Lakhesis’s plane just landed, and Chowder’ll be in about an hour from now. It turns out there’s a shuttle flight from San Fran.”

  “Chowder is from San Francisco?” Jamie asked doubtfully. “What does he do?”

  “He won’t say, but from the hints he dropped, he’s apparently richer than God.” Gracie rolled her eyes. “Which I suppose you’d have to be, to live there. Anyway, everyone else is already taking shuttles to the hotel, and we managed to get a whole block of rooms together.”

  “Nice,” Jamie said. She noticed his gaze had wandered, however. He was staring into the distance, chewing his lip.

  “Cas?” She nudged him with her elbow.

  “Oh. Sorry.” He looked back at her with a start, looking oddly guilty. “It’s…nothing.” He forced a smile. “So…how’s, ah…Ushanas?”

  Gracie blinked, but he didn’t seem inclined to share what he was thinking. She pointed at Baggage Claim, where a woman with reddish-brown hair was standing with Alan and Kevin. “Shannon. Right over there. Seems to be doing well. I guess she pretended to be sick and is playing hooky.” She felt a laugh bubbling up in her voice. “How are you doing? That’s the question.”

  “I’m…fine.” Jamie shrugged.

  Gracie frowned slightly, but his face had closed off, and she didn’t want to pry. She put her hands in her pockets.

  “The Dragon Soul people are nice,” she said finally.

  Jamie nodded and made a vague noise of agreement.

  Gracie took one last, curious look at him and held up her sign. “You go chill with the rest of them. I’m going to go wait for Lakhesis.”

  From the way he kept walking, she wasn’t sure he’d even noticed her, so, with a little shake of her head, she went back to wait at the arrivals gate.

  It wasn’t long before they were all ensconced in the hotel. Rush hour traffic had died down and dinnertime was long since over, but Chowder insisted on buying an exorbitant amount of takeout, and presented them with—to much applause—three bottles of what appeared to be obscenely expensive alcohol.

  “Oh, not tequila,” Kevin said with a groan. “I can’t go through that again.”

  “Sure, you can,” Jamie told him, patting him on the arm. Gracie noticed that he still looked a little uptight and worried, and she frowned slightly. One moment, Jamie would be talking and laughing, and the next, he would look tense. What was going on with him?

  Had Dhruv been right?

  “You okay?” Jay asked. He hopped over the back of the couch to sit with her, and Gracie leaned into him.

  “I think so,” she said. Then, in a low voice, she added, “Dhruv got into my head a bit—about the newbie.”

  Jay went still. “Are you really worried?” he asked her. “Because I trusted your instincts when you said you believed him, and I’ll trust them again if you think something’s up now.”

  “Something’s up,” Gracie said. “But hell if I know what. I mean, he’ll be fighting his own guild. It could be that, right? He’s just been laid off and may or may not be having any luck job searching, so it could be that. Who knows?”

  Jay wrapped his arm around her. “We could get him spectacularly drunk and see if he spills the beans.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Gracie said speculatively. “I bet Kevin could get it out of him. They seem to get along well.”

  “Mmm.” Jay’s phone buzzed, and he reached into his pocket. He held it so they could both see the screen, and both of them scrambled upright at the same time. “Everyone stop,” Jay said loudly.

  Everyone froze—which was exactly what they needed, given that several people had glasses of alcohol very near their mouths. Jamie was holding his shot glass of tequila with longing, while Kevin held his with a look that spoke of a deep love-hate relationship for the stuff.

  “No drinking,” Gracie ordered.

  “What?” Lakhesis looked down at her half-finished beer.

  “No more drinking,” Gracie clarified. “It looks like we might have to make this run tonight.”

  There was a stunned silence.

  “Oh, hell,” Chowder said.

  “Double hell,” Lakhesis said. She was from South Carolina, so she was three hours ahead of the rest of them. “Ohhh, this is gonna be rough. Who wants to make a coffee run with me?”

  “You get a nap in,” Gracie said. “At least. We’ll see if we can push it until tomorrow, okay? But people need to rest, get hydrated, and get some food into you if t
hat’s what you need. And yes, we’ll have coffee for you when you wake up,” she told Lakhesis.”

  “Right-o.” The off-tank stood up. “Who’m I sharing a room with again?”

  “Me.” Ushanas held her hand up. “I could use some sleep, too.” She handed her room key to Gracie. “Come get us when you need us, okay?”

  “Will do.” Gracie watched as the others drifted away, some pouring their drinks carefully back into the bottles. They had all been clustered in the main area of one of the larger suites, and as they left, she gave Jay a meaningful look.

  He disappeared, and Gracie snagged Jamie.

  “Hey, you got a minute?”

  For a moment, she could clearly see that was the last thing he wanted, but he took a deep breath and gave a nod, then followed her to the main set of couches.

  “You’re going through a lot,” Gracie said, “and I know this has to be harder on you than any of us. Fighting your old teammates, I mean.”

  She watched his face carefully, looking for the flicker that would betray duplicity. She didn’t see it, though. He just looked sad.

  “Yeah,” he said. He scrubbed his hair. “It’s not Thad, it’s the rest of them. Although I suppose I’ll be sad about him at some point, too.”

  Gracie sat back on the couch, raising one eyebrow quizzically. “I thought he was a douche of the highest order.”

  That got a laugh out of Jamie. “He definitely can be.” The man settled back on the couch. “It was my whole community, you know? I got to thirty and didn’t have a girlfriend…” He looked troubled, then shook his head. “I just never built anything, you know? And it was easier to ignore that when I was getting paid to play video games all day. I told myself I’d made it, that was the dream. Now I don’t have that anymore.”