by K. McKinley
and steal from us, don’t go after them.’ You screwed up; you’re the one that got in the middle of an insurance con that the evilest warlock on this side of the Barrier planned. Now you have to deal with it.”
Warlock? What had I stumbled across? Magic was real? I guess that explained the ghosts and the whole lightning shooting out of my fingers thing. Does everyone have magic? If so, why doesn’t everyone know about it? I guess that means only certain people have it? Is that why no one noticed the ghosts? How did I all of a sudden come into power? In the middle of my flood of questions, I was grabbed from my crouching position at the door and pulled into the room. Evidently I had been talking out loud again instead of thinking. I really needed to work on that.
“Yes, you do.”
Steve moved around the desk and joined the man, both standing in front of me, both frowning down at me.
“Who’s this?”
“Just some woman. I was showing her a ring when the constructs came in; she doesn’t know anything.”
“That’s not true! I saw the ghosts steal everything! Lightning! Fingers! Warlock!” So my brain didn’t deal with the addition of magic very well. I ended up just shouting out words. I’m pretty sure I saw the man put his head in his hands again. I really needed to find out his name; as much as I loved thinking about him as the man, it was becoming exhausting to think in italics.
I didn’t like the way Steve started staring at me and backed away from him.
“She knows too much.”
I couldn’t help myself—I snorted and then started laughing. “I know too much! How ominous; is this were you whack me and throw my body into the river to sleep with the fishes?” I continued to laugh until I saw the serious look on Steve’s face that seemed to say that was exactly what they were going to do. The man was pursing his lips and shaking his head violently. I got the message and shut up, backing toward the doorway.
Steve stepped forward and grabbed my arm, “You aren’t going anywhere.” He shoved me into a chair that was against the wall and turned away from me. “Are you going to take care of her, or do I need to?”
Take care of me? I didn’t like the sound of that unless the man was going to volunteer.
“There’s nothing to take care of; she doesn’t know anything.” He frowned at me and this time I could clearly read what he was thinking and none of it was flattering. I crossed my arms and glared back.
“Bull. She may not know everything, but she knows enough that he’ll feel the need to get rid of her. She either goes with you or you leave her with me. And I can tell you right now, I have no issue turning her over to him.”
I was really beginning to dislike Steve. I didn’t know who they were talking about, the evilest warlock on this side of the Barrier wasn’t someone they featured in People or Time, but whoever he was, he didn’t sound like someone I wanted to meet. Especially since I killed one of his ghosts or constructs or whatever you wanted to call them.
“I have to cross the Barrier. It’s going to be hard enough by myself; I can’t bring her along. Who knows if she’d even survive the journey?” He gave me a quick, appraising look and it was obvious he wasn’t impressed.
That did it—italics would no longer be used when referring to him. There are only so many disappointed looks a woman can receive before a man is permanently barred from stylized characters.
I was ready to get out of there. I didn’t know where this conversation was heading, but it didn’t look like I was going to win in the end. I stood up and tried to move around the two men, but they weren’t making it easy. Finally I let out an exasperated sigh and addressed them. “Listen gentlemen, I don’t know what’s going on here. I just came back because I didn’t want him to get in trouble and I wanted some answers about what was going on. I can see that the situation is complicated and I would just like to head back to my hotel now. So if you two will please just step aside, I’ll leave you to figure everything out.”
Surprisingly, they both moved aside and allowed me to leave. I wasn’t expecting that, but I rushed out and left the two of them behind, hoping that I would never see them again, and that included the previously italicized man. The showroom floor was just as chaotic as it had been when I’d made my escape, though now the two brides were sitting handcuffed on the floor beside their grooms. Both of the cops were breathing heavy and one had his hair sticking out all over the place, so evidently they had finally intervened.
I bypassed the police who were just arriving; I didn’t want to get stuck giving a statement.
Ma’am, did you see what happened?
Why yes, sir, Officer, I saw the whole thing. Six ghosts floated in and they stole everything, but it’s okay because I followed them to their haunted house and helped kill them with lightning that shot out of my fingers.
Oh, really? Well, ma’am, do you mind stepping over here, we have some very nice men in white coats that would like to help you.
Yeah, no; I wasn’t going to let that happen. I made it through the crowd of customers and police just as the news vans were pulling up. One of the reporters tried to flag me down but I dodged and moved past her. I made it back to my hotel with no problems and decided to take a shower to wash off the sweat from running after the previously italicized man. When I got out, he was standing by my bed, waiting for me.
When I say he, I mean he. I was naked with my hair wrapped in a towel and another towel wrapped around my body, and he was just standing there. The previously italicized man—I really needed to find out his name—was in my hotel room. I would have been more excited about it, but given the last conversation I’d heard him taking part in, I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing.
“What are you doing here? Wait a minute, how did you find me?”
He frowned at me and then turned away. “Magic. Now get dressed. Our plane leaves in an hour.”
“Plane? What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere with you.” I reached for my clothes and started pulling them on; before, I would have been all for being in the same room with him, naked, but I wasn’t sure anymore if I even liked him, let alone wanted to get naked and have lots of fun.
“If you want to live, you’ll come with me. Julius knows about you. He will come after you. He has no problem killing to get out of a traffic ticket, so taking you out because of an insurance scam is pretty much a given.”
I gawked at him. Yes, gawked, as in my eyes got large and my mouth hung open. “Kill me! I didn’t do anything! Why would he kill me? Also, the evilest warlock is named Julius? Not exactly a name that oozes scary.”
He looked over his shoulder at me and when he saw that I was dressed, he turned back around. “You’re the one who decided to run after something you didn’t understand. You are also the one who eavesdropped on a conversation you shouldn’t have. You might have survived the first, but the second sealed your fate as far as Julius is concerned. Now pack; we have to leave.”
I just stood there, my feet again frozen. This was the second time in my entire life that my existence had been threatened and I was finding out my feet didn’t handle the pressure well.
That’s when he decided to take the direct approach and got right in my face. “Would you like to know what he will do when he finds you? I can go into excruciating detail about his preferred torture methods. Maybe you’ll get lucky though and he’ll only pass you around to all his men. It’s your choice—I can leave you here to be killed or you can come with me. Your odds are only slightly better where I’m headed, but if you prefer certain death to possible death, I understand. I’ll give you two minutes to make up your mind and pack a carry-on.”
He stood there, looking at his watch, tapping his foot. I couldn’t believe I had at one point used italics for him. He was forcing me to choose between options I didn’t understand. On one hand, I could stay here and face an evil warlock, assuming I even believed in warlocks. At this point, I had only heard reference to one. What if this was all some big, elab
orate hoax? Some hidden-camera show? On the other hand, if this was real, if everything he and Steve had said were true, then staying would mean I would be murdered. I could go with him to some barrier and maybe die. My options weren’t looking too bright, but if this was all real, and looking down at my fingers and remembering the lightning shooting out of them led me to believe this was, my best course of action was to go with him.
He was staring at me, no longer tapping his foot or looking at his watch. I still couldn’t read what he was thinking, but at least this time he wasn’t looking at me with disdain, it was more like curiosity. “Fine, I’ll go with you.” I packed my carry-on bag quickly, taking just another change of clothes and my bathroom travel bottles; I also packed the one book I’d brought with me. I could see he wanted to say something about the book, but the look I gave him dared him to make a comment. When I was done I stood in front of him, waiting; he looked me up and down.
“Do you have any other shoes? We’ll be doing a lot of hiking.”
I looked down at my Chuck Taylor’s and then back up at him. I loved those shoes, but he was right. Hiking in them would have been killer; I went and put on my running shoes. Obviously I didn’t use them for their intended purpose; they were used when I was feeling too lazy to put on my Chucks. Yeah, I know, it’s
