by H. D. Gordon
But this was not a leisurely visit.
The signal reminded me of that, and I snapped shut the book I’d been pretending to read, replacing it on the shelf before putting on a smile and approaching the guard standing in front of the forbidden section.
His aura was wary, his face rigid. I wrapped my powers of persuasion around me and steeled myself to use them. It was not something I did very often, but it was convenient when needed.
“Hey,” I said, as I approached. “I have a question, and I wonder if you can help.”
The guard, a Troll who stood at least seven feet tall and was as hairy as that tricky Gnome from the forest, eyed me distrustfully. I sent a little of my magic his way, and earned a response.
“What do you want?” he grunted.
There, progress. I offered an innocent smile and lifted the book I’d been carrying around for the last thirty minutes for just this purpose. I held the tome aloft between us and propped it open. “You don’t happen to read Trollem, do you?” I asked.
The Troll narrowed his gaze. All Trolls read Trollem. It was their native tongue. “I do,” he replied stiffly.
“Cool, so can I get you to take a peek at this passage here?” I pointed to a paragraph. “I can’t decipher it…. What’s your name, by the way? I’m Aria.”
The Troll looked as if he had no intention of answering, so I brushed my side against his as I showed him the book. Physical contact always made my magic more potent.
“Trent,” he said with a grunt. He studied me under thick brows, his chin tucked to his chest because I was so much shorter than him. I unleashed a little more magic, giving him my best smile. “I guess I could take a look,” he mumbled, and plucked the book from my hands.
“Thank you so much,” I said.
As Trent scanned the page, Vivian was up in the security room, distracting the Trolls watching the cameras, and Nick was sneaking in while Trent’s back was turned. In my mind, I urged him to hurry up, but remained relaxed in my position.
Stealing from the forbidden texts was a high crime, punishable in every realm. Those who tried were not sent to trial. Instead, they usually just disappeared completely, which was why so few ever tried.
“This is about the female Troll’s reproductive system,” Trent said, giving me a curious look.
My cheeks went pink, but I played it cool. “Of course it is,” I said. “I’m drawing a comparison between the female Troll’s and the female Gnome’s systems.”
I had no idea where that lie came from, but thought it sounded real enough. As a Halfling, I’d been forced to study all kinds of random things, and a Troll’s sense of smell was one of the strongest of any supernatural creature, meaning he likely knew what I was.
Which was why I had to be the one to distract him while Nick slipped past. We were both Fae Halflings, and so our scents were very similar.
After a shake of his head, Trent began to read the passage aloud in his deep, thundering voice. I tried not to blush as the subject drew the eyes of some of the others in the library.
I saw a flash of aura between the forbidden stacks, and knew that Nick had found what we were looking for. All I had to do was distract Trent a little longer.
I asked him to repeat a few lines while Nick slipped out, and breathed a sigh of relief as he did.
The sigh was premature.
Red lights began to flash, bulbs I hadn’t even noticed until this point, and immediately after, an alarm blared.
Trent snatched me up in his massive hand, lifting me off my feet as though I were as light as a doll.
His hot breath fanned my face as he bared his large brown teeth. “Stealing from the forbidden texts, girl?” he rumbled. “You must have a death wish.”
His grip was so tight that it was hard to breathe.
I struggled, kicking and clawing, but it was useless. He was too big and strong.
Then there was a grunt, and he was falling, with me still in his grip. The floor rushed up to meet me and I had half a breath to brace for impact. Trent’s hold loosened a fraction. I wriggled free and kicked him in the face as he made another grab for me.
Nick hauled me up by my forearm. “Time to go,” he said.
“What about V?” I asked, my feet already moving toward the exit.
“She can take care of herself,” Nick replied through gritted teeth.
There was no time to question this, because just ahead, two more Trolls jumped out to block our way. Heavy wooden clubs were gripped in their hairy hands, big enough to crush Nick and I to a pulp in a single swing.
“Only way out is through,” Nick said.
I already had my staff out, my arms and legs pumping as we barreled toward the two Trolls. Time slowed to the speed it adopted in battle, and all the skills I’d spent a lifetime learning came back to me the way they always did. I ducked the club, sliding right between the gap of his legs and tapping the back of each of the Troll’s knees hard enough to bring him crashing down.
Once I was past him, I didn’t look back to see how Nick dispatched the other Troll, but a moment later, I heard him running behind me.
The doors that led outside were just up ahead. Vivian would be there with an orb to take us back to the human realm.
We didn’t make it to the doors.
The impact was blinding, knocking the air clean out of me. A Troll jumped down in front of us from the stacks above and backhanded both Nick and I hard enough to make stars burst behind my eyes.
I flew across the room and hit a bookshelf hard, knocking several books to the floor in the process, sending shocks of pain through my back. Nick landed a few feet away from me, rattling the shelf even more and sending tomes piling down on our heads.
The forbidden text he’d stolen had been knocked from his hand, and I searched for it frantically.
It lay ten feet away, a Troll advancing on it with bared brown teeth.
I ignored the way the world swayed when I shot to my feet and scooped it up before the Troll could do so. Around us, those red bulbs were still flashing, casting the library in a scarlet glow that made the angry mugs of our pursuers all the more terrifying. The alarm continued to blare, scraping across my sensitive ears.
I slipped past the Troll with my superior speed, knowing that even my heightened strength was no match for them. Three more jumped into the path in front of me, and I let out a harsh breath of frustration.
Tossing the book to Nick, I dipped and dodged the clubs and strikes from the Trolls, their swings coming close enough to stir the air around me. Their footsteps shook the floor beneath my feet, their grunts and howls of rage blending with that incessant alarm.
I made for the doors again, but instead of trying to run right through, this time I hugged the book to my chest and picked up my pace. When I got near the Troll guarding the exit, I banked hard to the left and ran up the thick column there. My momentum took me right over the Troll, its arms missing me by inches.
Then I was free and clear, crashing through the doors, the air tearing in and out of my lungs.
I looked back at the doors, hoping that Nick would follow any moment.
But it was Vivian who came tearing out, her fangs poking out as she barreled toward me.
“Where is he?” she asked, glancing around, relief flooding her aura when she noticed that I was holding the book.
“He’s still inside,” I said.
Vivian held the portal orb between us, one of three they’d managed to steal from the Brokers before they’d gone on the run. We needed to go, but if we did, we’d be leaving Nick to the mercy of the Trolls.
“Shit,” Vivian said.
I nodded.
We waited a few more seconds. Then a few more.
Just as we were about to lose hope, the front doors of the library crashed open. Nick came flying out, leaping down the stone steps and heading toward us with four massive Trolls on his tail.
“Open the portal!” he shouted. “Open the portal!”
&nbs
p; Vivian said the incantation, tossing the magical orb up between us. The handful of seconds it took to do its thing felt like tiny lifetimes, but finally, the orb spun in the air. It picked up pace until the air itself was swirling, a gap in time and space that would take us far away from here.
Vivian jumped through first, but I waited a second, wanting to be sure that Nick would make it.
When it became obvious that it was going to be very close, I hoped the Fates would give us a hand, just this once. Then I jumped through, the forbidden text tucked tightly against my side.
Chapter Thirteen
I stumbled as we landed on the hard floor of the warehouse, my pulse racing in my ears.
Vivian was panting on the ground beside me, her eyes fixed on the wormhole we’d both just come out of.
“Come on,” she mumbled, her aura thick with worry.
When Nick jumped through at last, I swung my staff and smashed the orb still hanging in the center of the portal, and the hole zipped closed.
Nick landed in a heap beside Vivian. She threw herself atop him, hugging and kissing him as she did so. I turned away, uncomfortable, though I didn’t blame her for the display.
When they were done and had both found their feet, Nick asked, “You get it?”
I held the book up.
A grin spread across his face. “Thank the Gods. I did not want to do that again.”
“Do what again?” Sam asked. She was so quiet sitting over behind her bank of computers that I hadn’t even noticed her.
“Steal a forbidden book from a bunch of Trolls,” I said.
Sam’s eyebrows shot up.
I took the book over to one of the tables and brushed chip crumbs from the surface before setting down the tome and gently peeling back the cover.
Sam joined us over at the table. “What’s it say?” she asked.
I sighed. “I don’t know. It’s written in Gaium. That’s the oldest known tongue among supernatural kind.” I looked up at Nick and Vivian. “I don’t suppose one of you took it as an elective?”
Both Nick and Viv shook their heads.
“But I know someone who can translate,” Vivian said.
“Why does it always have to be a rabbit hole?” Sam muttered. “There’s no time for this. We should be working on a way to save your soul, not running around on side missions.”
“We aren’t doing anything,” Nick said. “Aria, Vivian, and I are working on a very important mission. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
I cut this mess in the bud, shooting Nick a look that told him to back down. “If you can’t be nice to Samantha,” I told him, “you’ll have to leave.”
Nick scowled, but didn’t add anything.
I placed a hand on Sam’s shoulder. With every day that passed, her aura was showing more and more anxiety. “This is important,” I said. “It doesn’t mean we’re putting off trying to save me, but if I don’t have something else to put my mind to, I’m going to go insane, Sammy. Okay?”
Sam released a heavy breath. Her eyes flicked over to Nick and narrowed. “Okay,” she agreed. “But that guy is a dick.”
“I heard that,” Nick replied from where he stood over by Vivian.
“Good,” Sam said.
I suppressed an eye roll. “I’ll see you soon,” I promised.
Sam pulled me to her, wrapping me up in a hug. She’d been doing that a lot lately, and every time it felt like a goodbye.
With Sam appeased, I went back to Nick and Viv, who were waiting at the door now. “Where are we going?”
“New York City,” Vivian said. “That’s where the translator is.”
NYC was a three and a half hour drive from Grant City. “How are we going to get there?”
“We could go by portal, but we only have two orbs left,” Viv suggested.
“We should probably save them for when we really need them,” I said.
“Know anyone with a car?” Nick asked.
I shot Thomas a text. Ten minutes later, a black SUV pulled up to the curb outside the warehouse. The passenger side window rolled down, and Thomas offered a smile that took more effort than he let on. His aura was worse than Sam’s, the anxiety of my impending departure blooming as if by the hour.
I hopped into the front seat, and Vivian and Nick climbed into the back.
“Where to?” Thomas asked.
Vivian handed over the address, and we hit the road.
“Should I have brought weapons?” Thomas asked.
“Any time you go anywhere with Aria, weapons are a good idea,” Nick replied.
I scoffed. “I’m not the one who got caught by the Trolls,” I said.
“Trolls?”
We told Thomas the story about the library and the forbidden text, and why we wanted it in the first place.
“So the Brokers and Cross Corp and that lab full of Halflings, you think they’re all connected?”
“We think the Brokers are trying awfully hard to hide something that they should instead be investigating,” Vivian answered. “And if they are connected…Gods help us all.”
Thomas nodded toward the ancient book propped on my lap. “And this book, what do you think it says?”
“We think it mentions an ancient power source, something called the Relic, and that this Relic is the key to stopping whoever is really behind all this,” Vivian said.
“Sounds danger—”
“Look out!” Nick yelled.
The sound of metal crushing metal, tires squealing, and the hard impact of another SUV striking our own. My body was jerked to the side, held in place thanks to the seatbelt. We spun, skidding off the side of the road, toward a ravine.
The SUV tipped and rolled. My eyes were open the entire time; open while we were suddenly upside down, open as we were right side up again, open as we tumbled to a stop, smoke rising from the engine.
For several moments, I could only gasp while my heart galloped in my chest, the blood rushing in my ears. When I could think again, I twisted in my seat. “Is everyone okay?” I asked.
To my relief, no one looked injured.
“Fine,” Vivian said.
“Not fine,” corrected Nick. He nodded toward the other SUV, the one that had struck us hard enough to knock us clean off the road.
Five people wearing black from head-to-toe exited the vehicle, weapons of various sorts in their hands.
I didn’t need to ask; I knew who they were, recognized the formation, the way they moved, the blank looks on their faces.
“Who the hell is that?” Thomas asked.
My throat was tight. I couldn’t answer.
Vivian’s voice came out strained. “Peace Brokers,” she said. “They’re Peace Brokers.”
I yanked off my seatbelt as Vivian and Nick tumbled out of the car, readying themselves for the fight. Thomas tugged at his belt, but it wouldn’t give. I reached over and ripped the thing out with pure force.
“How tough are these guys?” Thomas asked as we took up spots near Vivian and Nick.
“As tough as me, at least,” I answered.
“Shit,” responded Thomas.
Another black SUV skidded to a stop behind the one that hit us, and five more Peace Brokers piled out. Nick echoed Thomas’s curse.
“Too many,” Vivian said as they drew nearer.
I held out my staff, whispering the incantation that made it grow. Then a better idea struck me as I recalled something Sam said to me back when I first started wearing a mask and running around Grant City.
“Sometimes it’s better to run and live to fight another day,” Sam had said.
I’d laughed and asked her what movie she’d stolen it from. I wasn’t laughing now.
“The portal orbs,” I said quickly. “Now would be a perfect time to use one.”
Nick took one last look at the oncoming Brokers. They moved like cats, graceful and agile, eyes fixed on their targets.
Vivian tossed one of the portal orbs up into the air, speak
ing the words to bring it to life. The Brokers saw this and sped up their advance, running toward us full-tilt. The orb spun, spiraling in the air, creating the vortex that would transfer us to New York, away from the Brokers, and hopefully to a person who could translate whatever the hell was in the forbidden book.
But I saw with perfect clarity that the portal would not open before the Brokers reached us, that there was not enough time.
Not unless someone delayed them.
I tossed the book to Nick. He looked startled but caught it. “Go,” I said, settling into a fighter’s stance. “I’ll hold them off. Once the three of your are through, close it.”
Nick didn’t argue. He was a good soldier, always had been. A half heartbeat later, the portal was fully open, and Nick and Vivian jumped through, disappearing into the swirling hole.
Unsurprisingly, Thomas stood defiant beside me.
“I’m not leaving you,” he said.
I made a snap decision I hoped I wouldn’t regret later. “I’m sorry,” I said, and moved too fast for Thomas to react.
I spun and kicked him in the chest, putting enough force behind it to make him stumble backward, but hopefully not enough to cause any real pain or damage. His eyes widened, his arms wind-milled, his aura flashed bright with surprise…. Then the swirling portal swallowed him up.
There was only time to watch the hole close before the Brokers were on me. Impressively, I managed to take out four before the others overcame me.
But they did overcome me, because ten Peace Brokers were too many even for the Masked Maiden.
I’d just finished taking down one when a blunt force to the back of my head knocked me out cold.
I woke in a cold, sterile room.
The floor was gray linoleum, the walls a slightly lighter shade of gray, with bright fluorescents hanging overhead. A perfect square, with a single heavy metal door, and one wall made up of a one-way mirror.
My sixth sense picked up three auras behind that mirror, and I swallowed back the panic that tried to rise in me as memories as old as I could remember came flooding back to me.
