by Dyan Chick
"You heard the felon, she wants to give us an exclusive. Why the hell would we call the cops?" The man in the back stretched his hand out. "I'm Pete, one of the last surviving producers for channel six."
I took it and shook. "Morgan, and I was framed for murdering my mentor."
"This I got to hear," a male voice came from the driver's seat. I peeked over to see, Craig, Dima's tiger-shifter ex.
"Don't worry, Craig. I'll give you the whole story." I pulled the flash drive out of my pocket and held it up. "I've also got the evidence to prove it."
If the reporters in the car were cartoon characters, they'd be salivating right now. "Can you get us through that blockade?" I asked.
"No problem," Pete said. He lifted up a black blanket that was covering a pile of equipment. "Duck under there. We'll let you know when we're through."
"Okay," I said, hoping I was doing the right thing. As long as their desire to be the only station with the story was greater than their moral compass, I was in good hands. Then, I just had to make sure my story was something they believed. In movies, the good guys always win.
After today, I was starting to think the movies were questionable at the very least, but perhaps I still had a shot. Maybe the good guy could still win. I stifled a laugh. As a scavenger who sold spells to some of the biggest criminals in Realm's Gate, I supposed it was questionable as to whether or no I was a good guy. But the world was funny like that. There wasn't just good and bad. There was more to it than that. And at least I never purposefully released a dragon on a whole city just to watch it burn.
I could feel the motion of the van as we inched closer to the blockade. When the van stopped, I held my breath, wondering if we were at the checkpoint. But after a few moments, we started moving again. It didn't help that the passengers of the van were silent. I'm sure they were just as nervous as I was and I hoped it didn't mean they were texting each other a plan to turn me in at the blockade.
The van rolled to a stop again, and once again, I held my breath. This time, though, I heard voices. Craig was talking to someone. It was probably whichever officer was checking the vehicles. With a rattle, the back door slid open.
"How wild is this, huh?" Pete asked.
"I'm sure you're all loving this, aren't you? Makes you very popular, recording all the bad things happening," another voice said.
"We're just trying to keep the people informed," Pete said.
"Yeah, right," the voice said. There was a pause, and I imagined the officer asking to see what was hiding under the blanket. After what felt like the longest few seconds of my life, he spoke again, "Well, move along."
I heard the door slam back into place, and then the van started moving again. In a few seconds, we were traveling at a more normal speed.
The black blanket was pulled off of my head, and I blinked against the sudden light.
"You better not be a murderer," Pete said. "People are already mad enough at us. If we get busted for hiding you, I'm going to be pissed."
"I'm not a murderer, I swear," I said. "You have a laptop we can plug this into?" I held up the flash drive again.
Pete opened a case and pulled out a shiny, silver laptop. He reached out his hand, and I set the flash drive inside it.
After guiding him through which file to open, the video popped up on the screen. "What's this?" Pete's forehead wrinkled as he looked skeptically at me. "A bar fight? What does this prove?"
"This is the night that Jimmy was murdered. Look how many people saw me there. Look at the clock on the wall. I couldn't have killed him, I was at the Dizzy Dragon at the time of the break-in." I swallowed, wondering how much I should tell them. "Plus, I know that the cops deleted this video. That's the only copy."
Pete seemed to be holding back a smile. "Are you saying there's a conspiracy here?"
"I don't know, but I know I was set up, the whole thing was a setup. The dragon, the murder, the theft. All of it."
"They said nothing was stolen from the vault," Pete said.
"That's not entirely true," I said.
"Oh?" Pete's looked up at me.
"You know that dragon flying around town?" I asked.
"There's two dragons," he said.
"Right," I said. "The first one, then. It was in cursed form, miniaturized like a sculpture, in Jimmy's vault. That's what was stolen."
"Why was he housing dragons?" Pete asked.
"That doesn't matter, the fact is, it was planted there, then taken back and unleashed on the town," I said.
"That's some story," Pete said. He looked skeptical. "Is it true that you were close to Vicious Jimmy?"
My throat tightened, and I nodded, afraid to hear my voice breaking if I tried to talk.
"This whole thing never really added up," Janet said. "That's what Craig's been saying, too."
The van pulled over, coming to a stop. Craig turned sideways in the chair and looked at me. "If you didn't do this, do you know who did?"
"I'm not sure, but I have an idea," I said.
"I don't know if I want to go on camera with just an idea of who the real bad guy is, this could kill my career," Craig said.
"Alright," Pete shrugged. "Janet, you want to do the interview?"
"Sure, I can do it," she said.
Craig shook his head. "It's your career."
The van didn't have any windows in the back, so I peeked through the front windshield. "Where are we?"
Craig smiled. "Old farm outside of town. Great reception here for broadcasting and no prying eyes."
Janet looked around the seat. "Pete, you got the camera and the mic? We should do this before anyone notices us."
"Let's do this," Pete said. He readied the equipment, then opened the sliding door.
I took a deep breath of the fresh air, noticing that it wasn't all that fresh at all. It still smelled like the whole city was on fire, and as long as the wild dragon kept flying free, it was going to stay that way.
Hopping out of the car, I followed Janet and Pete to a large oak tree that had been spared the flames. Everything around the tree was blackened. My feet sunk into a pile of ash. The remainder of the grass and plants that had once covered the hills.
"Stand right here," Janet said, pushing me in front of the tree. She stood next to me, microphone in hand.
Craig stood in front of us, camera on his shoulder. "Ready in five, four, three..." he showed his fingers in the remaining number count, then pointed at us after he reached the one.
"Good evening, Realm's Gate, Janet Smith here, with big six news, broadcasting live with breaking news. We have a very special interview for you tonight with none other than Realm's Gate's most wanted criminal, Morgan Drake. She's come to us with some unusual footage that seems to have not found its way into the hands of our law enforcement, which we will show you after the interview."
Janet turned to me. "Hello, Morgan. Thank you for joining us tonight. Can you tell us a little bit about what happened the night that renowned mobster, Vicious Jimmy, was murdered? A murder that the police think was your doing."
"Thanks for having me, Janet. I need to set the record straight." Swallowing against the tightness in my throat, I willed myself not to cry. I needed to get the information across, not look like I was playing the sympathy card.
"Jimmy was my mentor, my friend, my family. I would never hurt him. And on the night in question, I wasn't at his laundromat. I was out with a friend celebrating my birthday at the Dizzy Dragon."
"It was your birthday?" Janet asked, breaking her professional demeanor, then quickly regaining composure. "Please, continue."
"We were celebrating, and there was a bit of a fight between me and a friend. A misunderstanding, which was caught on video. Then, the whole place shook, and we ran outside to see what happened and saw the dragon. That's when I drove to Jimmy's to make sure he was okay. The fire was so close to his laundromat, I was worried. When I got there..." my voice broke, and I looked down from the camera, covering my mouth
with my hand.
"It's okay," Janet said.
I took a deep breath and looked back up at the camera, letting the tears fall. "When I got there, Jimmy was dead."
"I hate to ask you this, Morgan, but we've all seen the footage of you opening the vault. Of you pulling the trigger. How do you explain that?" Janet asked.
"It's an illusion, I don't even know the access codes to get into the vault. If you look carefully at the video and remove some of the magic, you'll see the real killer is wearing a suit. A man's suit."
"Are you saying someone used magic to make themselves look like you? Why?" she asked.
"I don't know why, but I think it was a Fae, one who works with dragons. He set the whole thing up."
Janet was silent for a moment, then regained her composure. "We're going to play the clip from the Dizzy Dragon for you now."
Pete pressed a button on the side of the camera, then looked over to the van. Craig was sitting in the back at a control panel. He pushed a button, then sat back. "It's running."
Lowering the camera, Pete looked back at me. "That's quite a story, young lady. What did you mean when you said you went through the magic layers of the video to see the suit?"
"A tech mage looked at it for me," I said.
Pete hurried over to the van and set the camera down. Then he picked up his phone.
My shoulders sunk. He was going to turn me in. For a second, I wondered if I should run, then decided it wasn't worth it. I'd given it my best shot. Without help, there was no way I was going to make it in the human world on my own for long. And I wasn't sure a life on the run was worth living anyway.
"Yeah, this is Pete. Is Cindy there?"
My ears perked up at the conversation I was hearing. It didn't sound like he was calling the cops.
"Have her do her stuff on that footage from the Vicious Jimmy murder. Yes, I believe the girl. No. I don't care what you think."
Another pause.
"Then wake her up. Do it now."
Janet walked over to me. "Cindy is his stepdaughter. She's a tech mage, recent transplant to Realm's Gate."
Flutters of hope filled my insides.
"Cindy? I need your help. You know that girl they say killed the vamp boss? She's being set up. Can you see what you can do with the video of the murder? I sent a file to my computer. Thanks."
Pete clicked the phone off and turned to me. "She'll find it if it's there."
"Thank you," I said.
28
The news crew let me sit in the van with them while we waited. It took about ten minutes before the phone rang again. This time, it was Craig's. Someone on the other end of the line was yelling. Craig's face darkened. "Don't threaten me. I know my rights. What's going to happen to you when we push for obstruction of justice and tampering evidence?"
The yelling on the other end continued, then Craig hung up without response. "We're going to have company. That was Chief Matthias. He knows where we are and demanded we turn her over."
Before I could say anything, Craig was back in the driver seat, and the engine started. I fell over as the van peeled away from the spot we'd been parked at. Pushing myself back to sitting, I scooted closer to the side of the van for support.
"What are you doing?" Janet cried.
"I'm not turning over an innocent kid to a corrupt cop," Craig said.
The phone rang again, this time, it was Pete's.
Pete answered. "Yeah? Just like she said, dude in a suit?"
Everyone in the van seemed to hold their breath as we waited to hear his response.
"Post it everywhere." Pete hung up the phone, a wide grin on his face. "We got 'em."
Janet whooped in celebration, and the rest of us joined in.
"Thank you, all. Seriously, thank you." I wasn't sure what I would have done if this had failed. If I hadn't found such kind and honest people who were willing to give me a chance, I could be with the hunters right now, all my magic stripped.
The reporters continued to celebrate as the van sped down the road. My moment of happiness was short as I let myself think about what would come next. I might be able to prove that I hadn't killed Jimmy, that I hadn't released a dragon on Realm's Gate, but Tavas was still out there. And for some reason, he wanted to hurt me. Not to mention the fact that when I went back home, I would never get to see Jimmy again. I had yet to allow the full weight of the loss of the most important person in my life sink in. And if I wasn't running for my life, I knew that was going to catch up to me.
Another phone rang, but it sounded far away, the words too muted to make sense. Janet leaned in closer to me. "Did you hear that, kid? They're reversing the charges. You've been cleared. They just issued an order to find a Fae man in a suit." She wrapped hear arms around me. "You're free."
I smiled at her, doing my best not to show how scared I was feeling and tried to find something else to focus on. My friends, where would they be? "Did they by chance say anything about a couple of people who might have been helping me?"
"We'll find out," Janet said, pointing to Pete, who was still on the phone.
Pete nodded. "Yeah, you have her friends? Okay, we're coming to you."
The van pulled up in front of the dominating police station. I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants, not sure if this wasn't just a trick to get me to come here. My new reporter friends swore that everyone was reporting the real story, now. That an apology was issued.
When Pete slid the door open, I half expected to see a swarm of hunters staring back at me. Instead, I was greeted by a single person. After a decade as the chief of police in Realm's Gate, it was impossible not to recognize the tall, slender sprite standing in front of me.
Chief Matthias lowered her pink head. "Please accept my apologies on behalf of the Realm's Gate police force. We were given incorrect information, and several officers are already in custody and being questioned about their involvement. Rules were broken, and I intend to find out why."
She stood, and waited for me to react.
I wasn't sure what to say, so I decided on polite and vague. "Thank you."
The chief waited a moment as if she expected me to say more. When I maintained my silence, she stepped back, and I saw an officer escorting two figures in my direction.
A genuine smile spread across my face at the sight of Alec and Dima. I lifted my arm and waved. The two of them waved back, moving faster than the cop now as they came toward me.
Alec was the first to arrive, and he crashed into me, pulling me into a tight hug. Without waiting, Dima joined in, which surprised me. But I pulled both of them closer. "Thank you."
Breaking free of the hug, I looked at my friends. "Are you two okay? They didn't hurt you, did they?"
"We're fine," Alec said.
"Well done with that video. How'd you get that other one to show up?" Dima asked.
"Yeah, I thought the tech mage said it was wiped," Alec said.
My stomach twisted. I had forgotten about the hunters wiping the files at James's house. Whatever their mission was, it was clear they wanted no proof that I was innocent to the point that they'd wipe the files at a house I didn't even live at. For a moment, I wondered what shape my apartment might be in. And how many bugs were hidden in it to record me? I shivered.
"You okay, Morgan?" Alec asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. We got lucky, and some people stepped in to help us. But it's not over yet," I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chief Matthias watching me. Was she in on it? There was no way I was going to feel safe until Tavas was captured.
I walked over to the chief. "Any word on the Fae? He called himself Tavas. He said he was a dragon seller."
My eyes flicked up to the twilight sky, wondering where the dragon was right now.
"That would explain the rampaging wild dragon," the chief said. "We haven't seen it for a few hours if that's what you're looking for. It could be asleep, or it could have left. As far as the Fae, we'll find him." She rested her hand on my a
rm. "You've been through a lot tonight. Why don't you get some rest? Tomorrow, you can explain it all to me, and the real work can begin."
I nodded. Somehow, her words helped ease my mind. I wasn't sure why, but the doubt I had felt about the chief was melting away.
"One of my men can give you a ride anywhere you want to go," she said.
"No, thank you. If you don't mind, I'd rather find my own ride." The words came out before I could consider how it might sound, but I didn't regret them. I might be warming up to the chief for reasons I couldn't explain, but I knew there were people involved at the highest levels of Realm's Gates' finest.
"That's fair," she said. "Do you want us to call you a cab?"
A car pulled up to the front of the courthouse, black, with tinted windows. The window on the rear passenger side rolled down. Marco Giuseppe, Jimmy's number two stared out at me. "Need a ride, kid?"
I looked back at my friends. "You guys coming?"
The three of us climbed into the car. I might have lost Jimmy, but it sure seemed like the family was still looking out for me.
Marco set a pistol on my lap. "In case you need it, kid. This is just beginning."
Author Notes
Thank you for taking the time to read my book! I hoped you enjoyed your time in Realm’s Gate. Book 2 is available for pre-order today!
Please consider leaving a review for this book on Amazon.
Want updates, news, and giveaways?
Join My Mailing List Here
Also by Dyan Chick
Fae Cursed: Legacy of Magic Book 1
Dark Fae: Legacy of Magic Book 2
Heir of Illaria: Book 1 of the Illaria Series
Oracle of Illaria: Book 2 of the Illaria Series
Battle of Illaria: Book 3 of the Illaria Series
www.dyanchick.com
[email protected]
