“Way too much fun,” Colin repeated. His portal standing open behind him.
A moment later, a kid climbed over the edge to join us on the garage roof.
Xan, I suppose.
She wore expense clothes, a full suit and tie, the tie loosened, the top shirt button opened. A rapier hung from a leather belt she’d buckled around her coat at the waist. Otherwise, she looked like a kid from some private academy. There was a winged shield- on her breast pocket. The patch had a laurel leaf crown underneath, and on the shield: an open book with torch in front of it. In the fire, was a golden key.
Flat-chested, short haired, and in boy’s clothes; it had taken a moment for me to realize Xan was a girl. I wondered how she’d gotten a respectable academy to let her bend the dress code this way. She had azure skin and short-cropped indigo hair that spiked in all directions. Her eyes were pure gold, metallic, widening as she saw me.
“You got him? Good!” Xan ran past us and threw herself into the portal.
Julia pushed me in next. It whisked us away. The next thing I knew, I stood in an abandoned warehouse: dark, filthy, silent, with a dingy light coming through the dust-caked windows. Cob webs filled rafters. The floor was oil-stained concrete. Manufacturing had once gone on here once, and auto repair. Someone had thrown a good Persian rug down, there were a couple ice chests, six bedrolls, and battery powered lights of some kind.
Julia grinned at me. “Welcome to our secret lair!”
Another portal opened, this one red-copper. It felt stronger in magic. I didn’t know how I knew, but I thought it true. A boy and girl emerged, walking hand in hand. The portal closed behind them, and there were six of us in all: the Legion of Five, and me. The new girl looked foreign with dusky skin, black eyes, and thick black hair that fell down her back. She carried a small jar with blue ink in it.
A weird thought came to me. If my guardian Lauphram were to bleed, that’s the color it would be.
The guy with her had midnight-red hair and red-copper eyes that matched the color of his magic. He wore a black, hooded sweatshirt with a big white skull on it, faded jeans, and red sneakers with black laces. He smiled at me like I was his long-lost brother or something; an open, accepting smile with no deception at all.
No way am I trusting this guy.
He came closer. “I’m Colt. We’re here to help you.”
“Getting kidnapped is for my own good?” I asked.
He nodded. “This time, you bet.”
Julia went to the foreign-looking girl and took the small jar from her. “You got his blood!”
“Piece of cake,” the girl said. “I smiled and said please. And traded him three very good trade tips on the stock market for the coming few months.”
Interesting. That suggests she’s a seer.
Colin smiled at her. “You did good.”
She blushed.
Xan said, “Next stop, Talon City, the Underground.”
I stared at her. “You’re kidding. That place is just a myth.”
Colt said, “We need to hurry. We’ll be late.”
“For what?” I asked.
Colin grinned at me. “An appointment with Destiny.”
I turned, sliding my gaze across the group. “Who are you people, really?”
“You can’t know,” Colt said. “When we’re done, you won’t remember our names or faces. It has to be this way for the stability of the temporal multiverse.” He grinned. “Sorry.”
Julia slammed a metal circlet across my forehead. It pressed in along my temples, nearly burning my skin with icy magic. The circlet had the same smell as Colin. It felt like something his magic had shaped.
I tried to pull it off. My hands wouldn’t grip. I couldn’t remove the band.
Colin dropped his smile. The sympathy in his stare looked real, but I didn’t buy it. He said, “That’s a fey geas generator. As long as you wear it, you will do what any of us tells you. And when we tell you it’s time to forget us, you’ll do that, too.”
Xan rested her hand on the hilt of her sword. “Meanwhile, the mission calls. Can we just get on with it?”
Crimson Sword Stalker Page 31
