Shadow Summoner: Choronzon Chronicles Book One

by Tess Adair

  Logan took a healthy bite of her wrap before answering. All at once, she realized she hadn’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours.

  “Nothing happens now,” she said finally. “Well, nothing new. I called some people, they’ll take care of it. I imagine they’ll make it look like an animal attack. They might even kill a mountain lion or something, and leave it to take the blame. I’m not sure how they normally do it, but they’ll clean everything up.” She sighed. “Of course, they can’t make Kurt not dead. But his parents will have an answer, and so will the town.”

  “Wow.” Judith’s eyes were still wider than normal, but she nodded like that answer satisfied her enough. Then she went back to her dessert stack and let herself get carried away with it for a few minutes, pausing only on occasion to wash down with lemonade.

  Logan welcomed the moment of silence. In almost no time at all, she’d consumed most of her falafel wrap, and she could feel the satisfaction of it throughout her whole body. Once she’d taken her last bite, she reached over to touch her right elbow experimentally, wondering if the extra fuel might have had any effect on its recovery. It still felt tender to the touch, however.

  She did know something that would help, of course. She’d been at this long enough to know the tricks. But the risks were too high, especially now. Every trick had a downside, and she’d long since deemed this one unacceptable.

  Letting that thought slip cleanly from her mind, she reached for a few more fries. Forever proving her worth, Sherene came by and replenished her coffee in full. As she mixed in a little more cream and took a sip, she heard Judith drop her knife and fork on her plate and sigh.

  “Everything all right?” She took another fry and motioned for Judith to help herself, too.

  Judith took a few fries and chewed them thoughtfully. “Yeah. I’m just wondering what I’m gonna do now. I mean, now that the monster’s gone, I’m sure you’re gonna leave town. And…I don’t know, I don’t have a lot of friends.” She sighed heavily and looked out the window. Logan watched silently as confusion and anxiety washed over her features. Then she cocked an unexpected grin and turned back to Logan. “You totally don’t have to worry about Bianca, by the way. She told her parents that she hurt her ankle tripping on some stairs, and she made me promise never to tell anyone what happened. So, basically, she’s so embarrassed about hanging out with me that she’ll never tell anyone what she saw.”

  Logan smirked at that, completely unsurprised by the arbitrary motivations of teenagers. She was a little surprised to see Judith’s quick turn from existential anxiety to lighthearted jokes, but she surmised that it might be easier for the kid to pretend to put a brave face on everything.

  An idea had been floating in her head all morning, growing ever more concrete with each passing moment that the Key kept up its insistent tingle at her back. She considered it only a moment longer before she spoke.

  “You could come with me.”

  Like a reassuring hand, the Key pressed warmth into her skin. Judith’s expression went blank, momentarily stunned.

  “I could—what?”

  “Come with me. You could come with me.”

  “Do you mean like—come live with you?”

  “Essentially, yes. You’d have your own space, of course. I suppose we’d need to work a few details out. At the very least, you need somewhere to go after you can’t stay with Amy anymore, right? Or were you planning to stay there indefinitely?”

  Judith chuckled a little nervously. “Uh, actually, I wasn’t totally sure where I was gonna go tonight. I mean, I guess if I really needed to, Amy could…but, well, I’ve got all my stuff with me. I…I don’t know, I was gonna try to…find somewhere else.” Her voice trailed off at the end, and her gaze drifted to the window again. Logan got the impression that the façade Judith had used to get herself through the day was breaking down. Given a possible out, she’d finally let herself take a real look at her situation.

  “I’m leaving tonight,” said Logan. “I’ll ride out of town, keep going as long as I can. When it isn’t safe for me to ride any longer, I’ll find a motel. So, if you come with me, you’ll likely be facing a lumpy bed and limp pillows.” She glanced outside at the sky, where dark was beginning to gather. “And, well, I can’t promise you I won’t find a way to get you into trouble somehow. It doesn’t beat much, but it beats nothing at all. Come with me.”

  Judith’s gaze locked back on her. In her eyes, Logan could see hope and doubt in equal measure.

  “You’re certainly free to stay here, if you like,” she said, in the absence of Judith’s response. “I would never pressure you into a decision either way. If you come with me, you don’t need to think that you’re committing to anything. If you want, you can decide you’ll just stay with me for a few days until you’re up on your feet. Use this as a springboard to a whole new life, far away from this little town in the middle of nowhere.” She drummed her fingers on the table. She didn’t want to be mean. “Or you can stay here. There’s no pressure either way. After all, you said Amy would let you stay a bit longer. And maybe you like it here; I’m sure some people do.” Judith’s expression soured, perhaps involuntarily. “Of course, there is something I can offer you that you won’t find here.”

  Judith seemed to straighten a little. “What’s that?”

  “If you come with me…you could learn from me. About magic, I mean. I’m not a great teacher, but I know a lot more about magic than you do. I have a library full of information you’ll never get on the internet, not without knowing the right people. And if you don’t like libraries, then I can introduce you to all those people. And I can train you. Spell work, fighting—that sort of thing. If you want to, that is. Like I said, no pressure.” She performed a nonchalant shrug. “Maybe magic isn’t your thing. I understand.”

  For a moment, Judith gaped at her, her mouth moving without making any noise. Finally, her voice returned.

  “I want—I want to go with you! I want the whole thing. I want to go, and I want to learn.” She paused, and the look on her face seemed to say that she was still waiting for the catch—the reason why none of this was real. “I can’t pay you.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to,” said Logan. “Think of me like a patron.”

  Judith’s face melted into a wide smile, and she nodded in comprehension. “Yes! You’ll be my patron! Heh, that’s so old-timey. That’s, like, Renaissance old.”

  “Well, call me old-fashioned.”

  At first, Judith nodded blandly, but after a moment, another thought dawned over her features and she looked at Logan with suspicion. “Wait, you’re not, like, secretly five hundred years old, right? Like you never met Michelangelo or anything, right?”

  Amused, Logan supplied her with a laugh that was just a touch too loud, followed by a sly grin. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’ve never met Michelangelo.”

  Judith laughed too, but she stopped it short. “That doesn’t actually answer both questions.”

  “Good point. You know, I was thinking about ordering more fries. Do you think you could eat any more?”

  “Always,” answered Judith sincerely. She looked like she wanted to speak again, but Sherene was walking in their direction, so Logan flagged her over.

  “Another order of fries, please. Thank you.” She smiled pleasantly as Sherene walked off again. Then she turned back to Judith. “There’s just one more thing before we consider this a done deal.”

  “What’s that?”

  Logan sighed heavily and gave Judith a heavy stare, hoping to impart her dire seriousness as she spoke. “It’s a warning. My life is dangerous. Any life that entangles itself with magic is dangerous, but mine is especially so. I take on the tasks that other people don’t want to take. Generally speaking, that’s how I make my living. It can be messy, and it can be violent. I’ll do my best to protect you, but odds are you will get hurt from time to time. You may die. Is that a risk you’re willing to take?”

  For a m
oment, Judith was quiet, staring down at the chrome table between them. Then she looked up and met Logan’s gaze with equal solemnity.

  “Yes. Absolutely.”

  “Okay then. We’ve got a deal.” She offered her hand across the table, and Judith shook it with an easy grin. “Well. Are you sure you’ve got everything you had at Amy’s?”

  “Yeah,” Judith nodded.

  “Do you want to stop by there at all, to say goodbye maybe? We could also drop by your parents’ house, if you think there’s anything else there you want. It might be months before you come back here again.”

  Judith shook her head resolutely. “There’s nothing I want from them. Besides, I’m not even sure I could get in and out of the house safely.”

  “I would keep you safe.”

  She shrugged sheepishly. “Thanks, but that’s okay. I don’t need to go there. I probably don’t need to go to Amy’s either. But, uh, I should give her a call, I guess.” She pushed herself out of the booth. “I’m just gonna step outside for a minute and call her. I’ll be right back.”

  She turned and walked back out the way they had come. Logan watched her pull out her phone and bring it up to her face as it rang.

  As she settled back in her chair, she noticed a change: the Key had finally gone quiet. No warmth, no insistence. Finally, it was satisfied. Logan had concluded its final task. For the moment, anyway.

  By the time Judith got back inside, Sherene had already brought the second round of fries. They both dug into them, munching away in an easy silence.

  Of course, Logan still had to figure out how to tell Knatt about this part. He wasn’t likely to welcome the idea of a permanent houseguest. But she would just have to cross that bridge when she came to it.

  A few minutes later, they left the diner together. Logan placed a final hearty tip on the table behind her, and felt a slight pang of loss as she passed the counter one last time, noticing the giant cinnamon bun still lay encased in glass for anyone to see. But it was best not to dwell.

  So she set her mind to the road ahead, instead. She couldn’t tell if it was a front or not, but Judith looked happy to be getting back on the bike, despite how it had gone for her before. She lurched when the bike moved again, but she didn’t duck her head down. By the time they stopped at their first stoplight, Logan could feel that her fear had started to ebb. And that was just as well. They might need to ride a good long while.

  As they crossed the border out of town, Logan felt an uncomfortably familiar tingle in her spine. She’d felt it more than once these past two weeks, but it was stronger now. There was no more denying it.

  Someone was watching her.

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  About the Author

  Tess Adair has lived in the Midwest and the Northeast, and currently resides in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys discovering new cafes, making friends with cats, and not hiking. Follow her on her blog at: https://www.tessadair.com/thebodypolitic/