“Stay,” I told Vi. I glanced back at the bar and the people flowing out into the night. “There’s an assassin hunting Cerridwen. Your aura screams with power. Use that to distract the assassin while we get away.”
Vi stole another look at her friend. There was a chasm between the two women, but that wasn’t my problem. At least, it wasn’t right now. If this really was the lost princess, then she was going to have to learn to be more diplomatic than this.
The future of her court would rest upon her ability to make friends with people she hated. That’s how it worked for every queen.
Vi threaded her fingers together and stretched, cracking her knuckles in the process. A wicked grin spread across her face. Cerridwen lurched in my arms and shouted at Vi, begging her not to start fires.
“I have it under control!” Vi gave us a two-finger salute before spinning back towards trouble.
This would have been easier if I’d been able to spot the assassin’s aura, but Beryl hired a smart one. They knew that I could read auras, so they intentionally kept their magic minimal in order to avoid being picked up.
I had to trust that Vi was capable of making a scene that would keep everyone distracted. The enraged shouts of drunk middle aged men proved me correct. I didn’t look back, but I could already hear the beginning of a bar fight breaking out. If we were lucky, the assassin would get trapped in the mosh-pit of a fight.
Once Cerridwen and I were out of the woman’s earshot, I asked, “Why don’t you trust her?”
“What do you mean? Idotrust her! She’s one of my closest friends.”
I snorted. “She offered you help, and you sent her away. This situation is do-or-die right now. This could have been sorted out, but you chose to push her help aside and do it your way. That showed a serious lack of trust.”
Cerridwen sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Fair. The woman was dying in my arms. I could already see her skin turning pale, making her freckles stark. We had to act quickly. There was no time to waste.
“Think about your apartment. Envision yourself walking through the door and looking at your place. Can you do that?” It was an odd request, but if she was who I thought she was, then she would understand.
“I don’t get how that helps us right now,” she grumbled.
Maybe this wasn’t the lost princess. If she wasn’t, then who was she?
Still, I wanted to help her. I refused to lose anyone else, even a random woman at the bar.
She closed her eyes and informed me that she had the image of her apartment in her mind’s eye. I took a sharp turn towards the nearby motel office. The neon light in the front window blinked to announce the current vacancies, but that wasn’t what we’d come here for.
I shoved through the door and stepped in-between. One moment, we were outside in the outer Syracuse wilds. The next moment, we were in a pretty apartment that smelled of blood and wood.
The windows across the way were boarded up, blocking out what could have been a pretty view—if I was to guess from the size of the massive window frame.
Cerri
“What in theseven courts happened here?” The man cradled me in his arms as he took in the state of my apartment.
I groaned and kicked so I could roll out of his grasp. He lurched forward to catch me, but I put my hand against his chest and shoved myself away from him. My feet hit the ground, and I wobbled a bit, but I was able to stagger to the kitchen where my herbal kit awaited me.
“We should really get you to a healer,” the man said, taking a step towards me like he might sweep me off my feet and whisk me out of here.
There wasn’t time. I held my hand out to stop him.
“Shut up and let me work.”
My vision wavered from the poison. I closed my eyes and summoned my willpower to push it back. It shouldn’t have worked, but I wasn’t in the mood to mess around. When I opened my eyes, the room was still and clear.
For now.
I had moments to get this started. The pain in my chest flared like the flickering fingers of fire. Vi could have chased the poison out. She could have incinerated the bolt, avoiding the need to pull it out altogether.
I should have let her help me. Instead, I’d been stubborn and driven to do this all on my own. I didn’t want to look too closely at the reasons why I’d eschewed Vi’s help. If I did, then I would open a can of worms that I didn’t have time for right now.
As it was, I didn’t even have time to ask the man his name. He stood behind me, awkwardly lingering in the middle of my living room like he didn’t know what to do with himself.