he could have stumbled onto Jason and found a new hate mate. He didn’t run scared. He was looking for a better opportunity. And if it isn’t with Jason, then I have no idea who it is. Which scares me even more.
Reece moves to the table and peers at the map. “Does the map have the ability to single out individuals?”
Hadrain rises and steps toward the map. “Yes.”
The older man places his hand on the map key near the top left corner. His says a spell in a language I don’t know and the key changes, showing Granel’s name next to a bloodred dot, but the map doesn’t change.
“It appears as if he’s either dead or has left Teag.”
Or he’s hiding. I poke at the map. “Halim, what did you do to make the map move?”
“I touched it here…by accident,” he says, biting into the lie like a normal human boy, “and pushed up.”
I place my hand on the spot and move it up. A large space appears, hovering over the map with a dark line near the edge. But what’s even more interesting is a bloodred mark in the midst of the black. Hadrain points. “There he is. Granel.”
I pull my hand away and the space disappears. “Is this place familiar to anyone?”
It takes only a second, but Halim’s eyes grow wide. He slams his hand on the spot. “The Unknown.”
Kera was sent to the Unknown by someone who wants me dead. Jason wants me dead. At this very moment, Granel is in the Unknown. “It sure seems like Granel is working with Jason.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Hadrain says. “He was Navar’s lieutenant because he showed the same level of hate for humans. He would never work with one.”
But there’s no way he’s working alone. He doesn’t have the charisma to inspire like Navar. Granel is a follower through and through. All the signs point to Granel working in Jason’s camp. I’m with Halim. Jason has to be getting his power from someone, and Granel is all about the nastiest magic available. “Are you sure Granel and Jason don’t know each other?”
Hadrain changes the map key again, specifically asking it to show Granel and Jason’s forces. “If they are working together, the color will be the same.” Granel’s faction is bright red while Jason’s turns from black to a medium blue. “Same objective, different leaders.”
That doesn’t mean they’re not working together. Jason could’ve easily passed on the leadership of the Unknown to Granel, a guy who hates me as much as Jason does. Though I look for it, I don’t see Jason’s deep- blue marker anywhere on the map.
“Are there any other hidden spaces in Teag?” I swipe my hand over the map, searching for any.
“Only a few tiny ones where people keep their treasures.”
Frustrated, I push away from the map. “Find them and make sure Jason isn’t hiding in one of them.”
I don’t want to think he’s gone somewhere beyond Teag to drum up more manpower, but I wouldn’t put it past him. “Bring out maps of the neighboring kingdoms. We need to find him.”
There’s a rush. Maps are slapped onto every cleared surface as soldiers search for Jason.
“We’ll find him,” Wyatt says confidently.
Reece comes up to us and says in a quiet voice, “I know Jason. There’s no way that little prick is smart enough to do all this damage.”
“He’s not waging a war,” Wyatt injects. “Not a war any of these people are used to. He doesn’t care who lives or dies.”
“That’s because no one here is real to him.” I remember Jason commenting on that the first time we entered Teag. “He knows once their loyalty is given, they’ll do whatever he asks, even if it goes against their instincts to survive.”
“So what’s he doing?”
“All he wants is to prove he’s better than me.” I remember Jason’s face, how it contorted when he said killing me wasn’t personal. He actually believed it, like nothing he did in this realm was real. “He’s playing a game,” I say. “And right now he’s winning.”
An Unlikely Friendship
Kera’s dream state was growing stronger. At first she could wake herself up for a moment here, a moment there. Now she struggled to remember she was dreaming. She floated from one to another, and always she searched for Dylan.
Not this dream. Unlike the others that immediately felt real, it took a moment for this dream to take shape. When it finally did, she found herself in the middle of a group of sheep huddled together in a barn stall waiting to be clipped. In the corner, Jason’s wide shoulders took up too much space as he sheared a sheep, leaving a crest of wool along the top of its head and down its back. He turned off the electric shears and tossed them onto the dirt floor. Sitting back, he admired his work. “Cool, huh?”
A radio played in the background, and Kera could see a house in the distance, though it didn’t look familiar. “I don’t understand. You’re alive?”
His lips twitched. “Very much alive.”
“How is that possible?”
“It’s a long story, but in short…magic. You do believe in magic, don’t you?”
She frowned at his sarcastic attitude. Of course she did. “What are you doing here?” She’d never seen anyone she’d known in her dreams except Baun.
“Forced labor.” He let the ewe go and it bounded back into the waiting group. “What are you doing here? Have you finally had enough of Dylan?”
“What do you mean?”
He grabbed another sheep. “The whole magic power trip thing.”
“I don’t stay with him because of that.” She ran her fingers over the springy wool of the ewe in front of her. It tilted its sweet face up to her and bleated. She smiled and scratched its ear. “Even if he had none, I would love him.”
“Keep telling yourself that and you might start believing it. I know chicks. A dude’s got to have something special to offer or else he’s going home alone.”
“Dylan said you have talent.”
“I wrestle. Dad’s got me wired into some pretty hard-core training. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for much else.” He sent her a mischievous look. “But I make the time.” He grinned, his smile so charming, she found herself grinning back.
The back door to his house slammed shut and he glanced out the barn doors. “Shit.” He looked at all the sheep and his lips thinned. “He’s coming and I’m not near done.”
He pushed the sheep off his lap and grabbed Kera’s arm. He led her in a circle, his eyes searching for something. “You can’t be here.”
It wasn’t her choice to be here in the first place. “Where am I supposed to go?”
“I don’t care, just not here.”
“Jason!” His name shot through the barn. The man was right outside the door.
He shoved Kera into a big pile of wool and covered her. “Don’t come out or we’ll both get it.”
He straightened just as the man entered the barn. Kera instantly knew he was Jason’s father. They had the same barrel chests and thick necks. The man took a coiled leather strap off a nearby hook and entered the stall, swinging the knotted end, which bumped the sheep out of his way. His hard eyes raked the poor creatures. “What the hell have you been doing in here?” He pointed to the ewe with the odd shearing. “What kind of stupid, lame- ass job is that?”
“I was just—”
“Shut up!” The man’s thick neck turned red and his gaze pinned Jason to the spot. “I send you in here to do a man’s job and this is what I get?”
Jason shot a quick glance Kera’s way then looked down at his feet. “Maybe you should have done it,” he muttered.
His dad gave a nearby sheep a vicious bump that had it bleating sadly. “What did you say?”
