The Thief

would survive this...

I heard sound of Meredith’s boots crunching in the gravel behind me. I shivered from adrenaline and sweat, on my knees, a tendril of despair curling around my heart. I pushed myself up to my feet and stood to face her on unsteady legs. She brushed debris from her shoulders, looking at me with pitiless eyes.

“You’re brave,” she said. “It’s too bad the Wolf was born in you. I think I would have liked you.”

She reached for me, but then her eyes go wide as I’m pulled back. Gabriel?

Tailor pushed me behind him. Mac and Destin stood on either side of me.

Meredith groaned. “This just goes on and on! How many bodyguards do you have?”

“I’m not a bodyguard, I’m an English teacher,” Tailor said, unrolling a small scroll of paper. Strange symbols were painted in black across its surface. It reminded me of the holy seals I’d seen in Buddhist temples.

“That’s some scary paper, teach,” Meredith said, deadpan. “You know what paper doesn’t do so well against?” She flung out her arm and a fireball flew toward me.

Mac

We jump clear of the fireball, but Meredith’s goal had been to distract us so she could get to Camille.

Tailor throws the rectangle of paper, and it flies with unaccountable rigidity toward the Ender. Meredith is heading for Camille, and I’m the only one close enough to reach her.

“Camille, run!” I shout. I grab Meredith by the arm just as Tailor’s seal hits her across the shoulder.

“Damnit, Mac!” Tailor snaps.

The paper clings to Meredith’s tattooed skin like a wet bandage. In a flash, the seal goes up in flames. Smoke sizzles all the way down her arm and into mine. I bellow at the sharp pain; she curses, releasing me. Her arm hangs limp and she cradles it. The paper’s burned away, but the symbols on it have embedded themselves in her skin over the shoulderblade, twining and repeating in three rings around her right arm, overlaying the red flame pattern. I’m inches from passed out on the ground, smoke rising from my hand.

“Not again!” Meredith howls, rounding on Tailor. “That is it!”

“For God’s sake, Dupree, wake up!” Tailor calls, backing away.

“Huh?” I stir, the searing pain in my hand gradually lessening.

“I’ve changed my mind,” Meredith seethes. “I think I’ll kill you,” she stabs a finger at Tailor, “then the Wolf, and then the munchkin brigade, just to be safe.” A ball of fire materializes in her hand and her lip curls in a malicious grin.

“I wish you wouldn’t kill anybody,” I say groggily, rising with my uninjured hand to my head.

Meredith freezes, eyes wide. The fireball vanishes as quickly as she’d called it into being. She looks at her empty hand in confusion. One of the three rings on her arm is fading.

“Ha!” Tailor exclaims. “Ha! Ha ha ha!” He cackles, almost hysterical. “Mac, you idiot, that was perfect!”

“It was?” I say, then look at my smoking hand and gasp. “What the heck is this?” I poke at the row of three red flames marked into the back of my hand. “Ow!” I recoil from the tender flesh. As I watch, one of the three flame marks ghosts to nothing.

“Minor annoyance,” Meredith says. “Let’s try that again!” She flings her arm towards Tailor, but nothing emerges.

Tailor’s grin is wide. “Trouble performing?”

“I swear this has never happened to me before,” Meredith quips.

“Mac, listen carefully,” Tailor says urgently, “you can’t ever say the words ‘I wish’ ever again. Understand? If you never finish your wishes, she’s stuck like this forever.”

“Wait, wishes?” Meredith and I say in unison.

“You wished for her to not kill anyone,” Tailor says smugly. “So she can’t, until she completes the contract.”

“So...we win?” I say uncertainly.

“Contract?” Meredith exclaims.

“Standard contract between a mortal and an immortal,” Tailor says. “A very complex spell that found its way to me just this evening. I was going to save it for someone else, but desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“Um, guys...” Destin says, concern in his voice.

“Wait a minute,” Meredith says slowly. “Are you...you’re not saying I’m a...”

“Genie!” I whoop, suddenly comprehending. “You are my very own personal genie!”

“I AM NOT A GENIE,” Meredith roars.

“Where’s the lamp?” I want to know. “Or is it a bottle?”

“It’s a verbal contract,” Tailor corrects, though sounding more than a little pleased with himself. “The bottle’s an exaggeration.”

“You!” Meredith says suddenly, pointing a finger at Tailor again. “You’re one of those - those - thingies!”

“Excuse me?”

“One of those human thingies...ahhh...what are they called...the ones that make everything awful...argh!” She kicks the wall of the cafe in frustration. “This is for real, isn’t it?”

“Very much so,” Tailor says. “No more killing for you. Camille is safe.”

“Um...guys?” Destin says, louder this time, fear in his voice. “I’m not sure about that.”

He was looking at Camille. She’s curled in on herself, arms around her ribs as if holding herself together. Her expression is unfocused and she’s sweating buckets.

Tailor reaches for her and she backs up, one hand out. “Don’t touch me,” she says, breathing heavily.

Meredith makes a rude sound. “There it is.”

Tailor glares at her to shut up. She merely folds her arms and returns the glare with a grin. “I can feel your blood burning, you little freak,” she taunts Camille. “Without that sword, you’re coming apart at the seams. You think this is bad? This is only the beginning. If you cared for these lives at all,” she says, arms wide to indicate me, Destin, and Tailor - “you would beg me to end you. If I could.” Her expression narrows as her gaze flicks to me.

“You’re wrong about her,” Tailor says, but Camille sinks to her knees, curling up.

“Your best boy Gabriel abandoned you, you know that, don’t you?” Meredith tells Camille nastily. “He gave you up to me. He told me the Wolf was at the school, he sent me right to you.”

Hunched on the ground, Camille’s back tightens, her hands fisting in her hair.

“Camille...” I say, approaching her slowly. “Camille, don’t listen to her.”

“She knows I’m right!” Meredith cackles. “You know why he held on to you? He thought he could change you, the old softie, but he was wrong. The Wolf is the enemy, and that doesn’t change. He gave up on you. Then all he had to do was wait for me to show up and finish the job. And even if it’s not me, soon enough, someone will...you’re a monster, you’re a bloody monster, and nothing he ever did or said could stop it from taking you over!”

“Uruse,” she mutters from behind her curtain of hair.

“He gave up on you,” Meredith repeats.

“Camille...” I reach for her shoulder.

“YAMEROU!” she screams as she strikes out at me. I fall back, and suddenly she’s standing over me, a feverish yellow gleam making her green eyes unnatural. Her tangled curls spill over her torn, filthy uniform. Her lips pull back slightly from her teeth. For a brief, terrifying moment, I wonder if maybe Meredith is right.

And then Camille is gone, the moon glinting silver off her hair as she disappears into the woods.

Chapter 21