In a blink, all three of us appeared before we reached the next corner, vampire chicken and all. Beneath our feet, the ground trembled again. The earth mages were still tailing us. Could we even outrun them on foot? If we returned to the Spirit Agents’ base, we might well be dooming everyone inside the house.
“There’s no way the other Houses didn’t see that,” Miles breathed.
“They’ll think a fire mage set off that cantrip,” Shelley pointed out. “If Bria stays here, she’s the perfect scapegoat, especially as she knocked on the House of Fire’s door not a minute before the blast went off.”
“Dammit,” I said. “They did that on purpose.”
Dex cleared his throat. “You might want to run.”
The ground gave another heave, prompting us to break into a sprint again.
“At this rate we’ll lead them right back to our base,” Shelley gasped out.
“We can’t run in circles all night either,” Miles responded. “Dex, can’t you do something?”
“I can’t deflect fire, can I?” he said. “Escape through a node.”
“Where?” I spotted the gleam of a node ahead of us. “To the swamp? That could work.”
“I’ve a better idea,” Dex said. “Come on. I’ll take us to a safe house.”
We picked up speed, hurrying down the street and trying to ignore the ongoing tremors beneath our feet. Dex reached the node first, and when we caught up with him, light enfolded around us.
“This better work!” I grabbed Miles’s arm for balance, and we vanished into the node’s light.
A second later, I slammed down onto a wooden surface, landing in a crouch. I raised my head, looking up at several bewildered faces.
Uh-oh. We weren’t in the Parallel, but in a room containing a long table covered in what looked like a giant cardboard castle and a number of handmade figurines. Devon and Liv sat at the table, along with Trix the elf, who looked as baffled as the rest of them. And Ryan, who glared daggers at me. That answered the question as to what Ryan’s plans for the night were, then.
“What the hell are you doing?” Liv demanded.
I straightened upright. “Long story.”
Miles and Shelley picked themselves off the floor, while Dex flew over to the table to address Liv. “We were being chased. Had to make a quick getaway.”
“Into my house?” said Devon. “Dex, that is not cool.”
I shot the sprite a glare. “Dex, you never said the node landed in her house!”
Before she could reply, a loud squawk sounded as the vampire chicken landed on the table in the ruins of the model castle.
“Are we fighting a vampire chicken now?” Trix said uncertainly.
“I’ll get rid of the chicken,” Ryan said, reaching to pick up the vampire chicken. Its teeth sank into the Air Element’s hand, and I stifled a laugh despite the seriousness of the situation.
Liv glared at the fire sprite. “Please don’t tell me whoever was chasing you followed you into the house.”
“No, I think we’re good.” He cleared his throat. “So… want to do battle with a vampire chicken now?”
“I think we should go,” said one of the other players.
“No!” Devon marched over to our bedraggled group. “Get out of my house. And I swear if whatever’s chasing you lands up in here, I’ll shut you in a cantrip delivery box and send you to the Order.”
The Order? I left the room, along with Miles and Shelley. Miles started laughing when we reached the door.
“Damn, Dex,” he said. “We just landed on Liv’s shit list. Again.”
“Why do they live on top of a node?” I said.
“A lot of practitioners do,” said Shelley. “It’s the best way for them to access magic outside of the Parallel.”
I’d assumed Devon was staying in the castle. It was also safe to assume she wasn’t working on any cantrips at the moment either, given the state of her hands.
“Did she say she’d send us to the Order?” I said. “I thought Devon was safe.”
“She used to work for the Order,” said Dex. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“If the Order arrests us for using a node illegally, we’ll know who to blame.”
On the plus side, we’d escaped death by inferno cantrip. On the minus side, we’d just pissed off the castle’s resident cantrip expert, Liv and Ryan all at once.
More to the point… the Order was under the control of the enemy. And now we had definitive proof that at least one of the Houses was, too.
9
“That could have gone better,” Miles said. “At least we managed to shake off those earth mages. We’ll head back to base and make sure the others know there are rogues from the House of Earth roaming the city.”
“We’d better hope they don’t remember our faces,” Shelley added. “Also, I think we just lost our suppliers, too.”
“It might’ve just been the assistant who was dealing with those guys,” said Miles. “I didn’t see Dawson himself there, did you?”
“No, but it’s safe to say they’re not on the straight and narrow,” I said. “Those cantrips they were trading all had the Family’s mark on them. It didn’t get there by accident.”
“Why would the Family put their signature on a cantrip?” said Shelley. “Seems a dead giveaway for someone who wants to lie low.”
“Nah, they’re suckers for attention,” I said. “They like thinking of themselves as notorious. They’ll have someone carving their mark onto cantrips, so everyone knows who they’re dealing with.”
“They also started a fire back there,” said Miles. “That inferno didn’t hit anyone in the House of Fire, did it?”
“If Harris didn’t open the door when he heard the noise, he might’ve been lucky enough to escape,” I said, with a grimace. “Problem is, he wouldn’t listen to me when I said the House of Earth had been compromised, but I bet he’ll be all too eager to pin the blame on me for the attack. Better hope he didn’t see you two as well.”
“Yeah.”
