"It's okay. I don't mind waiting." He lifts his chin up and puffs out his chest. "What will you be? Five minutes?"
This guy is pushing me and he's about to piss me off. "No, it'll most likely be longer. You should go. I'll get there as soon as I can."
"But..." His mouth drops open.
I want to reach out and push his mouth close, but somehow, I restrain myself. "It's fine. Go. Tell them I'll be there as soon as possible." I shut the door in his face. If I deal with him much longer, it won't be pretty.
The witch has a huge grin on her face, and nods. "Well done."
Doesn't she realize I'm not concerned about her approval? At this point, I'm not concerned about correcting her. "Can you just finish what you want to tell me before we get interrupted again?"
"Fair point." She takes a step toward me and lowers her voice. "What I've been trying to tell you is that anyone who wants the artifacts should wait until you've collected them all before harming you."
But that doesn't make any sense to me. "Why? I'd be powerful then. They would struggle to take me."
"Not if you've been lulled into some false sense of security." She takes my hand.
I want to pull back but for some reason I don't. I want to hear what she has to say. For some reason, I feel like this will devastate me, but put everything in perspective.
She leads me to the couch and has me sit down. Then she sits in front of me on the coffee table. She leans forward and grips my hand tight. "When you have all the artifacts and then die, they will all go to one location for the killer to scoop up."
"Wait...," one location, but not right there with me. "It won't be right there?"
"No, I'm not sure where, but I can figure it out if needed." She frowns and pats me. "But it will be away from you so not everyone will go chaotic. These artifacts are made of smart, ancient magic. They know better."
But I don't understand. "How does everyone know this, and I don't?"
"Oh, naive girl. They don't want you to know. The council, the demon, or any other party that may be involved." She grins at the last statement. "Every single person is working to build your trust, your allegiance, or just some sort of unbalanced relationship with you for when this happens. Most every relationship you have now is a set up for the end game."
And what hurts the most is I believe her. I see it's what the council and Damien is doing. But my problem is: Who else is part of the puzzle?
20
I need to focus on the information at hand and not freak out. I take a deep breath and force my mind to stop running at full speed. Whether I like it or not, this is my reality, and I need to fact-find, not overreact.
So, if the elements go to one place, there has to be something to make it possible to spread them out or something. At some point, I'm going to die whether I like it or not. I hope it's not by murder, but who knows. "So, Damien mentioned that there’ve been other seekers like me who could handle the elements."
"Yes, there have been." She nods and remove her hands. "You aren't quite as distraught as I expected."
Wow, she wanted me to lose it? Granted, I was about to there for a second, but I'm learning emotions are what get you hurt. You've got to focus on your objective and facts. "What's the point of getting upset about my reality? I need to face it and figure out how to fix things, instead of it ruling me." I stand and walk over where the carpet meets the laminate. "So, did they face this same problem?"
The witch scrunches her nose but nods. "Yes, they did. Each one had to deal with what you are dealing with, just different people trying to pull their strings. Luckily, most weren't able to get more than one before things became issues."
Well, I've gotten two, so I've beaten some kind of odds already. "What do you mean things became issues?" Is there something I need to worry about?
"The last Artifact Seeker was about three hundred years ago." She stands and begins pacing. "She was a witch actually, but it was during the Salem Witch trials."
Wow, that was a while ago. I guess it makes sense. "So, they all aren't reapers?"
"Oh, no." She shakes her head and narrows her eyes. "You're the first. Granted, it's always a living supernatural that has magic inside of them naturally, but you're the first reaper I've heard of. But a vampire or demon would never have access to it."
That's interesting. "I wonder why a reaper is the Seeker now?"
"Me too." She sighs. "Anyway, I was there that day. She had just gotten her hands on the Earth Stone much like you did."
It’s the easiest realm to get to. I can see why most people get that one first.
"It had just finished absorbing into her and she was out of sorts." The witch closes her eyes and rubs her hand along her forehead. "She was crazy strong but couldn't control it. We were under strict orders not to harm the humans. Most of them were innocent anyway." She laughs hard.
A hard, queasy feeling sits in my stomach. Is she about to go off the deep end? "Were they not?"
Her eyes darken and a snarl fills her face. "The artifact seeker found out her sister was being put on the stake. She had to see her ... to say goodbye. We tried to talk her out of it, she was unstable for God's sake, but it was her sister. She snuck away when we were talking."
The air changes direction around us as she courses with anger. I have a feeling I’m
