Cloaked Campaign, page 14
Ember leaped up the stairs and galloped through the room toward the door. Reg looked at Davyn to see if he would open the door for the dragon. It was probably best if he did not. Let Verity get as far away from the property as possible before releasing Ember.
Davyn apparently agreed and made no move to open the door. Ember barely paused. He dashed through the screen and kept going, leaving a gaping hole behind him. He caught up with Verity before she made it to her car. Reg hurried after him, worried about what might happen. A dragon defending its territory or master could be very dangerous, even a little one like Ember. He had more than enough weapons at his disposal, in the form of fire, teeth, and claws, to dispatch Verity in seconds. But as she reached the damaged door, Ember had already reached Verity and was gamboling around her like a puppy, excited and wanting to play. Reg opened the door rather than just walking through the hole Ember had made.
“Ember. Ember, leave her alone. Come on back.”
Ember barely looked at Reg. Verity shrugged. “He isn’t doing anything.”
“He can get a little rough when he’s playing sometimes. And I don’t want him to hold you up. You’re free to leave here, of course.”
“I’m free to leave here?” Verity apparently wasn’t concerned that Ember had been sent after her to stop her from escaping. “How are you involved in all of this? You’re not a member of the coven. You’re not the mistress of this house. You have nothing to do with any of this, but you stay there, listening to our discussion instead of excusing yourself. Why don’t you mind your own business? You have no standing here.”
Ember stopped playing and looked at Verity, then at Reg, his vertical pupils dilating.
“No,” Reg told him firmly. “Everything is fine.”
She thought about the fireplace, encouraging Ember to go back into the house and tend to it.
But he turned and looked back at Verity, all the playfulness gone. Verity swallowed. She opened her car door and slid into the seat.
“You see? She’s leaving,” Reg soothed Ember as Verity pulled her door shut. At least there was now a door between them, though Reg suspected Ember could break through the window as easily as he had broken through the screen door. Verity pulled out, spinning her tires in the gravel and spraying it at them in a wide arc. She sped away from the house.
Reg reached out and touched Ember. “It’s all over. Everything is fine.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Reg walked back into the house, cajoling Ember to come along with her. Ember kept looking in the direction Verity had gone and didn’t want to go into the house. Reg promised him some more coins and, when that didn’t do it, some crackers. Ember followed her, his long tail whipping back and forth slowly.
“Everything okay?” Davyn asked as soon as she walked back into the house with the dragon following her.
“Well, nothing happened. But she got Ember a little… agitated.”
Davyn looked at the dragon, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. “He looks fine.”
Reg nodded. She didn’t want to go into any details, but she could feel Ember’s anger and fear, the restless energy to go after the beautiful, shining woman and confront her. She had disrespected Reg, and Reg was his friend. The special friend he’d had since he was a hatchling. Reg could see things in her head, fragments of past battles, some of them very long ago. Of dragons ravaging and ruining castles and towns, tearing apart those who showed them disrespect. Going to battle against armored knights who didn’t stand a chance despite the roasting pans they wore for protection.
She tried to send Ember calming, happy thoughts—the three of them cuddled up near the fire, Ember’s growing pile of loot in the basement. She dug around in her purse and found a couple of small packages of saltine crackers. Ember perked up when he saw the crackers and heard the crinkling of the wrapper. Reg tore one open and handed him the crackers one at a time, murmuring to him about what a good boy was.
Ember settled in, curling up on the braided rug in front of the fireplace to munch on the crackers.
“I have to go,” Reg told Davyn. “But let me know if there’s a problem. I’ll come back later.”
He nodded. Reg gave him a package of crackers to give to Ember once she was gone, and left quietly.
Reg looked at the time on her phone when she got back home. She had enough time for a quick bite to eat and a shower before her first client of the evening arrived. Not bad; she’d cut it closer before. At least she’d tidied up earlier, so she didn’t have to worry about that part. Starlight wound around her legs, and she gave him lots of attention and some fish from the fridge. She wanted him to be in a good mood for her appointments. Readings always went better if there was a psychic cat around who happened to be in a good mood. A jealous, sullen mood, and he would be of little good to her.
There was a knock on the door. Reg frowned. She looked at the appointment book on the kitchen island counter to confirm what she had remembered. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for her to remember her schedule wrong. But she hadn’t. Her next appointment was not for another half hour. And the knock at the door had not been one of Sarah’s quick knocks. It was someone other than Sarah.
Reg walked over and opened the door. It was a woman she didn’t know. Black hair. Wearing an oversized, sloppy black hoodie. Reg couldn’t see much of her shape under her clothes, but she sensed that the woman was pudgy. A bit overweight. Her skin was sallow and dull, peppered with painful-looking acne and old acne scars. She appeared to be in her thirties. The woman looked behind her and then back at Reg.
“I’m sorry. I know I don’t have an appointment, but the witch over there said it was okay for me just to come over. That you didn’t have any other appointments yet.”
“No,” Reg admitted, “but I haven’t finished getting ready yet. I was going to have something to eat…”
“Oh, don’t let me stop you. I’ll just be quiet and wait until you’re ready. I know I don’t have an appointment.”
Reg hesitated. She didn’t like people just dropping by. But it sounded like the woman had at least talked to Sarah, and Sarah was the closest thing to a booking secretary that Reg had.
“Umm… it’s fine,” she decided. She motioned for the woman to enter.
“I can come in?” the visitor questioned, sounding hesitant.
“Yes, come in,” Reg agreed, motioning again. “Please, come in.”
She stepped over the threshold.
“You can have a seat; I’ll be with you in just a minute,” Reg promised. She returned to the kitchen area and put on the kettle. But she needed more than just a cup of tea. She needed something solid in her stomach, especially since she had several back-to-back appointments and wouldn’t have the chance to stop and eat later. She opened the fridge and looked through what she could see.
Tuna salad? Ribs? Some macaroni and cheese that Reg didn’t remember buying. Maybe that had come from Sarah. She wanted the tuna but was afraid it would smell too much for her visitor or one of the later appointments, so she chose the mac and cheese. A quick minute in the microwave, and she could slurp most of it down in a couple of minutes.
Starlight was in the space between the kitchen and the living room where the visitor was sitting, examining the new arrival.
“Oh, I forgot, what’s your name?” Reg asked.
“Hope,” the woman offered in a small voice.
Reg couldn’t think of anyone she’d seen lately who had looked less hopeful. But names were not always appropriate. Starlight started to creep closer to the visitor, keeping low to the ground. Reg couldn’t help remembering the way that Ember had approached Verity, acting as if she wouldn’t notice if he moved slowly and kept low to the ground. Putting his instincts and his genetic memory into practice. Hope didn’t appear to notice the cat sneaking up on her.
“You have a nice place here,” Hope complimented.
“Thank you. I can’t take credit for the decorating, that was done by my landlady—by Sarah, who you met. But I enjoy it. It’s very homey and good for my business too.”
The kettle started to whistle. Reg prepared the tea tray and took it over to place it on the coffee table in front of the couch. Then the microwave beeped, and she remembered the macaroni and cheese. She left the tea things there and returned to the kitchen to get her dinner.
Starlight yowled. Reg looked over at him, startled. She hadn’t heard him use such an angry tone in a long time. That was the kind of voice that he used for Corvin. She glanced out the window to ensure there was no one in the yard, but there wasn’t. Starlight was looking at Hope.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Reg approached cautiously. Starlight had a good sense for the character of the people he met. If he didn’t like Hope, then there was reason for Reg to approach the appointment carefully. It could just be that Hope didn’t like cats, of course, or was even allergic to them. But an objection like that from Starlight normally meant something.
“So…” she drew out the word and looked around, trying to figure out what to do about Hope’s presence there. Maybe she could still back out of the appointment. Say that Sarah had been wrong and she wasn’t available. That she had forgotten that someone else was coming. She could say she wasn’t feeling well and ask for Hope to reschedule. “Do you know Sarah?”
Hope nodded. She filled her teacup and stirred the tea around a few times with a spoon. “Not really close, but I know her. We go way back,” she said vaguely.
“Oh. Have you lived here in Black Sands for a long time? I don’t remember seeing you before.”
“I have a little place in the forest. Not far away. I prefer the solitude.”
Reg wondered if that solitude contributed to the depression that she sensed in Hope. She tried to explore Hope’s mind, just to touch her lightly, but the doors to Hope’s mind were sealed tightly shut. Not only that, but the dark aura around her seemed to prevent Reg from getting too close. It clouded her mind when she needed it to be clear.
“What did you need from me today?”
“Please eat,” Hope said, motioning to Reg’s macaroni. “I’m sorry for interrupting you. Sarah said it was okay, but I don’t think either of us thought about the fact that you needed time for dinner.”
Reg took a few bites of the macaroni. “I’m fine. I’ll just eat while we talk. So what were you looking for?”
“I have a son,” Hope said. “It’s been a long time since I saw him. I thought that you might be able to help me. Tell me… where to go, how to approach him.” She shook her head. “Do you have any children?”
“Kids, me? No!” Reg laughed. “I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.”
“Ah, well. You can wait, I suppose. But don’t take so long that you miss the opportunity. Some women do, you know. Keep putting it off until a better time, until… no time is left.”
Reg added sugar to her tea. She tasted it and added some more. She knew that she really should cut down on her sugar consumption, but it was hard. For a long time, it had been important to get every single calorie she could to survive. Sugar was cheap. At coffeehouses, it was free. She could add as much as she liked to her coffee or tea, doubling, tripling, and quadrupling the calorie count. Besides, she’d never liked the bitterness of coffee, or the herbal taste of a lot of teas.
She tasted it again. There was still a strange bitter taste to the tea. Reg looked at the tag on the string of the teabag she had added to her cup. It wasn’t anything weird, just one of the teas that she normally offered for clients. But maybe it had been contaminated with another plant or had been a particularly bitter leaf. Planted in soil that was too acidic or too dry. She grimaced at the taste and put her cup back down again. More mac and cheese helped to take the taste away.
“What is your son’s name?”
“John.”
Reg closed her eyes briefly, thinking about John. Long estranged from his mother. She didn’t look old enough to have an older child, a late teen or twenty-something. But many of the witches and wizards managed to retain their youthful appearance, despite being decades or even centuries older than they looked.
“Does he live in Black Sands or somewhere else?”
“He’s here now.”
The wording was strange, but Reg accepted it. She made a kissy noise to call Starlight over. “Star, you want to help me?”
Starlight slunk closer, which surprised her. She had figured by the way he was behaving that he wouldn’t be that interested in helping. Reg looked at Hope, opening her mouth to speak. Pain flared through her calf when Starlight nipped at her.
“Ouch! Starlight, what are you doing? Ow, that hurt.” Reg stood up, reaching for Starlight to take him to the bedroom or bathroom and lock him in until Hope had left. Starlight darted out of the way, avoiding her. “Starlight!”
He ran across the cottage and hid behind the island of the kitchen.
“Oh,” Reg rubbed her calf. “Ouch. Darn cat.”
“You must have startled him,” Hope suggested.
Startled him? Reg shook her head. She didn’t know why he had nipped her, but he had. It had been deliberate. He’d never bitten or clawed her by accident. There was always a purpose. She took another sip of the tea.
She looked toward Starlight once more, then reached for the chair to sit down once more. She felt a wave of dizziness and nearly toppled over before she managed to put her hand on the chair to steady herself. She lowered herself into the chair, her vision wavering for a moment, flickering around the edges. Was that Hope’s aura? Something else? Smoke? A vision?
“You shouldn’t get involved in things.”
Reg tried to focus on the face of the woman across from her. Why was it so hard to see her? Why was it so dark before the sun had started to go down?
“What?”
“You have this nice cottage, this nice business. A cat. You don’t need to go poking your nose into other people’s business.”
Reg tried to form the words to object to this, but her lips and tongue would not work together to form the right shapes to produce them. She slurred and whistled. What was going on?
“Maybe that will teach you,” Hope pronounced. And then she left.
Reg was in limbo. She didn’t know if she was still sitting in her chair or if she was somewhere else. Maybe she was asleep in her bed, dreaming. It was like she was floating and she wasn’t really anywhere. She could hear Starlight yowling and tried to tell him that if he would be patient, she would get him something to eat. But she couldn’t hang on to the slippery thought and it drifted away.
Strong arms slid under her and lifted her in the air. She supposed she hadn’t been floating before, if she was being held up in the air now. She tried to move, but just ended up cuddling against the man’s chest. She was somewhere in space, her consciousness bouncing around like a pinball between the stars. There was a loud knocking, and the sound of a door opening.
“Come in, Reg, I’ll be right there…” Sarah’s voice floated down to her from somewhere. Then there was a short yelp. “Who are…? Reg? What happened?”
There was no answer, but Reg felt herself transferred to another surface, soft. She wanted the strong, warm chest back again. She had felt comfortable and safe there.
“What happened to her? Do you know?” Sarah’s voice asked.
Reg tried to answer that she didn’t know.
Eventually, she lost the thread of Sarah’s voice, and knew nothing more.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Before she even woke up, Reg knew she had a headache. An oppressive, pounding headache that made her feel like throwing up. She resisted waking, knowing that it would be worse when she had to face the world again. She just wanted to stay in the suspended space between sleep and waking and not have to figure out what had happened or where she was.
But she couldn’t prevent herself from waking. Eventually, Reg opened her eyes. She rubbed them, trying to clear away the blurriness and get a good look around her.
“Reg! Reg, how are you feeling?”
Reg focused on Sarah’s face near hers.
“Umm… not great,” Reg admitted. Her own low voice hurt her head. She closed her eyes and held her hand to her pulsing forehead. “What happened?”
“The doctors say you were poisoned.”
“Poisoned?” Reg couldn’t make any sense of that. Who had poisoned her? She had been in her own house, eating her own food. Maybe food poisoning from something that had been in the fridge for too long? Just how long had the macaroni and cheese been there?
“Yes. Do you know who did it? Who did you see before… it happened?”
“A client.” Reg held both palms over her eyes. “She talked to you. You told her it was okay to come over.”
“When?”
“Just before. Today? Yesterday? Hope. I think her name is Hope.”
“No, I didn’t talk to anyone named Hope. I didn’t send anyone over to you.”
“Yes, she said she had talked to you.”
“No. She was lying.”
“Oh.” Reg lay there for a few minutes, letting that thought stew in her brain and working up the brainpower to think about it. “You think… she poisoned me?”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. What did she say?”
“I don’t know. She said she talked to you. That she wanted advice on…” Reg struggled for it, “on her son.”
“What about her son?”
“I don’t know. Reconciling. Re-con-sill—” Reg struggled to form the word.
“Reconciliation?”
“Mmm. Yes. I think so.”
“She didn’t tell you why she poisoned you? If you did something to make her mad? If she was acting on someone else’s behalf?”
