Dark Harvest (Darkling Mage 2)

He had the nerve to shush me. I only then spotted the tiny needle protruding out of one of his rings. This one didn’t have a gem set into it, but what looked like a hollow glass globe. It was a piece of jewelry that acted like a syringe. What the – had he always worn that one? How did he even know he’d need it?

Carver lifted his hand away, admiring that particular ring, which was now filled with the bright red of my blood. “Thank you,” he said, already spinning on his heel to head towards his office.

“A little warning next time?”

“You should have known to react faster,” Carver called musically. “Work on the Viridian Dawn. Pretend that nothing has happened. Carpe diem, Dustin.”

Seize the day. Easy for him to say. And yeah, we still needed to get in touch with the contact on that business card the maenad gave us. That would have been easy to do from where I stood, except for how cellphone reception never worked from the inside of Carver’s hideout. I couldn’t say that he was frightened of technology, exactly. Maybe it made more sense to say that he had a low opinion of it, compared to everything that magic could accomplish.

No wifi, either, which I’m sure you can imagine is basically torture. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve climbed out of the hideout’s portal to huddle in the midnight cold of Mama Rosa’s kitchen to try and get a signal, only to find Gil already there swiping away on his phone.

I stepped back out into the kitchen, pulling my phone out of my pocket. The Viridian contact was one thing, but I did remember that I wanted to confirm something about what happened earlier that night. Prudence and Bastion couldn’t have known about Vanitas unless someone had explicitly told them about him. I frowned, looked up my contacts, and hit dial. Herald had some ’splaining to do. I held the phone up to my ear, sweeping past Rosa and Gil right onto the street outside the restaurant.

He picked up in two rings. “Dust!” he said, his voice uncharacteristically enthusiastic, so much that I could hear the exclamation point. “Buddy. Old pal.”

“Herald? About tonight.”

“Okay, okay.” His tone dropped immediately. “I can explain.”

“I’m listening.”

“One of my supervisors went looking for the sword, and since it was registered under me they knew that something was fishy. They didn’t care about the backpack, but Vanitas? They were pissed. The Gallery was going to fire me, all right? Or worse. The last time anyone smuggled something out of the archives the Scions threw him into an alternate dimension.” I could hear him tutting on the other end of the line. “Poor Jeremy.”

“Okay, great, but the press release here is that you totally betrayed me. Not cool, dude.”

“Dust, come on, I’m sorry, okay? How the hell are we gonna have beach brunch together in shitty hundred-degree weather if I’m stuck in some nether dimension?”

“So funny.”

“Listen. I knew that they wouldn’t be able to get at you, okay? Between your shadowstepping thing and the sword, what chance did they really have? They’re not going to do anything to risk damaging Vanitas. And they sure as hell aren’t going to hurt you. I mean, did they even lay a finger on you?”

I paused. He was right. “No, they didn’t. But – ”

“You see my point? It’s going to be okay, Dust. I get to keep my job, and you get to be a wanted fugitive. Everybody wins.”

“Igarashi, I swear I’m going to wring your neck.”

“Sure, sure, anything you want. Brunch is my treat next time. But maybe we just won’t bring Prudence along, eh? Right? Right. Okay. Gotta run.”

“Herald, wait – ”

Click. The line was dead.

That asshole. He was totally right, though, no arguing his point. Vanitas’s attunement meant he wasn’t coded to kill anyone I really cared about, and the sword was too valuable to the Lorica for them to risk destroying. I liked to think I mattered a little to Prudence, maybe even Bastion, too.

But what if the Lorica sent even bigger guns next time?

Something cold brushed my arm. I yelped and leapt back.

“Chill,” Sterling said. “Just me.”

“Don’t scare me like that.”

“Kind of hard not to. You’re so jumpy. You still worried about that whole poison thing?”

“Damn it, Sterling, I’m not letting you turn me.”

He chuckled and shrugged. “Hey, it was worth a shot. Listen. I called the number. Go put on a jacket or something, we’re meeting the contact.”