Gentry
Gentry gasped aloud when she saw the absurd number of zeros displayed on her laptop. When she’d put up the ad on the dark web promising to leak her location, she’d expected the various covens to bid a good amount of money — after all, her location equaled Drayer Netherton’s death, and the covens despised the Nethertons for their sway in Skadra.
The money really only had to cover the tickets to the exclusive, high-security cruise her mother and sister had ‘won’ in a sweepstakes Gentry had set up for their protection.
But this fat stack of cash? She could get a butler. Or a maid. Provided her rather ambitious plan didn’t backfire. Which it could. It really, really could.
“What’re you looking at?” Mykel asked from her school desk with her feet kicked up. Rather than studying the anatomy textbooks for the biology degree she was half-heartedly pursuing, she was reading a comic book with a well-endowed superhero on the front. Funny, now that the druggie had proven trustworthy, Gentry almost considered the shaggy-haired girl afriend. A friend who took a lot of drugs and giggled at comics at three in the morning.
It made Gentry regret not befriending her earlier. How many years had she wasted by brooding and never talking to anyone?
A friend she’d lose soon. Mykel never talked about the outside world, and had refused all invitations to join in the escape. But that hadn’t stopped her from helping with whatever tasks asked of her. Gentry knew she’d never be that selfless for another human being.
Gentry stood up from her bed, her back aching from hours of prepping material, and handed the laptop over.
Mykel’s green eyes bugged as she read over the offer. “Seriously?”
“It’s only half of it. The other half is when I send our location.” Her hands clammed up as she spoke.
“You’re insane. Like actually insane. You do realize that they will send a skilled witch to kill you, right?”
“Besides the whole dying part — that’s the plan. We need someone strong enough to bust me out of here. You’ve seen the plan.It has to work.” She bolstered all the confidence she could in that sentence, hoping somehow to convince both herself and Mykel.
It didn’t work. The brunette crossed her arms and gave her a knowing, sad look. “You know, you might be both the smartest and dumbest person I know. You’re magic-less. We both are. No matter how many plans you have in that big brain of yours, there’s a limit to what you can do”—Mykel held a hand up as Gentry opened her mouth—“I know you need to do this. I can feel how crazy this place has made you and understand why you need to leave. I’ll help you. Shoot, your plan might even work. But you need to be prepared for what will happenif it doesn’t work.”
Mykel then returned the laptop and looked back down at her textbook as if she hadn’t just broken Gentry’s brain. Numbly, Gentry sat back down, the screen with the ridiculous cryptocurrency offer swimming in front of her vision. She jumped when the air conditioner kicked in and broke the silence. Mykel was right. She could get them both killed if even one element failed.
Her luck with witches and magic sucked at best. Was her life here really so horrible?
Memories of the ‘before time’, the time before she’d chosen to live as a conwoman with her father came rushing back. Movie nights. Her little sister, Beck, giggling at bedtime stories Gentry made up. Going to school and singing in the musicals. Bathing in the sunshine during summertime for as long as she wanted, not just the allotted yard time if the Curse Ward’s scientists felt like she was close to breaking from all the preventive medicine and magic they shoved down her throat.
Then there was the fact that it’d been too long since she’d kissed a man, or touched one. She’d only been eighteen when she’d been locked up, but seducing men had never been an issue for her. But still, she’d only ever had flings — her transient lifestyle as a con artist not allowing a long-term boyfriend. Now that she’d sworn to never run a con again, Gentry wanted to see what all the fuss about cuddling was about.
How pathetic. A twenty-three-year-old woman dreaming of being held.
Yes, she needed to get the hell out of this place and break this fucking curse. For as long as she was tied to Drayer Netherton, she’d be on borrowed time. Maybe, just maybe if she freed herself and disappeared, she could have a life.
Her fingers trembled on the trackpad from nerves. Regardless, Gentry moved the information packet — containing theirlocation and all the prep work she’d put in — into the dropbox. She hovered the cursor on the send button and hesitated.
There’d be no going back after this. Whoever paid her a fortune would be sending an assassin to kill her. Maybe even multiple. But she had a plan.
Bring it on, you asshole witches,she thought. Then she hit send.
four
Kit
Excerpt from Gentry’s research notes:
4th notebook — page 230
Coven 73 — The Redbacks (eliminated from suspect pool)
It is unlikely the Redbacks were the coven who cursed me. While I’ve been monitoring them for their many suspicious dealings — kidnappings, dark potion foundry, and ties to chimera experiments — they do not show signs of accumulated wealth to the point where the Nethertons would be their benefactors. I’vee alsoseen no history of contact with the Nethertons as I have with twenty other more promising covens.
An interesting note — the Redbacks seem to have pissed off a rather powerful witch or witches. Their number has dwindled with mysterious deaths, to the point where the online forums whisper that other covens have cut off trade.
It seems as though the Redbacks aren’t long for this world.
