Leander shivered.The last time someone had offered to invest in Leander, it had been Druwolf.Watching Erio work, Leander prayed he was not retrieving his soul from one master only to sell it to another.
“So, where in China are you going?”Erio asked.
Leander focused on the details of here and now.If Erio turned out worse than Druwolf in the future...well, that was a problem he would have to solve then.Right now, he had an escape to plot.And after that, he had a child to kidnap.If he was very lucky, they’d be gone by daylight.If luck didn’t favor them...Leander chose not to think about that option.
Chapter Three
Leander wasn’t surewhere Salem was being held, but he could make a few guesses.Standing under the scraggly apple tree that struggled with concrete anchoring its roots, he watched the dark windows of Tecca’s house.Once it had been Tecca and Finn’s house.They had thrown a housewarming party Leander had missed because he had been in Chongqing learning flora magic.The skill was so poorly respected in the US that Leander had thought it next to useless.At best, he thought he might move to some rural area, pretend to be a preacher and make a living blessing crops.Druwolf’s offer of mentorship in China had felt like a dream.Sometimes Leander wished he had the magical power to go back in time and slap himself.Hard.Perhaps fatally.At the very least, brain damage could not have made his decision-making process worse.
He touched the apple tree, soaking in the healing magic and letting it center him.This is what his sifu had given him.The man had never given Leander his name, but he had taught Leander to feel the magic in each leaf, each flower, each blade and bit of bark.This apple tree was loud despite its ill health.It might not have even survived, but it had fed from the magic of a little boy who had played under its limbs.
And now Leander hoped to steal the tree’s source of strength.He sent his own magic out, twining it with the tree and feeding it before pulling his own magic back.
“I thought I’d find you here.”
Leander whirled around at Creek’s statement.“What are you...”He sighed.“Why are you here?”
“My handler assigned me to watch for Druwolf’s assassin.”Creek stepped into the weak light of a flickering streetlamp.“I wanted to talk to you without risking being seen.”
Leander sneered.“Are your masters keeping you on a short leash?”
Creek didn’t rise to the taunt.“I tend not to socialize with drug dealers, so they’ve never given the order.”
“I don’t deal drugs.”Leander had many sins on his soul.More than he could count.However, he didn’t sell the shit that came out of Druwolf’s hidden workshops.
“No, you make them.Worse, you make magically powerful drugs.”Creek’s tone had no mercy, but Leander wanted none.He’d made his choices, just as Creek had.
“There always has been and always will be someone selling if people want to buy,” Leander said.He wanted to spit the words out and add a few choice barbs about Creek’s profession.After all, his primary job was finding people with magic, kidnapping them, and delivering them to be enslaved by the government.That seemed far worse than strengthening the effects of a few drugs.A month ago, he would have said all that, but seeing one more childhood friend die because of Druwolf had brought the ugly truth close to home, more than he liked.He’d not only built a house of glass, but he’d used thin and cheap panes.
Creek studied him for a long time without speaking.“Why are you here?”
“Can you protect him?”Leander countered without answering.
“If he shows magic, I can.”
He could take Salem into custody, he meant.But Tecca would have trained her son to hide his magic at all times, assuming he even had any.Some children didn’t inherit, even if they had powerful parents, and many didn’t show signs until puberty.That had been Tecca.Finn and Creek had shown their magic early, and Leander had thought himself without magic until he started high school.Biology class had nearly outed him, but the teacher couldn’t identify the student who had made all the tomato seeds sprout overnight.
