Surprised. Angry. Cold eyes.
Killers’ eyes.
Drugs and money spread out on the table between them.
Fear. No. Wrong room.
Run! Get away!
She’s too slow and they’re too fast.
Big hand over her mouth. Rough hand. Can’t scream.
Another grips the side of her head.
A sharp, savage twisting motion. A sickening crack.
Sudden pain. She’s falling.
Darkness.
And then, just as suddenly, the world wrenches.
Her perspective changes. She’s looking down on them from above.
At—her body? How—?
She watches as the men wrap her in a sheet, drag her cart into the room, stuff her in the hamper where the dirty linens go. They move with swift efficiency, expressionless.
She watches as they take her downstairs, put her body in a car trunk, drive off—
Her body leaves, but she doesn’t.
She’s still at the motel. Watching the red lights recede.
Her abandoned cart stands in the parking lot, and the car is gone.
And she’s still here.
Stone’s head lit up with pain. Brains—even mages’ brains—weren’t meant to process that much information in such a short time. He pressed his temples with the heels of his hands, struggling to make sense of the rapid-fire, faster-than-thought imagery.
Someone had killed Luisa—brutally snapped her neck—when she’d accidentally interrupted a drug deal in one of the motel’s unused rooms. That much had come through loud and clear. They’d used her own cart to hide her body and transport it away, leaving her echo behind, eternally tethered to the site of her death.
But there had been something else—
He clamped his eyes shut, fighting to recall what was eluding him. Something about the men—
The men.
He’d seen those men. Those same cold-eyed faces.
He lowered his hands and looked at Luisa, who was once more watching him from the other side of the room. “It was those two, wasn’t it? They were the ones who killed you and took your body away. This is where they conduct their drug deals, and you walked in on one of them.”
She didn’t answer, but her silvery eyes never left his face.
“And now they’re back. That’s why you reached out to me, isn’t it?”
The throbbing pain was already beginning to fade. Stone rose and resumed his pacing, rubbing his chin. “I don’t know how I can help you, Luisa. The police won’t do anything without proof, and I can’t exactly go busting into their room and take them down.”
