One sip at a time.
One minute at a time.
When that doesn’t work, I close my eyes and embrace the tingle of the crisp air on my cheeks, but it isn’t until I inhale the scent of cedars, their crushed leaves making the air fragrant, that I feel centered again.
In that moment, I can believe that Striker has woken up.
As I take another sip of my tea, thewhooshof helicopter blades overhead isn’t the surprise that it used to be. Hunter has come to see me every week since I went into the maze.
But it is unusual for her to visit me so late in the day.
The chopper stops above the clearing two hundred paces away, and I consider her carefully as she rappels to the ground.
I wait patiently for her to hike through the trees, her footsteps light in the undergrowth.
“Vulture Woman,” I call as she approaches. “Why have you darkened my door?”
It’s what my sisters said to Hunter the first time they saw her, and it usually draws a smile-grimace from her.
But for once, Hunter doesn’t immediately respond. The tension in her shoulders and around her eyes grows as she stops at the base of the steps.
I read her thoughts with wariness and speak them aloud before she can. “You’ve come to ask me to kill someone.”
She knows I can read her emotions, and she doesn’t mince words. “Striker’s stepsister, Zara, has asked for your help.”
“Myhelp?”
Zara and I were never friends. There’s no reason she would trust me with anything important to her.
“If you don’t want to help her, the assassins can step in, but…” Hunter blows out an exhale, and it feels like a careful move before she voices what I can already read in her thoughts. “I fear you might resent us if we take this mission.”
I study her carefully. “What is it?”
As she speaks, I take note of her emotions and how tightly she’s controlling them. “Before you went into the maze, Striker took control of Draven Industries. At that time, two of the original board members were killed. It seems he acted quickly and, quite frankly, cleverly and ousted the remaining four without bloodshed. He appointed his sister as his proxy if he were ever unavailable, so she’s acted for him while he was in the maze. But now, with him in a coma, the Magical Magnate is?—”
“They’re trying to take over.” My voice is filled with anger. The Magical Magnate consists of eight ruling members, all corrupt. Draven Industries is a manufacturer of weapons that can be used in both human and supernatural conflicts. It’s a prize they will covet.
“Their names are written in the ledgers of the three Master Assassins,” Hunter says. “I have boxes and boxes filled with evidence against them. I’ve sanctioned the assassinations.”
“But?”
Her jaw clenches, and I’m surprised by what she says next. “They don’t deserve clean deaths.”
I’m even more shocked when her eyes fill with tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t know about the Academy sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t tear it down. You deserved better than that.”
She clears her throat and pulls herself upright. “The entire Magical Magnate is congregating at Draven Industries tonight. We have the chance to take them all out at once. I’m giving you the power to choose if it will be us or you.”
I sink to the top step, sitting heavily on it.
I’ve been clutching my cup of tea, and now I place it down, setting it beside me.
In the distance, the sun sinks below the tops of the trees, and the sky above me starts to reveal its stars.
My surroundings are calm, but my mind is a storm of thoughts.
I have no good place to start. To work through this decision. So I begin with, “You think I can take out eight powerful supernaturals all on my own?”
Hunter ascends the steps to sit beside me. “I know you can,” she says without hesitation. And then, “You know what you are now, right?”
