Cursed

People describe night as black, but it isn’t; it’s more like a patchwork grey. When something that’s an actual, light-eating black appears, it stands out against the darkness like a black hole. The blackness formed a vertical oval, starting at ground level and reaching seven feet in height, then shimmered and began to lighten. The shadows of another place were briefly visible, then two people stepped through.

My mist cloak is an imbued item like the monkey’s paw, and it’s the only imbued item I really trust. Mist cloaks are designed for concealment, and inactive, they look like soft cloth, coloured a sort of neutral grey that your eyes slide over. When worn, though, their colours shift and change, fading into the background so subtly that if you’re not watching it happen you’d never even notice. But mist cloaks conceal more than sight; they block magical senses completely. You can pick out someone in a mist cloak if the light’s good and you know what to look for, but to magical detection, it’s like someone in a mist cloak just isn’t there.

Which was good because right now that was the only thing stopping the man up ahead from turning me into charcoal. Cinder is a fire mage, and as I learnt the hard way a long time ago, fire mages can see a man’s body heat as easily as you or I can see light. Cinder swept the area from left to right as he emerged from the gate, waiting for the woman behind him to step through before ending the spell. The gate turned back into darkness and dissolved away to nothing.

Even though Rachel was only a silhouette in the darkness, I knew it was her. She was saying something to Cinder but just barely too far away for me to hear. The two of them walked towards the warehouse and I held perfectly still, straining my ears to hear their conversation.

“—not going to work,” Rachel said.

Cinder said something in his low rumble that I didn’t catch. Rachel shook her head. “Not enough time. We have to kill him.”

The two of them stopped by the warehouse door. They were maybe twenty feet away, and I tried to breathe quietly. Cinder seemed to be thinking. “Back off?” he said at last.

“No!” Rachel said angrily. “I’m not letting some Light mage chase us away. This is ours.”

“Can’t get what he knows if he’s dead,” Cinder pointed out.

“We don’t need him. We can make it work.” Rachel stared past Cinder. “All we need is enough time.”

My skin crawled. I didn’t know if it was coincidence, but Rachel was staring right at me. At some level I knew that in these shadows and with my mist cloak, I’d look like nothing but a patch of wall. But still …

Even through the darkness, we were close enough that I could see the dark smudge of the mask covering the top half of Rachel’s face. “Which?” Cinder said.

“The enchantress,” Rachel said, as if talking to herself. “Blind him … Yes. But only if …” She looked suddenly away from me back to Cinder. “Let’s go.”

Cinder gave a grunt and fished in his pocket for a key. There was a tiny flicker of light as he inserted and turned it with a click. The door swung open and Rachel marched in. “What about Verus?” Cinder said just as he swung the door shut behind them. It closed with a clang and I couldn’t hear anything more.

I’ve never felt so relieved and yet so frustrated. I was glad to have a solid wall between me and those two—but just one more sentence and I’d have known what they were planning. I thought about getting closer to eavesdrop and actually seriously considered it for a few seconds, which should tell you how badly I wanted to hear it.

But common sense won. I slipped away into the shadows.

Five minutes later, I was two streets over and out of danger. My mist cloak was tucked back in my bag where it could be drawn out quickly if needed. I’d picked a place by a crossroads, hidden in the shadows of a doorway where I had clear lines of sight down two streets. The only light came from the phone in my hand.

On the small screen was a short message addressed to Belthas containing Cinder and Rachel’s location. My thumb hovered over the Send button, then moved away. I kept staring at the message until the screen went dark.

All I had to do was press the button and I’d be done. Belthas would take over and deal with Cinder and Rachel. I wouldn’t even have to get involved; I could back off and watch the fireworks.

So why was I hesitating?

The last time I’d gotten involved with Cinder and Rachel, they’d alternated between trying to recruit me and trying to kill me, as well as taking the odd shot at Luna. They’d been working with a third mage, Khazad, who would have killed me if I hadn’t been quicker to do unto others. It wasn’t as though we had fond memories.