“You are fast,” Asa said lightly. “But I was actually just reaching for my car keys.” He bounced on his heels, and his hip pocket jingled.
“Slowly.”
Asa reached into his pocket, and I held my breath. But all he removed were the keys. “Once we’re gone, drive straight back to Ben.”
I pocketed the keys and focused on the words, trying to decode whatever secret plan he had. I was sure he had one. Asa laughed when he saw me mouthing what he’d just said, my forehead squinched in concentration. “Oh my God, Mattie.” He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. “I’m gonna miss you so fucking much.”
“Please, Asa.” Don’t let this happen.
He planted a fierce kiss on the top of my head. “Stay here, all right?” He took my face in his hands and tipped my chin up so that I had to look in his eyes, full of warning. “Stay right here.”
“Okay,” I said in a choked voice.
“Time to go.” Sean grabbed Asa by the arm and tugged him backward, the barrel of his weapon pointed at me, maybe to dissuade Asa from fighting back. And he didn’t. He just let Sean tow him out into the hallway, and I watched helplessly as Jack, Rob, and Sean surrounded him.
In that moment, as they disappeared around a corner, I silently vowed that I would get Jack back for betraying us like this. I wrapped my arms around myself and hugged, hard, unable to believe I’d just let Asa go like that. I couldn’t breathe. Every fiber of my body was rebelling.
No. I wasn’t just going to let him go.
I glanced around the room, looking for a weapon. Anything I could use. The only real option was a phone sitting at one end of the conference table. I yanked its long, thin cable from the wall and hooked my fingers under the back of it as I stalked to the door.
Yes, I knew no one was going to be intimidated by a skinny woman wielding a conference phone. But my heart, newly freed from the tyranny of the Strikon splinter, impulsive as ever, beat with absolute determination.
As soon as I stepped into the hallway, I heard a heavy thump and a sharp snap followed by something shattering. And then a man screaming, plaintive and pathetic and terrified. I ran to the end of the hall and peeked out. Jack and Rob were grappling on the floor, both men trying to control the mercenary’s gun. Asa was standing over Sean, who was sitting with his back against the wall, his fingers scrabbling at something wrapped around his neck. I squinted at it as Sean clawed at it feebly, wheezing now. It was a green yo-yo.
I ducked back into the hall, trying to stay out of sight as Asa strode away from Sean and approached Rob and Jack, who were still locked together, limbs tangled.
“Need some help?”
“Got it under control,” Jack said through clenched teeth as he locked his legs around Rob’s waist. He slid an arm around the mercenary’s throat while the other guy punched at him.
“Are you sure?” Asa pointed at Sean. “Because I got him taken care of and—”
“I’m fine,” Jack said with a grunt.
“Can I at least take his gun?”
“Brindle’s gonna hunt you down,” Rob wheezed, his face turning purple.
“Yeah, yeah,” Asa said, sounding bored.
Rob went limp in Jack’s arms. “See?” Jack said to Asa. “I told you.”
“My way was faster.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “We better tie these guys up.”
“Mattie can help.”
“You wanna go get her?”
“Nah, she’s standing in the hallway.” Asa turned and locked eyes with mine. “And she’s brought some cord with her.”
My cheeks burning, I trudged into the open, carrying my phone, the thin gray cord dragging on the floor behind me. “What exactly were you gonna do with that?” Asa asked as I reached him and Jack.
I looked down at the phone and then tucked it behind my back, my fingers clawed around it in a sweaty grip. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You wanted me to tell you what I was about to do while the guy I was about to do it to was standing right behind me with a gun aimed at my skull?”
“You could have given me a signal!”
Asa sighed. “But if you had been cool with me leaving, Sean would have picked it up. You know that.”
“You scared me,” I wailed.
“Better than having you caught in the crossfire,” Asa yelled, pointing across the carpeted space to a giant vase that had been standing in a corner, filled with stalks of a slender, leafy plant. Now it was cracked, a bullet hole through its front. “They had orders to shoot you if I fought back, and I wasn’t gonna . . .” His brow furrowed and he looked around, his gaze darting to the massive wall of windows that lined one side of the twenty-fourth-floor atrium. “What the fuck,” he whispered, whirling to face Jack. “Are they yours?”
Jack had Rob’s gun in his hand. “You’re feeling them, aren’t you?”
“What the fuck, Jack.”
“I can’t just let you go, Ward. You’re wanted on just about every continent, and after you assaulted one of our bureau chiefs last year—”
“What the fuck, Jack.” Asa stalked toward the Headsman, who began to raise the weapon.
I slammed my conference phone into the side of Jack’s head. He staggered to the side, and Asa was on him in a second. He whipped a small syringe from his back pocket, uncapped it, and sank the needle into the bulge of Jack’s shoulder. He’d depressed the plunger and stepped back before Jack seemed to register what had happened.
Jack steadied himself and looked at the syringe sticking out of his shoulder. He pulled the syringe out and tossed it aside, then raised the gun again and aimed it at Asa. Smirking, he said, “So was that Strikon or Knedas? Ekstazo, maybe?” He chuckled. “You must be off your game, Ward. I’m a conduit. None of that shit affects me.”
“Oops,” said Asa. “My bad.”
I looked up at him in confusion. It wasn’t the type of mistake I’d have expected him to make.
Jack rubbed the side of his head and gave me a resentful look. “And I should charge you with assaulting a Headsman.”
I held up the phone and rattled it at Asa. “That’s what I would do with it.”
Asa snorted. “Dammit, Mattie.”
“Asa, what did you pick up on?”
“At least twenty naturals coming our way. They’re within a block of us. We need to get the fuck out of here.”
“Wait, twenty?” Jack swayed a little, looking surprised.
Asa gestured for me to head for the stairwell.
“Whoa . . . hey . . . you’re not going any-anywheres.” Jack’s voice was thick, his words slurring together. “What the hell,” he mumbled, looking down at his hands as the gun fell to the ground. He wiggled his fingers. “Magic doesn’t affect me.” He raised his head and peered at Asa, looking bewildered. “Magic doesn’t affect me!”
“It wasn’t magic, you double-crossing motherfucker,” Asa said as Jack sank to his knees. The Headsman’s mouth was slack, and his eyes were sliding out of focus. “It was ketamine.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“You shot him up with a doggie sedative?” I asked as Asa grabbed Jack under the shoulders and dragged the drooling Headsman to a room marked “Employees Only.”
“I stole some from the clinic, and Ben told me how much to use. I told you I was going to be prepared.” Asa opened the door and pulled Jack inside. “Grab that briefcase, will you?”
He took the case from me and pulled one of the relics out. As Jack groaned and mumbled something unintelligible, Asa set the packaged relic on Jack’s lap.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving him half of what he came for. He was good during your transaction. Without his cooperation and skill, that splinter could have really torn you up. I owe him for that. And for helping me take down the mercenaries. Plus, I feel bad about what happened to his grandpa.”
“Which one are you giving him?”
“Strikon. I’d rather not leave that in the hands of a bo
ss. Not that the Headsmen are much better, but they seem less likely to hurt innocent people with it.”
Asa shooed me out of the room and shut the door behind him. “He’ll come around in a few hours, and until then, he should be safe from what’s coming.”
“I thought what was coming was Headsmen.”
“Did you see the look on his face when I said there were twenty? He was shocked.” Asa took my hand and led me toward the stairs. “Headsmen are the least of our concerns.”
“Brindle’s people?”
Asa swiped his sweaty face across his shoulder. “There’s a powerful Strikon with them.”
“Reza?”
“Probably.”
My stomach turned. “And we’re surrounded?”
Asa stopped in front of Sean, who was still passed out with the yo-yo around his neck. Rob was weakly stirring about twenty feet away. Asa pulled a pair of gloves from a pocket along his calf and tugged them on, then unwrapped the string of the yo-yo from Sean’s neck.
“What was that?”
“Knedas. He thought there was a hungry boa constrictor around his neck.”
“Yipes.”
He gave me one of his knifelike smiles. “Fast is good. Sneaky is better.” He looped the yo-yo string around one of his fingers and then snapped it back, and the thing recoiled into his palm, the string wrapped neatly around its center.
We jogged toward the stairwell, leaving the mercenaries behind. I followed him as he moved quickly down the stairs, and though it was easier than it had been, my legs were jelly as we approached the lobby floor. “Can you still feel the naturals?” I asked.
“They’re closer,” Asa said, slowing down. “Fuck. They’re in the lobby already.”
I grabbed the railing and stopped. “Do we go back up?”
“Only if we want to get cornered.” He beckoned to me, his face sheening with sweat. “Down, Mattie. Quick as you can.”
My heart was hammering as we reached the lower lobby floor, but for the first time in months, it was a pain-free experience. Instead of feeling frightened and tortured, I felt exhilarated. Alive. Determined. We emerged from the stairwell, and I ran right into Asa’s back.
“They’re down here.” His fingers were white-knuckled around the case that held the Sensilo relic.
“Reza?”
“Still above us.” He pulled me away from the door. “Three coming down the stairs.”
From the ballroom I could hear thumping music, and I recognized the tune—“YMCA.” “Let’s get lost, then,” I said, and slid my hand along the wall as I made for the wedding reception. I glanced down at my clothes. It was a Saturday-afternoon wedding. Probably semiformal. Asa and I looked more suited to a trendy club than this kind of event, but with gangsters and Headsmen converging on us, I couldn’t think of a better place to hide than on a dance floor. “Can you get rid of that briefcase?”
Without slowing down, Asa whipped it open, grabbed the smaller box containing the relic from inside, and tucked the empty briefcase behind a planter as we moved toward the ballroom. The lower lobby was partially open to the upper level via the grand staircase, and several people were descending quickly and purposefully, their gazes already scanning the area. I picked up my pace, practically running the last ten yards. Guests were milling around in the open doorway, which was marked by a sign that said, “Rollings-Getchell Wedding.”
Asa put his arm around me, his grip sweaty, leaning on me more than should have been necessary. I knew he was suffering under whatever vibes the approaching naturals were giving off. They probably knew it would affect him and no one else. Forcing myself not to glance behind me to see if we’d been spotted, I wrapped my arm around Asa’s waist and snatched a wedding favor—an etched champagne flute with dangling silver ribbons—from one of the tables arrayed outside the room.
A guy in a tuxedo frowned as we approached. “Invitations?”
“Oh, hang on,” said Asa, reaching in his pocket. “Right here.” He drew a small spritzer bottle and squirted the tux guy in the face. “We’re friends of the bride.”
The guy grinned. “Welcome!” He nodded at the box tucked under Asa’s arm. “Gift table’s on the right.”
“Thanks,” Asa said quickly, swinging me inside. The tables were decorated with lavender and creamy linens. It was a huge wedding, three hundred guests at least, and nearly half of them appeared to be flailing around on the dance floor, with the bride and groom in the center, their grins huge and their eyes bright.
“They’re coming,” Asa muttered, looking behind us. “I think they saw us. We have to find the back . . .” He looked toward the rear of the room as two people emerged from a door in the corner, just behind the table where the wedding cake was on display. They wore stark, serious looks out of sync with the guests’ smiling faces—and they had silver cuffs on their wrists.
“Headsmen. And they’ve got defenses against—”
“Those cuffs won’t save them from me.” Asa yanked my arm and pulled me onto the dance floor. We got a few odd looks from the suit-and-tie crowd, but I jumped into a line of women in cocktail dresses and did my best YMCA, craning my neck to see if the approaching Headsmen had spotted us. Asa dropped to his knees next to my feet, and at first I thought he was sick.
Then I realized he’d opened the case holding the Sensilo relic.
I grabbed his shoulder. “Not here! Asa, this is their wedding reception.” I had stopped dancing and was leaning over him.
“Is he okay?” asked a guy in a tan suit with a lavender tie. Probably one of the groomsmen.
“Just catching his breath.” I grinned at him, and he grinned back. “Quite the party.”
“Long time coming, though, right?” He waved his arm at the bride and groom, who had paused in their dancing to kiss while those around them cheered.
“I know—finally.” I was still wearing a smile, but my throat was tight. I so did not want to ruin this couple’s perfect day. I turned to check on Asa and locked eyes with someone else who looked just as out of place. One of the Headsmen, a woman with blond pixie-cut hair and pale skin, was already on the dance floor, bouncing to the music as she wound her way through the dancers toward us. My fingers closed tight over Asa’s shoulder, tugging him up.
Asa rose to his feet, the relic around his neck, his eyes shiny and bloodshot and wild. “Hang on to me, or else it’ll get you, too.”
“Let’s just run,” I said desperately. “We can’t hurt these—”
He stumbled back as someone yanked on his shirt. “Asa Ward,” said a sharp voice, “you’re coming with us—”
Asa jerked his foot backward, catching his captor in the knee, and staggered toward me as a few of the guests screamed. His hands rose to the golden locket around his neck and wrenched it open. His fist clenched around the relic inside.
The most amazing feeling suddenly swelled inside me as I stared at him, so exquisite that I thought my heart would shatter with it. My lips parted as my body and brain lit up. I grinned as Asa reached for me.
“I love you so much,” I said. It felt so good to say it out loud, like taking a breath of air after too long underwater. How had I been able to contain this adoration before now? How had I been able to hide it? And why had I wanted to? “I love you, Asa.”
“Yeah. Thanks,” he said drily as his hand closed around my arm, and it was like he’d pressed the “Mute” button on my heart. The world came back into focus, the lens widening to include more than just him. I glanced around to see people embracing, kissing, laughing as they held each other’s faces, gazing into each other’s eyes like they couldn’t get enough. The bride and groom were hugging each other so tightly that they were shaking. Tears were running down their faces, but they didn’t look sad. They looked ecstatic.
Every single person in the reception had someone—including the Headsmen, who were happily fondling each other—and this beautiful feeling filled the room to the ceiling. We were swimming in it. Drowning in it.
Asa looked pallid and sick, though, his jaw clenched as he steered me toward the back of the room. The knobby gold relic was clutched tightly in his other hand, which he held over his head in what looked like a gesture of defiance. But he wasn’t inflicting pain or sadness or rage or confusion on the wedding guests and the Headsmen who had come to take him away.
He was using love.
Asa half dragged me to the exit. He wrenched the door open—and his head snapped back as someone drove a fist into his chin.
I caught him but barely managed to slow his fall. A lean, clean-cut guy with brown skin and black hair charged through the door with eyes only for Asa. The relic fell to the floor, the chain clanking softly around Asa’s neck as he tried to regain his footing. As the Headsman drew a Taser, I scooped the lump of gold from the ground and lunged between him and Asa. I clutched the relic in my palm, wishing I had some idea how to use the stupid thing. My entire body was jangling with the aftereffects of the magic, and my only coherent thought was that I needed to protect Asa.
I thrust out my hand as the Headsman aimed the Taser at my chest. A powerful pulse vibrated up my wrist and arm, and the Headsman’s mouth dropped open. His arms went slack and he fell backward, landing on his butt right next to the wedding-cake table. He stared at me as if in awe.
“Damn, Mattie,” Asa said in a choked voice.
Reeling with confusion, near panic, I dropped to my knees next to Asa and shoved the relic back into the locket, then snapped it shut. With shaking hands, I pulled him to his feet and helped him to the door. We dove through it, and Asa twisted a dead bolt before pushing me up the steps. “What just happened?” I asked as I climbed.
“You turned it on him.” Asa’s breaths were coming heavy and jagged. “You made him sense what you were feeling. It was . . . overwhelming.”
I swallowed hard and gave him a sidelong glance. Had he sensed it, too? I didn’t have time to ponder it, because Asa stopped dead on the stairs, his whole body trembling.
“Asa, we have to keep going. Those Headsmen down there are probably snapping out of it. They’ll be right behind us.”
“And the lobby is full of Brindle’s people. They’re everywhere.” Asa looked like he was about to keel over. If he used the Sensilo relic again, I was afraid he wouldn’t be walking out of here.