“We have to hurry.”
I knew getting to the mage was of utmost importance, but did we have to run the whole way back? Kael didn’t slow his pace when I complained.
“Olivia, what do you think whoever is on that bus is going to find when they get to the bed and breakfast?”
My eyes widened as Kael pulled me faster. Oh . He had a point, but the fact we were high-tailing it from the scene of the crime wasn’t great, either. The shifter had been so careful not to step in any of the blood as his jaguar checked out the house, which meant it couldn’t even be blamed on an animal.
Had I been as careful?
Kael kept a hold of my hand the entire way back, despite my protests and glares. True, he was faster than me, but he didn’t have to practically drag me the entire way.
When the occasional car went past, we took to the fields and hid as best we could. Finally, the bus came back our way, going much faster than it had been on the way down. It was only a matter of time before the authorities got involved and our descriptions began to circulate.
We made our way down the streets of Kinloch Hourn while doing our best to look inconspicuous. I tugged up the hood on my light jacket, thankful the sky was beginning to drizzle so my action did not seem out of place.
“Which way to the mage?” Kael muttered as we leaned against a white-washed building.
I pointed to our left. “That way. What’s in that direction?”
He followed where I’d pointed and sighed. “Eventually, England. England is in that direction.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll have to try and make some calls. I’m not technically allowed to step foot in England.”
“You’re not allowed in England ? Why?”
Kael gave me a crooked grin. “I had an unfortunate disagreement with a wolf shifter pack in London, once.”
He had to be kidding.
“Are you telling me there are werewolves in London?”
He let out a short laugh. “Something like that.”
A siren wailing in the distance broke the light mood.
“Time to go find our mage,” he said.
We crept out of the town as the sirens grew louder at our back.
“So, what did you do to earn the dislike of the wolf shifters?”
“You help me find that mage, and I may be inclined to tell you.”
Shifter dirt. Was that my reward for getting the mage? Seemed I deserved a little more for my efforts. Maybe that’s all I got for unearthing the key in the first place.
Kael was trekking determinedly down the road. “The sooner we get to the mage, the better.”
I wasn’t so eager. As we made our way down the road, all I could think about was binding the mage, and if I would be able to be strong and horrible enough to make the sacrifices necessary to do the job.
Chapter 22
Kael scowled again at his shirt with the words “I Love Scotland” scrawled across the front in bold letters as he waited on the phone. I pushed up the sleeves of my own shirt I had acquired at a souvenir shop somewhere in the middle of the country. It had a picture of the Scottish flag with something written in Gaelic beneath it that probably said something like “I’m An Idiot” or “Tourists Suck.”
After fleeing the area of Kinloch Hourn, we traveled through Scotland under the guise of adventurous tourists. We stayed away from more populated areas and stuck to the narrow, winding side-roads, hitchhiking when we could. We slept in small bed and breakfasts, in the open country, and once with an elderly woman who said Kael reminded her of an estranged ex-husband of hers from thirty years back. That was an entertaining night; Kael had been more than happy to leave.
Despite the off-the-beaten-path route we took, we reached the border of Scotland and England in good time. I had enjoyed myself for the most part, regardless of the fact we were fleeing a murder scene. Kael had spent a great deal of time using a phone whenever he had the opportunity since both our cell phones had been lost in the campsite fire. He was working on getting the clearance he needed to get into England.
Judging by the red tint and pinched eyebrows on his face, the latest phone call didn’t seem to be going well.
I shifted in my seat at a corner booth in the small pub. It was early afternoon and not very busy. Most patrons probably arrived at the close of the workday to relax with friends before heading home. I sighed and turned my attention to the window. There was a man on the sidewalk attempting to walk his dog, and I smiled. For every inch the man pulled the dog forward, the dog put on his brakes and tugged back another three.
My smile faded. Lately, I’d felt like that leash.
It had been like I was being pulled apart the entire journey to the border. One part of me was being urged toward the mage. It was as if the key tightened the tether to the mage with every step we took, and my magic hummed eagerly with every mile.
The other part of me, the human part of me that wasn’t tainted with magic and a harsh past, balked at the idea of sacrificing innocents.
Where would I get them, anyway? The people in my vision, or memory, I supposed, had been willing participants. They had walked up freely to kneel down before my blade and add their blood to the cracked stones at my feet.
Between my stress and Kael’s frustration, things had been tense.
Kael finally hung up the phone and slid into the booth across from me. He was grumbling under his breath as he took a bite of the thick sandwich that had been waiting for him.
“Why can’t we just sneak into England?” I kept my voice down, despite the small number of patrons. I dropped my tone to a whisper. “We’re already laying low in case we’re suspected murderers. What’s the difference? ”
“I have to follow the law.” He set down his sandwich. “Shifters like me are held to a higher standard.”
I leaned back in my seat and propped my feet on the bench at Kael’s side of the booth. “Shifters like you?”
“Wolf shifters, and other types of shifters that usually live in groups, belong to a pack and are therefore pack-bound. They have no choice but to follow the laws of their packs. They are universally believed to be more trustworthy. Jaguar shifters are solitary, and there’s an unfortunate misconception that we do things only for our own means.”
I frowned. “That’s hardly fair.”
Kael shrugged a shoulder. “That’s just how it is. Shifters like myself have a difficult time getting into places like PITO. Even bear shifters, like Stella. And she isn’t even a field agent. She works at the front desk.”
An absurd image of a grizzly bear sitting behind a desk and typing at a computer popped into my head. Kael turned his attention back to his sandwich, and I pushed the secretary bear, Stella, out of my mind to study the shifter across from me.
Kael was an honorable man. There was no doubt about that. He didn’t want to follow the rules just because it was his job. He wanted to follow the rules to prove that he was as capable and trustworthy as the rest of them.
What would he do when he learned the cost of stopping the mage? Would he argue, try to stop me, or would he be the first to volunteer to fall?
The latter made me shudder.
“Cold?” Kael asked.
“A bit.” I pushed the sleeves back down my arms for emphasis.