Page 72 of Marked by the Demigod

Sitting perfectly still, Aimes waits until she hears the elevator doors hiss open and then shush closed, before she steps to the door.

It moves, now, and she takes a quick snapshot of the business card with her cell phone before slamming her door closed on it. Like hell she was picking that up. Like hell she was taking that with her...for all she knew there could be a tracker, or some other fucking weird sort of magic on it.

He had frozen the door in her hand. She's not gonna trust a piece of fucking paper.

The snapshot reads the card as: Pieter and Vanya, then a long series of numbers, too long to be an American phone number. No job, no employment, just the number and those two names.

And of course her phone now has full signal, but paranoia crawls up her back like a bug.

And if they have the ability to stop all signal from going out, there's nothing to say they won't just track where the signal is coming from.

Iakov has shown nothing of that power.

In fact, as she mulls over sitting on the bed, her heart still pounding, the only power he's shown is to just teleport places and get them into weird restaurants. None of this bending time and space to do his will, though the packet Katya gave her way back when certainly said he could.

She turns her phone over and over in her hands. If she could make sure it wasn't tracked, she'd call him, but...

It isn't exactly news she thinks he would like.

The idea crawls up the back of her neck and she flops onto the bed, eyes burning. "He had to know who I am," she speaks, aloud to the room, as if testing it. It'd be stupid to think otherwise, and while she might not make many smart decisions, she actively attempts to stay away from overtly inane ones.

Instead, she thumbs over to Trixie's name.

AIMES (3:00 PM): What time is Strippers?

Just to see, just to text something normal, something regular, something that whatever the hell the twin did would see and disregard. If he can even track that.

Maybe he just made the room into a faraday cage. Or just sealed it, as if no air can get through, as though if he had left her in there for so long she would suffocate.

Next to her head her phone buzzes again.

KATYA GOVERNMENT (3:03 PM) Everything okay? My sources are buzzing.

And shit. She can avoid texting out but that doesn't help if someone just decides to contact her. If the twin knows who Katya is. If he cares.

She flips over on her stomach, mind scrambling, cause she would definitely want to signal out but has no fucking clue how to.

AIMES (3:05 PM): Just Peachy! How's the librarian search going?

She prays, closing her eyes and everything, that in this world of gods and Demigods and monsters and ghosts, that someone is listening and can convey to Katya what exactly she means.

KATYA GOVERNMENT (3:06 PM): huh?

So much for that.

She worries her bottom lip as she considers what to write next.

AIMES (3:07 PM): Just met a guy named Pieter. Or Vanya. It was unclear and spooky.

That gets her attention.

KATYA GOVERNMENT (3:07 PM): And you didn’t call me why?

AIMES (3:08 PM): He blocked out all signal.

KATYA GOVERNMENT (3:08 PM): You can talk normally, he can’t track your text messages. Did he hurt you?

She forces out an exhale, too easy for her to be relaxing so quickly.

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