Page 76 of Marked by the Demigod

Katya hooks arms with her and starts marching her towards her little car. "Can you crash with your friend?"

Her mind swims, desperately trying to remember Trixie's schedule. "I think she's having her boyfriend stay over and --"

"Then you're staying on the cot in my office. Text him." Katya gets to her car, all but shoves Aimes into the seat, and pulling out of the parking lot with squealing tires.

Aimes shakily taps out the text, feeling like she hasn't eaten anything in months.

AIMES (7:01 PM): Your brothers found me, threatened me, then left. With Katya now.

"Don't say where you're going," Katya snaps, her hands white against the steering wheel. "He'll be able to tell anyways."

Aimes nods, leaning her head against the seat back. "Why threaten me if they could kill me and be done with it?" She asks, slow.

Katya's hands tighten further, then relax, consciously. "They'd much rather manipulate Iakov, I think. I haven't...I haven't seen the prophecy thing they're...or whatever he says, I don't know." Her voice quavers again, it's the not knowing that is hurting her the most. "I don't know, and Dave's dead and I've known him since I started working here, and if they're responsible for all this I just..." She shakes her head, as if swallowing away the uncertainty.

They drive in silence for a few minutes, turning onto the freeway to Sherman Oaks.

"I ...they've killed so many of my friends. Whoever is doing all this killing, and if it's them...if it's them we can't fight that." Katya says, speeding around the 210 traffic. "I wouldn't know how to fight them."

Aimes scrapes around her brain for something to say, but comes up empty, as if the panic she felt took all her thoughts and dumped them on the floor.

The message clicks over to read, but he doesn't write anything back.

* * *

The office is empty,cold, and the cot is just as hard as you would expect an office cot to be. "Why do you even have a cot in here?" She asks, her mouth feeling as if it is full of cotton.

"Sometimes people need a place to stay that can't be tracked. There are too many wards here." Katya rattles around her desk, strapping a knife to her hip and an extra pistol under her arm. "I'll go to your place, see if there's any tracking devices there, check your wards," she says, voice rough. "No one can teleport into here, so if Iakov tries tell him to use the goddamn front door." She sheds her suit jacket and straps another knife to her spine. "The next person who will walk through that door will be my secretary, and I've let her know you're here."

Aimes sits on the cot, wincing. "How long should I stay here?"

Katya hesitates. "The night should be enough."

She smooths the sheets with her hand, something sitting strange in her stomach. "What can I do?"

Katya hesitates, as if that is the strangest question she has been asked. "Stay here?"

"No, I want to do something, something to help. Something...something besides sitting around."

As if she is a teacher explaining something to a small child, Katya puts her jacket back on. "Your life is in danger, you need to remain safe," she says. "Anything else you could do, that's all secondary." And she whirls out of the room, clicking the office door lock behind her.

And it's immediately silent, and Aimes thumbs open her phone. Still no response from Iakov.

AIMES (7:38 PM): Emergency helping friend Katya through a breakup, crashing at her place. Can you feed cats at like 10 PM?

TRIXIE (7:38 PM): Sure.

Then --

TRIXIE (7:39 PM): We need to kill anyone?

And a laugh bubbles up in her throat, because Trixie doesn't know but that is too accurate.

AIMES (7:41 PM) Maybe.

* * *

The next morning,the door clicks open and Aimes immediately jerks awake. But it's just Katya's too-pretty receptionist, giving her a wide side eye look.

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