Page 58 of Road To Runes

“That’s the most childish thing I’ve ever heard.” They sighed on the other end of the line. “The Australians don’t take powers off anyone, whether they’ve done something horrendous or not. Most countries don’t, last time I checked. So what bad behaviour doyouqualify as “deserving it”?”

I barely had the emotional bandwidth to figure out my own life, let alone think aboutthatphilosophical question. But in fairness to everyone, I did have to answer it. Where did I draw the line? At what point did my vigilante behaviour become justified?

“If it makes a difference, which I’msureit will,” they said, judgement dripping from every syllable. “Your target spent a lot of time tracking people down for New York’s demonic mafia. Which is why he’s hiding out. In fact, you might even be doing him a favour by taking his power. That way, they can’t make him work for them again.”

So the guy had tracked down and handed people over to one of the biggest supernatural mafia outfits in the world? Not all of them would have been bad guys. In fact, my money was on a bunch of his victims not deserving what had happened to them.

“That’s good enough for me,” I said. “Does this guy have a name?”

“Brandon McKinley. At least, that’s the name he uses now.”

“And his old name?” I needed to do my research on this guy before I went anywhere near him, and his new name would have nothing of his history attached to it.

“Gerald Markel. You won’t get complacent once you’ve done a little research on him.” Their tone almost sounded smug.

Even in my vulnerable state, I wouldn’t let them intimidate me. I had dealt with people like this before. Well, notexactlythat well connected, but…almost? Either way, this guy wouldn’t see me coming even with his power.

“Great, uh…thanks?” I said. I didn’t exactly know how these technically black market conversations ended. “Are you going to tell me what power you need and where I can get it?”

“Told you, little dove. I’ll be in touch when I need it.” With that, they hung up and I was left with a follow-up question in my mouth.

“Goodbye to you too,” I muttered, putting my phone down.

Hecate stood up on her back legs, pawing at my shoulder with her front two and stared at me with those endless voids of galaxies she called eyes.

“Power two of two,” I said, showing her the address.

Just like that, I had the next step of my plan in hand.

I finished the latest commission in just a few hours after my phone call with the mysterious contact. It had lit a fire under me to hold commissions off for a while so I could concentrate on taking the power of Brandon McKinley.

I set about pausing my commission application page on the shady website I had bought an advertising segment of and focused on finishing the almost complete grimoire. The other commission, which was still missing a power, would become my next priority.

Up to my eyeballs in my new plan, I forgot about dinner until Laura came up with a plate for me and a bowl of chicken for Hecate.

“Priya said you might want some privacy this evening,” she said, putting the plate down on my bedside table. “Everything okay?”

Huddled up on my bed, laptop on my thighs, I had all but disappeared in the giant hoodie I had crawled into. “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

Laura was the last person I would admit anything was wrong to at that moment. I couldn’t let her feel guilty for the issues Asher had caused during his visit. Those were on him, and she deserved to have who she wanted around for her birthday.

“Sure? Whoa!” Laura almost dropped the bowl of chicken as Hecate launched herself at her, eyes as wide as saucers. “All right Hec, jeez.”

She put the bowl on the floor and Hecate nearly fell over scrambling to get to it. In all the excitement, I had forgotten to get her any food. To her credit, she hadn’t bugged me about it once, perhaps noticing how engrossed I was in the new plan.

“You’d tell me if something was up, right?” Laura placed her hands on her hips and ducked her head to glare at me under the rim of my hood.

“I’m just working.” I shrugged, hoping I looked casual enough to send her on her way. “Thanks for dinner.”

Apparently satisfied, but with suspicion still lacing her expression, Laura waved her goodbyes and left.

A huffed a large breath out through my nose. Another upside to leaving; no longer needing to cover for myself when anyone came snooping.

“It’s your own fault you can’t come. That private investigator is just waiting for me to slip up.” I stuffed the wrapped grimoire into my rucksack while perched on the edge of my bed. “He can’t see us together.”

That wannabe cop had made it clear he was following me, and I couldn’t take a chance on anything until I knew he had stopped.

Dropping off a package to a lock box might look suspicious if Shawn decided to tail me that night, but unless he knew what was inside, he couldn’t do anything about it.

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