Page 10 of Road To Runes

"His family are, like,reallyimportant." Penny lowered her voice as she leaned over the table toward me. "Anytime he gets into trouble, the university just brushes it off because the Franklin family would come down so hard on them. You can't piss him off."

I glared at the group as they headed for the exit, my eyes narrowing as Troy met my gaze and flipped me the bird.

"Do you mean to tell me thatnobodyhas ever gotten to punch that guy in the face?" I asked. I wouldn't mind being the first.

"If they have, they were probably kidnapped and buried alive in the family plot," Penny said, adjusting Hecate in her arms. "Awww..."

Her disappointed moan drew my attention back to her. Penny stared at her shrivelled tarot cards, her eyes a little shinier than before.

"That was my only set," she mumbled.

"I'll get you a new one. A way better one," I said. "Penny, what the hell is that guy's power?"

"He can distort small pockets of time." Penny smiled weakly as Hecate dabbed at her face with a large paw. "And because he's a child he uses it to mess up everyone's stuff."

My lips parted as my mild shock turned into full on rage. "Are you trying to tell me hecouldhave turned us into dusty mummies just now?"

I had half thought that his pigtailed friend had exaggerated a little.

"Probably," Penny said, sucking her teeth. "But I'm pretty sure his family would have covered it up."

"And to think you were trying tosellme on this place. Who wants to go to university with a man child with too much..." But my rant trailed off as a more dominant consideration stormed its way to the forefront of my mind. Troy Franklin's power was todistort time.

I eyed the mouldy food and drink on the table. If Troy's power had hit us, we really could have died. This power was the real deal, and the wrong person had it in his possession. Fortunately for literally everyone who might encounter that douchebag, I could take his power from him nice and easy, and put it toward something constructive.

"Are you okay?" Penny asked.

I snapped out of my daydream. "Better than ever, I think."

My ideas snowballed into much bigger possibilities once Hecate and I left Penny so she could go to her next class. Instead of going home, I drove us into Cambridge town centre to get a new tarot deck for Penny, and as we walked among the crowds, I kept my focus on the new plan.

Time distortion could help me corner Romilda. Her power of foresight depended on time being consistent and predictable, and if I shrouded myself in a pocket of time that changed second on second, she would never get a lock on where I was. But I couldn't rely on Troy's power alone. I needed to actuallyknowwhere Romilda was at any given time.

Scrying to find her every time before now had failed, even when I thought it had worked. I needed to know exactly where she was and not one of her projections. If I wanted to find her, therealher, I would need the power to do so. A power that someone out there in the world must possess.

The question was: where did Igeta power like that?

Hecate pawed at my cheek when I nearly ran into someone hurrying in the opposite direction. "Are you even awake?"

"I'm thinking," I muttered, in case there were any humans within earshot. Walking around with a cat on one's shoulders didn't exactly scream sanity, but talking to one at the same time sealed the deal.

"Are you going to steal that rich boy's power?"

"As soon as I possibly can."

"We're going on a heist. Love it."

"Don't think of it as a heist," I said. "It'll be a normal job. In and out, like always."

"Besides whatever takes my fancy."

"But of course, milady."

Hecate made up the second part of my power-stealing team. Given that I needed people's powers so often to imbue into the grimoires I made for clients, her spiritual powers could sense who was on the premises at any time and their proximity to us. Without Hecate on board, I would have gotten caught ten times over and condemned to rot in a Nexus jail cell. For that reason alone, I had to keep her sweet, and to do that, I had to let her take home a souvenir of her choosing.

I noticed a few curious looks directed our way as we made our way through town, but most were too concerned with their own lives than to worry about a mad lady with her cat.

Before long, we arrived at our usual occult store whenever we were in Cambridge visiting Penny:Oliver's Oddities. Hecate jumped down off my shoulders as I walked inside, the bell above our heads signalling our arrival.

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