Page 9 of The Tree of Spirits
I pivoted around at the sound of Conner’s voice. He was wearing the same dragon scale invisibility suit as yesterday, when he’d visited me in my cottage in the Apprentice Village. But he wasn’t invisible right now.
He looked me right in the eye and, smirking, declared, “I should have known you couldn’t bear to stay away from me.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“Ok, Red,” he said, using his favorite nickname for me. “How did you find me?”
“I didn’t. Wolf led me here.” I petted the top of her head.
“Wolf?” Conner’s sapphire eyes met the dog’s light blue ones. “What an original name for a husky.”
“I didn’t name her. She’s not my dog. She’s Marlow’s.”
“Marlow?”
“He’s trapped in there.” I pointed at the guarded compound. “We’re here to rescue him.”
“Of course you are.” Conner shook his head slowly, smiling to himself. “You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?”
I bristled. “Hey, it’s not like I go looking for trouble!”
I didn’t tell him that I’d seen the Rebels in the city—and that I would have gone after them too if they hadn’t spontaneously disappeared.
“Of course you go looking for trouble. That’s what heroes do.” He sighed like it hurt. “So what’s the plan? Let me guess. You want to singlehandedly break this Marlow fellow out of that heavily-guarded fortress?”
“Well, when you put it like that, it does sound reckless.”
“Because itisreckless. You certainly like to play with fire.” Conner’s gaze dipped to Wolf. “And with wolves.” He snapped his attention back to me, eyes twinkling. “Very well, Red. I will help you.”
I arched my brows at him. “Or perhaps I can help you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re obviously here for a reason,” I said. “My guess is you’ve been watching these men, looking for a way to infiltrate their stronghold.”
His mouth twitched. “Clever.”
I shrugged. “I have been called worse things.”
He cracked a smile. “So have I, Red. So have I.”
“You’ve been watching these people. So who are they anyway? And what are they doing with those Cursed Ones?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.”
“And?”
His smile faded. “And it’s an ongoing investigation.” He pushed his hair behind his ears. It was such an absentminded,humangesture, especially for a Knight.
“Wait, you think this has something to do with the Cursed Ones we stopped in Bayshore, don’t you? And the Cursed Ones who attacked the Garden?” I frowned at the big, ugly compound. “But who are those people? And what do they want?”
“Well…”
“Come on, Conner. You promised you’d tell me, remember?”
“I did,” he sighed. “Ok, here it is. After the incident at the Garden, I knew something was really off. The Watchers collected evidence from the scene of the crime. I needed to see it. So I broke into the Black Obelisk?—”
“Wait,that’swhat you were doing there the other day when you saved me from the Watcher stampede?” I interrupted.
