Page 58 of Fortress
“Stay here. I’m going to check it out.”
“Shucks, and here I was going to get us malts,” Jake said with heavy sarcasm. He’d been tenser, quieter this morning, but everything he said had a bite.
Tobias didn’t respond, just slipped out of the Eldorado and over to the barn door, walking silent as a vamp. He found a simple snare just inside the door, and a tripwire where a clutter of rotting boards and hay from the fallen ceiling made the footing more challenging. Neither significantly increased his appreciation of the witch’s skill or cunning. Tobias disabled both of the traps and quickly confirmed that the barn was empty, but judging by the dust-free path to a closet, it had been used recently. The stash of herbs, contraband amulets, and witchcraft ingredients he found in the closet confirmed that they’d found the right barn.
When he returned to the Eldorado, Jake was fiddling with a sheathed Bowie knife, leg bouncing. He snapped around and stilled at the sound of Tobias’s footsteps.
“It’s me,” Tobias said, and leaned his forearms where the driver’s window was rolled down. “I think you ought to wait here until I incapacitate him. I don’t like the layout—”
“Tough shit, Toby, we’ll make it work.” Jake threw open the shotgun door and got out, even if he had to stop there, one hand on the top of the car, to wait for Tobias.
Tobias gritted his teeth a moment before walking around the Eldorado, because this? Was a bad plan, a stupid plan, a decidedlynon-plan sort of plan, and Jake was too fucking stubborn sometimes. For a second, Tobias considered shoving Jake back into the car, leaving him there while he staked out the barn—but Jake wouldn’t stay.
And something in Tobias still shrank back at the idea of touching Jake like that, physically forcing him to do anything, especially when he wasn’t drunk. Blind and out of patience with his own helplessness did not count, as much as Tobias would have liked the excuse right now.
He led Jake to the barn door, conducting one last survey before entering. “It’s about twenty feet wide and twice as long. This front area is cleared, with just a few support poles spaced apart. Open stalls on either side, starting here—ten steps in. I’m walking you to the back of the barn, where there’s an exit door—here.” Tobias placed Jake’s hand on it, pushing to show the give. “I’m going to sit you two steps back, against this short wall.” Tobias guided him backward and lowered him to sit on a pile of hay. “You’ll hear whatever happens in the front, but if it goes wrong, you can leave and reach the Eldorado—it’s less than a dozen steps straight from the exit.”Then what?Tobias hated that question because there was no answer. If Tobias were incapacitated, Jake’s options were limited or scarily suicidal, and he really didn’t want to think about them. “Jake, are you sure—”
The roar of an engine from the road cut Tobias off, making him flinch. His grip tightened on Jake’s arm.
“I’m good,” Jake said. “Go get him.”
Tobias squeezed his arm, then hurried down the length of the barn to stand beside the front door. He drew his pistol and held very still, his breaths slow and measured.
A single set of footsteps approached. Then the bolt slid back, the door opened, and a skinny young man with spiky blond hair stepped inside.
Taking one step forward, Tobias slammed the pistol against the side of Justin’s head.
Justin toppled forward onto his knees with a sharp cry. While he clutched his head, Tobias kicked him the rest of the way to the floor, then stomped hard on Justin’s right wrist.
Justin screamed, and Tobias yanked his arms behind his back (distantly registering the crunch of bones in the broken wrist), efficiently lashing them together with the rope he’d taken from the Eldorado’s trunk. He used a second rope on Justin’s ankles. Then, using the back of Justin’s shirt and his bound arms, he hauled him upright against the nearest post.
Justin was sweating and panting, face contorted in pain. Tobias stepped around to face him, aiming the pistol steadily with both hands into Justin’s face.
“You’re Justin Malveaux, the witch of Minden. You’ve been hexing people. Do you deny it?”
Justin stared up at him, terrified. From what Tobias had learned, he knew that Justin was a few years older than him, but in this moment, he didn’t look it. He looked shocked and snivelly and about thirteen. Tobias didn’t care. He felt nothing but cold fury and contempt. He knew better than to trust the face of any freak. It took everything in him not topull the fucking trigger.
Apart from that savage urge and disgust, he felt focused and clearheaded. Despite everything he still did not know about the real world,thishe understood. He knew how to handle a freak.
Justin swallowed, his lips parting again, but not to speak. Tobias moved in and hit Justin across the mouth with the butt of his gun.
Justin’s head jerked back, and he swore through bloody teeth, kicking helplessly against the floor.
“I’m not going to ask you again,” Tobias said.
Justin spat blood on the barn floor, glaring hatred at Tobias, then said thickly, “Yeah. I hexed them.”
Tobias’s lips compressed into a thin line. Nothing more was necessary—except Jake needed his sight back. “You threw a hexbag in the high school two nights ago. The one with a blindness curse. You’re going to undo it now.”
Through the grimace of pain and anger, Justin’s face registered bewilderment. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Don’t lie,” Tobias said forcefully, shoving the gun closer to Justin’s face. “We saw you there in the school office. We almost caught you then.”
“That was you?” Justin said, incredulous. “I dunno what the fuck I threw. I hadn’t finished it yet.”
Tobias gritted his teeth, but he didn’t think Justin was lying. “You’re going to find a way to undo it. You’re not leaving here until you do.”
“You broke my fucking wrist!”
