Fate's Edge

is a Hand officer out there, pulling the strings, and they come with a commando unit, twelve operatives, maybe more. You stay here, you die.”
    “They aren’t getting into my house.” Gnome locked his teeth.
    Idiot. Audrey thrust herself in front of him. “Gnome! Are you crazy? Come with us! All this stuff isn’t worth your life.”
    He bared his teeth at her. “This stuff is my life. You two get the hell out of my house.”
    Something thumped on the roof and scrambled across it, fast, scratching the shingles. Oh God.
    “Go!” Gnome growled. “Out the back door.”
    Kaldar’s hand clamped around her wrist. “Come, Audrey.”
    She shook him off. “So you’re just going to die here? Why?”
    “Because I spent my life working my hide off for this house and everything with it,” Gnome said. “That’s fifty years of trading and bargaining right here. I know every single thing on these shelves, and the Hand ain’t getting it. None of you are getting my shit, not you, not them.”
    “You stupid old fool!”
    Gnome waved her off with an angry jerk of his hand.
    Kaldar grabbed Audrey’s hand and yanked her, pulling her with him through the house.
    “Let go of me.”
    “He made his choice. You stay, you die with him.”
    “I said let go. You don’t know where you’re going.”
    He released her hand and she ran, zigzagging between the shelves, Kaldar a step behind. They passed the pedestal with the book still on it. It was still open to Magdalene Moonflower’s portrait. If they survived this, she would be their next stop, and the Hand didn’t need to know that. Audrey lunged for the book, nearly colliding with Kaldar.
    “The page,” he barked, bumping into her.
    “I know!”
    Audrey grabbed the book and ripped a handful of pages free. Kaldar ran his fingers along the seam, pulling little clumps of paper out, until no evidence of the pages remained, and shoved the pedestal. The giant volume crashed to the floor, closing. Audrey dashed to the back of the house, through a side room, and to the small door. Kaldar grabbed the handle and strained.
    “Locked.”
    No dead bolt, only a keyhole. “Let me.” Audrey pressed her palm against the keyhole and let her magic seep into the lock. Three, two . . .
    The lock clicked. She pushed the handle and ran out into the open air. Ling sprinted into the forest, passing her.
    Kaldar drew even. “Keep moving,” the agent murmured. “Keep moving.”
    They scurried into the trees.
    “Which way is the cliff?” he whispered.
    What? Had he lost his mind? “Straight on.”
    “Lead the way.”
    She broke into a run.
    Behind them, something clanged with a heavy metal thud. Audrey glanced over her shoulder. The metal shutters on the house were snapping closed one by one, locking it down. Anxiety squeezed her chest. She remembered when Gnome first showed her his “defense system.” He was trapped within the house, like a sardine in a can.
    She looked back again. People in green and brown converged from the grass and trees, climbing onto the house, one from the left, the other two from the right. A man crawled over the roof, moving on all fours. He raised his head. His eyes bored straight into her.
    For a second she stopped in her tracks, frozen by the sudden fear. A strange, revolting feeling flooded Audrey, grasping her stomach and throat and crushing both. Nausea writhed through her. The tiny hairs on the backs of her arms rose.
    The man opened his mouth. A long black tongue flailed among a forest of long, needle-thin fangs.
    Magic washed over Audrey in a sickening miasma, clinging to her skin. Tiny jaws nibbled on her flesh, trying to worm their way inside. Audrey spun and dashed through the woods. Tree trunks flashed by. She ran like she had never run before in her life, all but flying over the forest floor, trying to get away from the awful magic. Her feet crushed undergrowth. The magic chased her. She could feel it flooding the woods behind her.
    A shotgun barked, its fire like thunder: Boom! Boom!
    A high-pitched shriek tore through the forest, spurring her on. Something had caught the full blast of Gnome’s fire.
    Boom!
    Glass shattered. Something thumped.
    Boom!
    A hoarse howl lashed her ears, and she knew it was Gnome screaming his life out.
    The trees ended, and she skidded to a stop on a carpet of brown pine needles. Ahead, the ground stopped, as if cut by a giant’s knife. A vast blue-green valley stretched far below.
    Kaldar shot out of the woods,