Kate Daniels 03 - Magic Strikes

friends. I don’t have many and . . . you should’ve seen Derek. I thought he was dying. I could actually picture myself burying his corpse. You’d have to kill him if he’d turned loup and . . . I didn’t want to see you hurt.” I turned away. “Julie will let you out of the cage in one hour.”
    He didn’t say anything as I left the room. He just sat in the cage, his eyes blazing with towering wrath.
    Outside Julie emerged from her hiding spot between the buildings and ran up to me.
    “The Beast Lord is locked in a loup cage upstairs. Here is the key.” I handed her the big steel key. “Put it into the keyhole, do a quarter turn, then release the top bar, so you can swing the top open. Curran knows how to open one; he’ll guide you through it. Wait one hour before you let him out. This is very important, Julie. Don’t go near him before then, because he’ll talk you into opening the cage. Okay?”
    She nodded.
    “Once you’re done, if he lets you get away, call this number.” I handed her a piece of paper. “That’s Aunt B’s phone. Explain that you are alone. Someone will come and pick you up.”
    “I want to come with you.”
    “I know. I’m sorry, but you can’t. It’s not a good place and I might not get out of there in one piece.” I hugged her. “One hour.”
    “One hour,” she agreed.
    I went to get a horse stabled in the lot. Too late I realized that Curran had found us before the three days were up. Oh well. I seriously doubted he would call in the bet. Not after our last encounter. And if he did and I somehow managed to survive this mess, serving a dinner to him naked would be the least of my problems.

CHAPTER 25

    I HAD TO WAIT IN THE LOBBY WHILE RENE PRETENDED to find my name on the roster of fighters. “Fools,” she said, flipping through the pages. “Is that a description of your team’s intelligence or your need to amuse?”
    “It’s our motto.”
    “Hmmm. . . .” She pretended to leaf through paperwork.
    “You like screwing with me, don’t you?”
    She offered me a mordant smile. “Just doing my job properly. Like you told me.”
    She’d keep me waiting for a while.
    I should’ve kissed Curran before I left. What did I have to lose anyway?
    It wasn’t even real. The thing between me and Curran. It wasn’t real. I deluded myself. I had this aching need to be loved and it was screwing with my head. Sometimes, when you crave certain feelings, you’ll trick yourself into thinking the other person is something other than what he appears. I’d played that game with Crest and gotten burned for my trouble. No, thank you. To Curran, I offered nothing more than a willing body and a sense of satisfaction in having won. That was reality, cold and ugly and inescapable.
    Rene’s hand went to her sword. I turned.
    The dark-haired swordsman I had met on the observation deck during my first visit to the Games with Saiman strode through the door. Same gray leather. Same dark cloak that put me in mind of a warrior-monk. Same supple grace. Two men accompanied him, wearing identical cloaks. The first was young and blond. A long scar sliced his neck. His dark eyes had the alertness of a trained killer. The second man was older and harder. I looked into his eyes. His stare made me want to take a step back.
    Nick.
    The knight-crusader. The Order prized accountability and public exposure, but some things were too ugly, too dark, even for the knights. When one of those shadowy problems reared its head, the Order threw a crusader at it. The crusader did the job and left town.
    The Red Stalker who killed my guardian had been such a problem. It had required Nick’s involvement. Now he looked at me like he’d never seen me before. I did my best to do the same.
    Whatever Nick was up to, he was obviously undercover.
    The swordsman saw me. “Have we met before, my lady?”
    His voice was low and gentle. He talked like a well-fed wolf in a good mood. I smiled at him. “If we’d met, you’d know I’m not a lady.”
    His eyes narrowed. “And yet you seem familiar somehow. I can’t shed the feeling I have seen you before. Perhaps we could speak someplace privately—”
    “You don’t have to speak to him,” Rene cut in. Her color had gone pale. She swallowed. Scared, I realized. She was scared and she wasn’t used to dealing with it.
    “Remember our arrangement. You’re welcome to observe and that’s it. We aren’t a training ground for you. If you want to contact