Crown of the Queen (The Wardbreaker Book 3) Read online

  “We only want to talk to him,” I said.

  The barman didn’t ask again. He aimed his shotgun into the ground and pulled the trigger. The sound of it was deafening, the smell was worse, the ringing in my ears was even worse. The barman raised his gun again, aimed it at me, and cocked it.

  “Fine,” I said, “Let’s get out of here.”

  One after the other, RJ, Danvers, and Axel followed me out of the bar. Karim was last to leave, though not before grabbing the handful of bills and coins he’d won playing Poker. The air was cold and crisp outside, but welcomed on my hot skin. I wanted to go back inside. We needed Vincent. Never mind the fact that my father was in there.

  My father.

  I hadn’t seen him in years. Not since I was… wow, sixteen. It was easy to forget sometimes exactly when Walter had walked out on me. It had happened so long ago, so many lifetimes ago—so much had happened since then. Someone rested a hand on my shoulder, causing me to jerk around. It was only Axel, but he pulled his hand away.

  “Are you alright?” he asked.

  “Fine,” I said, “Fine, sorry. I’m just… a lot to process.”

  “I bet. We should probably leave the area, though. More people could be on their way to deal with us.”

  “Deal with us?” Karim asked, “More like deal with you. I’ll have you know I was blending in perfectly well.”

  “They were probably just curious about you,” I said, “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  Axel nudged me, then nodded toward the door to the bar. Walter was there, clearly waiting for me to go and talk to him. I didn’t think I wanted to. Not really. What could we possibly have to say to each other?

  “Maybe go and find out?” Axel’s voice in my head. I’d forgotten he was still in there.

  I scowled at him.

  “Sorry,” he said, putting his hands up. “You were just thinking really loud.”

  Sighing. “Dammit,” I said, then I walked over to Walter who straightened himself out just as I arrived.

  “It’s good to see you again,” he said.

  “Is it?” I asked. “If it is, then it’s one-sided.”

  Walter nodded. “You’re angry. I understand.”

  “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. I was angry about, oh, ten years ago or so—when you walked out on me. Now I’m kind of… indifferent to you.”

  “Right…” a pause. “I don’t expect you to understand why I did what I did.”

  “No, I understand. You had other priorities, bigger priorities than me. I’d grown up, I was sixteen, ready to live on my own, right? I didn’t need a dad anymore, so you got to go back to doing what you wanted to do, unburdened. How about you tell me what the hell you’re doing here so I can leave and not have to look at you again for another ten years?”

  Walter’s lips pressed into a thin, hard line. “It’s funny. When I was told my daughter had set foot in Devil Falls, I almost couldn’t believe it.”

  “Who told you I was here?”

  “Years ago, I set spells up that would detect your magical signature. I knew the moment you crossed district lines that you were here.” He paused. “This isn’t the place for you, Isabella. It’s dangerous. What are you doing here?”

  “First of all, my business is my own. Second of all, don’t pretend like you give a crap about my wellbeing.”

  “We’re looking for someone,” Karim called out.

  I craned my neck around and glowered at him. “A little privacy would be nice?”

  “I’m sorry, but the last I heard we were in a rush to leave this place and I feel like you’re too emotionally compromised to get to the point. Tell him why we’re here, and let’s go before all those stunning spells wear off.”

  I rolled my eyes and turned around to look at Walter again. I almost couldn’t believe he was standing in front of me. “I’m looking for someone,” I said, “And the guy you stunned may have had the information we needed.”

  “Who?” Walter asked.

  “Why should I tell you?”

  “Because maybe I can help. You wouldn’t have come down here unless the person you wanted to find was here. Who is it you’re looking for?”

  I hated the idea of involving Walter in any of this, and I knew, as soon as I gave him the name, I’d be involving him. He would either know the location of the person we needed to find, or he would know how to find him. If he didn’t know either, he would insist on wanting to help, and I would have no logical, rational reason to decline it.

  The last thing I wanted was Walter anywhere near our mission, but Danvers’ guy was down—and even if he was conscious, I doubted if he would help. That ship had probably sailed, which meant we needed a new one. It was going to end up being a shit-show either way, but maybe with Walter’s help, we’d get to the guy quickly and be done with this place.

  “Hugo West,” I said.

  Walter ‘s eyes widened, he sucked in a short breath of air, and then he laughed. It wasn’t a belly-laugh, more like a chuckle, but it was enough to throw me off. “Why are you laughing?” I asked.

  “Hugo West?” he asked, “The Tempest?”

  “That’s right. Do you know him?”

  “No, not personally, but I know of him. Most of us do.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Well, when you have a talent as rare and as valuable as his, you tend to attract the notice of others. I’m sure you can understand that.”

  I narrowed my eyes, but decided to avoid the suggestion he was referring to my own unique talent. “Do you know where he is?”

  “I do, he’s alive, but I can tell you, you may as well turn around and go home. You’ll never get to him.”

  “Why?” Axel now, coming up beside me.

  Walter looked at Axel, his eyes narrow, then looked back at me. “The man you’re looking for got himself thrown into Harrowgate,” Walter said.

  A cold wash pushed through me. “You’re kidding.”

  Walter shook his head. “I have no reason to lie to you.”

  “I’m going to need proof that what you’re telling me is true.”

  “That’s reasonable.” Walter paused, maybe to think or to scheme, I wasn’t sure. “I can get you proof. Better yet, I can get you to him.”

  “Okay? How.”

  “That’s just the thing. If you’re anything like the girl I remember, there’s no piece of proof I can give you that you won’t be able to easily wave away. You were always stubborn.”

  “Don’t,” I hissed, jabbing a finger at him, “You don’t get to talk about me as if you know me.”

  Walter nodded. “Alright, just the facts then. You’ve come into Devil Falls to look for Hugo West. Your only point of contact was hostile, and now you need another plan, but you’re hard pressed for time, especially since none of you look like you belong except the pirate, over there. I can help you. I want to help you. You can either accept my help, or try things the hard way, but you can trust me when I say, you won’t find anyone else offering their help out here.”

  “I’ll take the hard way,” I said, turning on my heel, but Axel took hold of my hand and pulled me aside before I could walk away.

  I stared at his hand on my arm, then up at him. “What is that about?” I asked, frowning.

  He released me. “I’m sorry,” he said, “But he has a point. Do you have another plan for finding Hugo?”

  “I don’t, but I’d rather trust that we can all come up with one together than accept that man’s help.”

  “I understand the way you feel about him. Trust me, if it were Walter, I’d probably be doing the same thing. I also know you’d be trying to talk some sense into me, just like I’m doing right now. If we walk away, we close that door.”

  “Maybe I don’t want it open. And anyway, I don’t believe he’s doing this altruistically. Even if he did know where Hugo was, remember what we were told about this place. No one gives anything out for free. He has an angle. I can feel it in my bones.”
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  “Fine, say that he does. If he tries to go against us, there are five of us and one of him.”

  “I don’t know if you heard, but if he’s telling the truth, Hugo is totally lost to us.”

  “Probably not…” a soft, feminine voice that could only have been Danvers trying to whisper.

  I turned to look at her, eyes narrow. “Probably not?”

  “You heard me. Just because he’s in Harrowgate doesn’t mean he’s lost to us. We can get him out.”

  “Wait a second, I had to try really hard to get you to even agree to come here. Now you’re telling me you want to try and get a man out of Harrowgate Prison?”

  She shrugged. “Izzy, if anyone can break someone out of prison, it’s you.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. “You guys are gonna be the death of me.”

  “Not if you kill us first,” she added, smirking.

  I gave Walter my attention again. “Alright,” I said, sighing, “You say you can help us. I’m listening.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “Where are you taking us?” I asked Walter.

  “You’ll see.”

  I had hated the thought of jumping into a car with him, but he had told me he could take us all somewhere safe; somewhere we could stay while we were in the neighborhood. Carting back and forth between Devil Falls and Queens wasn’t a good idea, and it wasn’t like any of us could open portals to make the trips instantaneous.

  Becket could, but we didn’t want to attract too much unwanted attention.

  I’d found it difficult to refuse the idea of having a base of operations, anyway. It was starting to look like we were about to plan a jailbreak. Being able to work from somewhere close to the target was key if you wanted any success at pulling a job like that off. Not that I knew the first thing about jailbreaking someone, but in principle, it probably wasn’t going to be too different from what I was used to.

  Only this time we were talking about stealing a person from inside of a place designed to prevent exactly that from happening.

  Fun.

  Walter brought his car to a halt in a quiet, run-down neighborhood beside a low-rise building with way too many boarded up windows. Looking around, there was only a single shop open for business on the entire block—an all-hours convenience store with its main window shut and covered with a large metal sliding shutter.

  “This place looks charming,” I said, stepping out of the car. RJ parked directly behind ours. A moment later, he, Danvers, and Karim stepped out too.

  “It doesn’t look like much,” Walter said… and then he said nothing else. He pointed up at the low-rise he’d parked in front of. “But we’re here.”

  “It looks like a dump.”

  “It sure as shit isn’t the Ritz, but it’s safe.”

  He started walking over to the front door, and I followed. “Safe from who?”

  Walter craned his neck around as he reached the door. “Everyone,” he said, pressing his palm against the door. His hand began to glow, the air hummed, and the door opened for him. He stood aside and gestured inside. “After you,” he said.

  It looked dark and damp in there, and it smelled way worse. “In there?”

  “Are you always this fussy?”

  Axel walked up beside me. “I’ll go in first,” he said.

  Walter nodded, and Axel stepped through the boundary and crossed into the building. Nothing happened to him. No defensive spells activated, nobody jumped him. An automatic light turned on, bringing a little illumination to the darkness, but that was it. Axel turned around and looked at me, shrugging.

  I glanced at Walter, and followed Axel into the building.

  Walter took us to a loft on the third floor. As we moved through the building, I could hear faint sounds of life floating out from behind closed doors. Televisions kept at low volumes, someone muttering to themselves in a low volume, a dog scratching around behind a door probably to signal its owner to take it out.

  The loft itself was wide and vast, and strangely spartan. With no couch, no TV, and only basic facilities… did Walter really live here? Was this where he chose to spend his days? It looked more like a warehouse than a place someone actually lived in. The rest of the building also felt a little weird to me, just a little off, even though I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  “Nice apartment,” I said, “Not at all the kind of chateau I thought you’d hang your hat.”

  “Were you expecting Vegas?” he asked.

  Axel gave me a sidelong glance, the look in his eyes enough to make me bite my tongue. He didn’t have to say it. Not again. Now wasn’t the time for this conversation to be had. I watched Walter open the door to a dark closet, inside of which were a bunch of inflatable beds he started tossing into the main room. Blankets and sheets followed.

  “I’m sorry I can’t give you a five-star treatment,” Walter said, “But it’s something, at least.”

  “So, you have a loft filled with nothing but airbeds and blankets?” I asked, “Is this where you live?”

  “No. This is where I keep people who need somewhere to crash for a few nights.”

  “That’s convenient.”

  He frowned. “Convenient?”

  Axel angled his head to the side. “Izzy?” he asked.

  “I’m just saying,” I said, “We show up in Devil Falls, start a fight with a bunch of locals, and suddenly in swoops Walter with a spare safehouse where we can all stay while we’re in the neighborhood? I’ve never been big on coincidences.”

  “You’ve always had strong instincts,” Walter said.

  “Which is why I can’t stay here. None of us can.”

  “You wanna leave?” Danvers asked, “Where are we gonna go?”

  “I don’t know, but anywhere will be better than here.”

  A pause from Walter, then he waved me over to a window. “Come. Let me show you something.”

  Rolling my eyes, I walked over to where he was standing and looked through the blinds at the world beyond. Manhattan glittered in the distance, her lights painting the low-flying clouds above her in shades of orange and red. More immediately, though, the low-rise tangle of crumbling blocks that was Devil Falls rolled away in all directions, and there, at the heart of the district, a structure loomed.

  Beams of light shot into the clouds high above monolithic structure, while floodlights shone harshly against the building itself. There were guard towers, tall walls tipped with razor-wire, and a front gate so imposing it looked like a medieval portcullis. On the outside it looked like any other maximum-security prison, but what it looked like didn’t matter half as much as how I felt looking at it.

  My chest tightened, my breathing shortened, and for a moment I felt trapped; like I was stuck in a small, dark, dank room surrounded by nothing but bare walls covered in glyphs meant to suppress my magic. Darkness encroached around the edges of my vision, which was already zooming in and out of focus, but I couldn’t stop staring at the thing.

  It was RJ who pulled me away from the window. “Don’t look at it,” he said, “Focus on me. Look at me.”

  I stared at him, but it was as if I couldn’t properly see him. His face was swimming, hazy, his voice a little distant. But the nausea didn’t last, and eventually the world righted itself. “Holy shit,” I said, shaking my head. “What the hell was that?”

  “Why didn’t you tell her that would happen?” RJ snapped at Walter.

  “I needed her to see it for herself,” he said, “Now she knows.”

  “Know what?” I asked, “What happened?”

  “It’s the prison,” RJ said, “That’s one of its defense mechanisms; a psychic assault fine-tuned to keep Mages away from it. I call it the Drone.”

  “Mages? Why Mages?”

  “Because the people that run the place know their biggest threat to their power is the Magistrate.”

  Ifrit burst to life on my shoulder, his little face scrunched up. “Let’s please not
do that again,” he pleaded.

  “Are you alright?” I asked him.

  “I feel like you just shoved me into a glass bottle full of pebbles and rattled me around.”

  “You mean that thing affected you, too?”

  “Yes. I don’t know what it was, but we should steer clear of it.”

  “Talking to your Guardian?” Walter asked, his eyes narrow. “Trust me, mine doesn’t like that place either.”

  “None of our Guardians do,” Axel said, “But we must be a mile away from it. How is it affecting us from that kind of distance?”

  “You of all people should know distance is only an illusion. Imagine how intense the drone would become if we were any closer to it.”

  “You mean it gets worse?” Ifrit asked.

  “How much more intense does it get?” I asked.

  “It’ll cripple a Mage that gets too close; that’s if it doesn’t send you into a coma first.”

  “So, how do we stop it from affecting us?”

  “You need to get used to it over an extended period of time and from a safe enough distance—like here. Every night, exposing yourself to its power for a few seconds at a time, bit-by-bit you’d build up a resistance to its power.”

  “How much time?”

  Walter shrugged. “Weeks? Months? It depends on the Mage.”

  “We don’t have that kind of time.”

  “Well… there is a way to accelerate the process.”

  “I already don’t like the sound of this,” Axel said.

  “I can help you,” Walter said, “The drone doesn’t affect me anymore; I can show you how I did it.”

  I sighed. “I’m getting sick and tired of being stuck between rocks and hard places,” I said, turning to Axel. “Do you know any other way of beating this thing? You’re a Psionic. Maybe you can put a psychic shield up around us?”

  Axel shook his head. “I’m not strong enough to beat it. I can maybe protect us for a little while, but I know my protection won’t last.”

  His Guardian had probably told him that. Knowing what Ifrit had told me about how well he understood my capabilities made the decision not to argue with Axel an easy one. But we needed Hugo, the only way to get to him was by busting him out of prison, and the only way to get to the prison was by beating this damn drone.