Page 45 of Stubborn as a Shadow

I squeezed my eyes closed as tightly as I could and wished I could close my ears too, as the two supes crashed through the shrubs beside me. Any minute now they would shout, “Gotcha”, or whatever it was that people shouted when they found someone in hide and seek.

But they didn’t.

After several long minutes, which honestly felt closer to an hour, they exited the trees and circled back to my rental car. Ipried my eyes open, surprised to find Nelson had dropped his shadow enough so I could see. I thought about looking around the tree to watch my pursuers, but what if they saw me move?

“Where the fuck could he have gone?” the mage muttered.

“I don’t know, Godwin,” the wolf said, sounding irritated. “The hunters won’t be happy.”

And didn’t that just sound awful and ominous? I didn’t like these two. Not at all.

“He might have returned to the hotel to warm up or take a piss or something.”

“Maybe.” The wolf sounded skeptical. “Put the tracker on the car, and we’ll get him when he finally leaves.”

“Already done. He’ll never find it.”

I frowned as they trudged across the parking lot toward the hotel.

Mechanical things and I weren’t friends, so the guy was right. I would never find a tracker on my rental because I wouldn’t even know the difference between something that belonged and something that didn’t. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to worry about that. Nelson’s friend was coming.

“We need to get out of here,” Nelson’s bodiless voice said from the shadows still wrapped around me.

“Did the eagle land?”

There was a noticeable silence.

“You know,” I said, “did you do what you needed to do?”

“Are you asking about the tracker? Yes. It’s done. But I couldn’t find Tammy, so I had to put it on one of her associates. Can we go now?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s do that. Is your friend here yet?”

“Hold on a minute,” Nelson whispered.

Then the air shimmered, and Nelson appeared in his human form in front of me. It was beautiful and magical and defied everything I thought I understood about magic. I mean heliterally didn’t have a body a second ago. And now, he was there, as if born out of a whirl of mist and smoke.

He was miraculous, and I wondered if he understood just how amazing he was. Few people could see themselves accurately, and I suspected Nelson might be one of them. But he really was spectacular. He was smart and magical and wonderfully sneaky—which was an excellent trait for a sidekick to have.

Which reminded me, he had been doing a very important job. I opened my mouth to ask him how it’d gone.

He held up his finger to silence me. “Hold on.”

Well. That was rude.

He pulled out his phone. Oh, he was making a call. Okay. I’d forgive him.

As soon as the person answered, he said, “What’s the holdup?”

Even though he was standing right beside me, I couldn’t hear the response. The wind was too loud as it whipped through the trees.

“Fuck.” He rubbed his forehead. “Okay. Plan B. We’ll meet you back at Willow Lake.”

He ended the call and stuffed his phone into his pocket.

“What’s happened?”

“Someone slashed the tires on the limo.”