AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’ve got a refined palette. Maybe you can go to culinary school when you get tired of being shot at for aliving.”
“Sometimes,Ido theshooting.”
“That’ll come in handy if you specialize in desserts and wield a frostinggun.”
“I’m sure that’s very similar to Fezzik,yes.”
“Fez-what?”
“Fezzik. FromThePrincess Bride. That’s the name of my gun. Nin said my weapons would have more power if I named them. My sword is Chopper, fromStand By Me. The dog that sics balls.” I reminded myself that Mom hadn’t met Nin—and probably hadn’t seen more than ten movies in her life. “I don’t know what the sword’s real name is. The zombie lord I killed to get it neglected to give me itspedigree.”
Mom shook her head. “When you joined the army, I thought you were going to be a pilot. I didn’t think I’d get a hitman for adaughter.”
“I’m a hitwoman, thankyou.”
The first of the parking lots came into view. Thank God. I’d forgotten that keeping Mom safe from my dangerous life wasn’t theonlyreason I didn’t visitoften.
“Go ahead and park in thatone.”
As I turned off the road, Rocket barked, startlingme.
“He wants the window rolled down,” Mom informedme.
“Sindari figured out how to do that on his own.” I fiddled with the controls—better to have the dog barking out the window than in myear.
“Which of your weapons is that?” Mom eyed Chopper and Fezzik in the seat well behindme.
“I’ll introduce you to him later. He’s a new acquisition.” And he would be offended if I called him that. “A newally,” Icorrected.
A new friend, I added to myself, thinking of the therapist’s suggestion that I should make more friends. Did magical tigerscount?
We parked, and I strapped on my weapons, having an inkling that I might need them. Mom slung a pack on her shoulders and fastened a special dog one on Rocket, who sat patiently instead of tearing off after the ducks loitering near the boat launch. She pointed toward a trail that headed through some reeds and tall grasses along thelake.
“Do you have water?” She touched her backpack, which appeared to haveeverything, including emergency flares and a hatchet strapped to theoutside.
I took the bottle of carbonated lemon water I’d been drinking in the car and stuffed it in my vestpocket.
“You said it was a short walk,” I pointed out to her disapprovinglook.
“You shouldn’t go into the woods withoutsupplies.”
“Can we do this without lectures, please? I’m having a roughweek.”
She pressed her lips together, grabbed Rocket’s leash, and headed down the trail. I followed the brisk pace she set and tried not to think about how much time I might be wasting. If this acquaintance of hers couldn’t shed any light on that sigil, this whole trip would have been for nothing. Already, I wished I’d hunted down a forensics person to try scraping residue out of the vial to identify. But I still had that niggling feeling that whatever had been in there wasn’t listed inWikipedia.
A familiar tingle went up my spine, a warning that someone—or something—magical was nearby. I paused to look out over the lake, its tree-filled slopes rising up on all sides. The sky was blue and clear, which made it easy to pick out the huge black dragon soaring over the ridge on the oppositeside.
“Shit,” I breathed, almost calling Sindari forhelp.
But I caught myself. Since there was a limit to how many hours he could stay in our world each day, I had to save him for when I neededhim.
“Mom?” I trotted to catch up and started to point out the dragon to her, but he’d dipped behind the ridge and out of sight. “Where does this trailgo?”
“Around the lake. We’ll take a detour on the other side.” She pointed toward the forest the dragon had been flyingover.
Wonderful.
* * *
