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The two women ran to each other and embraced.
Lund turned his eyes back to the fire, thinking that the thing they had been waiting for had finally arrived. He was surprised to find he was disappointed about that.
“I thought you were dead,” Cassie said. She was seated across the fire from Lund, and the flames were painting pictures on her face. Izzy had introduced them as Cassie had sat down.
“Thank you for looking after her,” Cassie had said to him, as she’d shaken his hand.
He’d shrugged, said nothing, and then she’d simply nodded and sat across the fire from him. The two women talked for a few minutes, both of them seemingly forgetting that he was there. It wasn’t an unusual experience for him; despite his size, Lund made little impact in social situations. He disappeared into the background. He was an outsider, always living slightly off to the side of everyone else.
“I know,” Izzy said. “That’s why I left you the message. I couldn’t stand the idea that you thought I was gone.”
She reached across and held the other woman’s arm for a moment.
“What happened?” Cassie asked. “How did I see you die?”
Izzy shrugged and then looked across the fire to Lund. They had spoken about it often, particularly over those first few days. Or Izzy had spoken about it, and Lund had listened, offering a word or two now and then.
“I don’t know, if I’m honest,” Izzy said. “The best we came up with is it was the Book of Illusion.”
Cassie frowned. “The Book of Illusion?”
“It creates illusions,” Izzy said. “Makes people see things different from how they are.” Izzy turned to Lund, as if asking for help.
“Izzy had the Book of Illusion in her pocket,” he said.
“Where did you get it?” Cassie asked.
“From me,” Lund said. “From a friend of mine. I was trying to use it in the hotel before the auction. It ended up with Izzy. When things started going to hell, all the bullets flying and everything else, Izzy was terrified. We think, maybe, some part of her was able to use the Book of Illusion to protect herself after I was shot. Like it made her appear dead so nobody else would do anything to her.”
Lund’s shoulder still ached, particularly when it was cold. But the bullet that had caught him in the ballroom appeared to have gone right through, just below his collarbone. It had bled for a few days, and had hurt like a bitch for a few weeks, but after a couple of months he had been able to get through the day without painkillers. That arm felt weaker now, in certain movements, but it hadn’t affected his life.
“So, what, it conjured an injury and a dead body?” Cassie asked.
“I thought I was going to get shot,” Izzy said, gazing into the fire. “After I saw Lund, I just imagined getting a bullet through the brain.”
“That’s what I saw,” Cassie said.
“It protected her,” Lund said. “After you disappeared through the door, the woman turned her attention to the man you were with.”
“Drummond,” Cassie said.
“He disappeared, like smoke or something,” Lund said. “I was watching. I was just lying there playing dead, hoping she didn’t notice me among all the other bodies. After that man—Drummond—disappeared, she didn’t even look at me. Or Izzy. Or anyone else. She just walked away.”
“She didn’t know you had the Book of Illusion,” Cassie said to Izzy. “If she had known, she would have taken it off you. Probably killed you.”
Izzy nodded. She smiled guiltily. “You should have seen his face when I sat up a minute later.”
Lund looked into the fire, letting her enjoy the moment.
“It was like he’d seen a ghost,” Izzy said.
Lund smiled to himself. He’d just been happy that she was alive.
“He babbled nonsense for a bit, until I got through to him that I wasn’t a ghost. That I was alive.”
Izzy spoke about how they had gotten out of the hotel after that. How they had returned to the apartment she had shared with Cassie, because she hadn’t known where else to go. They had dressed his wound as best they could, and then Izzy had gathered some things and they had left, heading to the bus station for the first bus to anywhere else.
“Didn’t know where we were going,” she said. “We just didn’t want to stay where we were. I was scared she would come for us.”
