Arik looked sharply at me. His gaze dropped to my chest, and with two quick strides, he was right in front of me. “How did you get the scar on your chest?”
I glanced down. My shirt had shifted south during the mad dash over the balcony. I yanked it up to hide the mark. The crescent-shaped scar was my barometer—I’d never let my shirts go below its highest point.
“Well? How did it happen?”
I covered the spot and took a step away from him. “It happened when I was a baby. My mother didn’t say…she wouldn’t tell Pop…she felt really bad about it. I couldn’t ask her. She died when I was four.” I realized how terrible that sounded and added, “Obviously, it was an accident. She was a good mother.”
“Uh-huh.” Arik raised an eyebrow at me then turned to Lei and Demos. “Do any of you know what a crescent brand does?”
“I think it’s the shield charm,” Lei said. “I’ve seen it in old charm chronicles, but no one knows how to create one. If that’s what it is, are you aware of what it means?”
“She’s a witch,” Demos said around a wide grin.
I blinked. “I’m not a witch.” I was sure of it.
“You have to be kidding,” Nick said. “There’s no way she’s a witch. Wait, what am I saying? They don’t even exist.”
Lei came over and placed her hand on my arm. “Demos thinks that because only a witch can create a shielding brand. But he’s mistaken, because witches can’t travel the gateway books, and apparently you can.”
“Bane Witches can travel,” Demos countered.
Lei gave him an incredulous look. “Bane Witches are evil. It distorts their faces. Does she look that way to you?”
“You all are crazy,” Afton snapped, spinning around, her eyes searching for an escape. “We have to get out of here.”
Demos caught her arm. “Hold on there. Nobody’s going anywhere.”
“Get your hands off me.” Afton yanked away from his grip. “You had blood all over them. And you can’t keep us here. We’re leaving. Gia? Nick?” She stormed off.
Arik’s gaze dared us to make a move, his hand on the hilt of his sword, his broad shoulders and large biceps menacing under his fitted vest.
Nick and I just stood there, both of us too scared to follow her.
Demos chased her, saying over his shoulder, “I think now would be a good time to erase their memories.”
“You know we cannot wipe them now,” Arik said. “It would immobilize them for hours, and we must get them to safety.”
Demos dragged Afton back to the group, chairs toppling over in the struggle. Nick wrenched her from Demos’s grasp and wrapped his arms around her to keep her from running again. “What were you thinking?” he hissed near her ear. “They could kill us…you.”
Lei crossed her arms, giving us a disapproving glare. “Maybe we could calm them. Besides, if she’s a wizard, erasing her memory won’t work.”
“She can’t be a wizard. She’s female,” Demos said, his breath heavy. “That is, unless she’s hiding something.” He glanced at my nether regions.
First he calls me a witch. Then he thinks I’m a guy? I glared at him. “I’m a girl.”
“Don’t be such a chauvinist, Demos.” Lei shook her head at him. “There have been female wizards. Well, not many, but there have been some. She could be suppressed. She isn’t fey. I don’t see a glamour rim around her. And she’s definitely not a creature of any sort. She could be a Sentinel. Arik?”
His gaze traveled over me. I wrapped my arms around my chest, uncomfortable at the way he scrutinized me.
Nick scratched the back of his neck. “What’s a Sentinel?”
Lei said, “We’re like security guards for the libraries. There are many beings traveling through the gateways, searching…well, anyway, some can be dangerous, just like this hound here.” Her foot landed on the beast’s hindquarters. “We take care of them—”
“If she’s a Sentinel, then she’ll have special skills,” Demos said. “Can you conjure magic or fight, Gia?”
The right corner of my mouth started twitching. It’s a tic I get when I’m nervous or lying, or nervous because I’m lying, whichever. I had experienced magic before, but I wasn’t going to tell them about it. Not that I could anyway. I froze each time I wanted to tell someone my secret. And what I’d done was nothing in comparison to all I’d heard and seen today.
Besides, I didn’t even know who these people were. But I did know I wanted to