Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,103

ranch; I know their tricks. Had fun figuring them out too.”

“They seem very cavalier about the fact that we’ve come from outside of Avalon, although they’ve been trapped here for twelve years.”

“Well, it’s only been a year for them, right? And I would imagine their priestess has been telling them about our arrival for all that time, so they’re not too shocked.” Ken scanned the crowd. It occurred to him that West could be having the same difficulty, though that seemed doubtful. “I didn’t get much information from the girls. You see West anywhere?”

Loki shook their head. “I lost sight of him when the dance started.”

Ken felt ill at ease. He hadn’t seen West among the dancers either. A shape-shifting, naked boy wandering the streets was the sort of unwanted attention Zoe disliked.

“He could have gone back to the inn. Let’s go back and take a loo—”

Squeak.

Ken glanced down. Red beady eyes stared back at him. The rat sat on its hind legs and had both paws around Ken’s pants leg, tugging.

“West?”

The rat squeaked again. And then it took off, tail and whiskers quivering violently, into the thick of the crowd.

“West, wait!”

Chasing a small rat was difficult when half the people in the plaza were dancing and the other half were watching the dancers. Ken wormed his way through the crowd through force of will, with Loki close behind. He spotted the boy’s tail just as it vanished around a corner, into a narrow alley.

West had finished shape-shifting by the time Ken and Loki caught up. The smaller boy’s bony arms were clasped around his fur cloak, and he was a mild shade of blue.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ken demanded. “If anyone saw you change, we are going to be in so much trouble, because I’m not sure the priestess told her people about you being a Roughskin. Either way, Zoe is going to have a cow.”

“It wasn’t a girl,” West said, teeth still chattering.

“What?”

“It wasn’t a girl. I mean, it was a girl. Real pretty. Hair like midnight, eyes this really nice shade. She had pretty hands and she was coque…croquet…real come-hither, and had on one of those nice dresses, not the full length ones. Real short, clings to her like it was—”

“West, cut to the chase.”

“What chase?” Loki asked, still confused.

“Figure of speech, Loki. Well?”

“The pretty girl with the dress said she had something for me. So I followed her, and once we were alone, she…”

West paused and shivered again. “She wasn’t a girl, Ken. Her eyes were like great big bacons—”

“Beacons,” Loki corrected.

“Beacons, shining like a cat’s. Except she’s not a cat. And then these men stepped out, and they had the same eyes, and she says ‘We have been waiting for you, Weston-Clifford Eddings.’ They tried to grab me, so I shifted, and then I came here and saw you, and you said ‘West, what do you think you’re—’”

“Bugger that all,” Ken whispered, his blood running cold.

“Deathless, here in the village?” Loki sounded bleak.

“Aunt Elspen told me,” West groaned. “She said to avoid pretty girls in dark corners, didn’t she? I should have known.”

“Stay with me, West,” Ken told him. “This changes things. We need to find Zoe and the others right now.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath, Sir Inoue.”

A woman’s shadow framed the alleyway, her features obscured by the lack of light. Even in the darkness her eyes were like black holes, the pupils bright twin stars too large to be normal. Half a dozen hulking men appeared behind her, blocking their way out.

“Give us the firebird,” the girl spoke in a soft, sonorous voice, “and you may leave with your life. Is my mistress not compassionate?”

“She’s so kind she makes my hair bleed,” Ken said. “And I’m guessing the alternative would be much, much worse? I know how this works. I’ve seen those James Bond movies.”

“How did they even know we were here?” Loki demanded.

“We are everywhere,” the girl said. “You are not as safe as your Duke of Wonderland wishes you to believe.”

“We don’t want to hurt you,” Ken said. There was a slight grating noise as he drew the Yawarakai-Te, and then the Juuchi Yosamu for good measure, out from the scabbards on his back. He knew without looking that Loki had already taken out their staff.

“You will have little time to feel regret, Kensington.” She stepped closer, revealing delicate features with dark flawless skin and bloodred lips. Ken realized, much to his horror, that he recognized her face. The girl