Page 92 of Wicked Deeds

Chapter Twenty-One

“Don’t worry,everything is going to be fine.” I said to Gwen once we were on our way to the hospital. Jake had arrived in one of the security team’s Jeeps. Fine by me. They were as well armored as the cars and, because they didn’t have the dividers between the front and back seats, felt less formal. Even though Jake still insisted we both sit in the back. I’d retrieved the photo file from the game and forwarded it to Damon, Mitch and Cassandra. So far, no one had called me back.

“Saying something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.”

“Jack hasn’t managed to get anywhere near Damon or me since his first attempt. He won’t get to you. Damon’s team will be checking all the security links they can get their hands on. The city feeds, everything. If he shows his face in public, they’ll find him.”

“What if he’s not wearing his face?” Gwen pointed out. “If he’s a strong witch, he could alter his appearance, couldn’t he?”

Well, crap. Yes. Jack was more than capable of that kind of illusion. One of his minions had imitated Yoshi at the tournament. “We can’t rule it out. But you can’t change things like retina scans or palm scans.” At least I hoped you couldn’t.“So he’s not going to get very far anywhere with decent security. I know for a fact he’s flagged on every Riley system there is. And Cassandra’s house is warded against him, too.” Lizzie and Zee had enough of a taste of Jack’s magic when we’d fought him at my house to be able to add some specific wards against him.

Gwen chewed her thumbnail, staring at the back of Jake’s head. She squinted in a way I was coming to recognize, before she muttered. “Orange.”

She was right. Jake’s aura was a clear sunny orange.

I smiled. As nervous tics went, aura checking was kind of cute. But if she was nervous, it was time to be the calm older sister. “Right, we can both sit here and stew for the next fifteen minutes or you can tell me how you got out of the game.”

She stopped chewing. Straightened in her seat a little, looking glad of the distraction. “I kind of just…did?”

I snorted. “That’s not that helpful. Explain to me what you were thinking about?”

“Well, you said Callum could do it. So I wondered if it was like moving things in the realm, or moving it around you.”

“Like the Ways?”

“No, those are for long distances. Leaving the game isn’t going far. And it’s all in your head. A switch in your reality. From the game back to the real world.”

Clear as mud. “So you moved yourself?”

A shrug. “Not exactly. I tried to see the energy fields in the game but I couldn’t really get anything. But I could feel it around me. The way you can feel the magic in the realm—you can do that, can’t you?”

“Yeah.” It felt like an ocean of power, one waiting to send a tsunami to drown me. But for Gwen, being tanai, it would be different. Friendlier, perhaps. Or, at least, familiar.

“So, I felt it and I could feel where it was connected to me. So I pushed at the connection and it…broke, I guess? It’s hard to describe. But it worked. I was out of the game.”

“You’re sure you didn’t use the kill switch?”

She nodded. “I’m sure. Well, as sure as I can be without a witness. I did it a few times and one time I put my arms inside my T-shirt so I couldn’t hit the kill switch and it still worked.”

Right. Wearing a headset, she’d have been thinking of hitting the physical switch on the chair. Not giving a mental command like you could with a chip. “Well, that’s given me things to think about.” My attempts had always focused more on breaking the illusion the game was creating in my brain, rather than my specific connection to the tech. Callum had never said anything about that. But maybe he did it differently.

“Does it help?” she asked, looking hopeful. Kind of like a student waiting to hear she got a good grade from her teacher. “I’m not sure how else to explain it.”

I smiled. “It does. I’ll have to try it for myself.” I hadn’t been practicing often since we’d returned from the realm. Callum had been busy, so we’d only managed a few hours of gaming. I should pin him down. Or try Gwen’s approach.

Though I also wanted to see her with Callum, so he could test her magic from a Fae perspective. With what she’d managed to do with the game and the ease with which she’d picked up seeing the energy fields, I suspected Cassandra’s assessment of Gwen’s potential was correct.

I was still thinking about Gwen’s approach when we reached the hospital. I accompanied Gwen up to see Meredith, who checked out her arm, pronounced herself satisfied with the progress and replaced the surgical shield with a fresh one. When she was typing up notes, Gwen leaned over and whispered, “Very green.”

I laughed. It was true. Meredith’s energy field was a soothing verdant green.

She also had good hearing. She stopped typing. “You can see my energy field?” she asked Gwen.

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s useful. But pay attention to whoever is teaching you. Magic isn’t the same out here as in the realm.”

“I’m following orders,” Gwen said.

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