Page 109 of Demon Apathy: Sunderverse
Sage and I glanced around the room. “Where’s Mr. Bamford?” we asked in unison.
“He won’t be here, at least not personally.” Solar reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “He’ll connect us.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Sage shook both hands at Solar. “This is irregular. No,” he shook his head, “I don’t like it.”
“I thought you knew. I thought that was the arrangement.” Solar took a step back, visibly tensing.
Ithadbeen the arrangement that Drevan made over the phone with the old man, but denying it was part of the plan.
“Babe,” I put a hand on Sage’s forearm, “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t like it either. I don’t know who the bloody hell you are,” Sage pointed at Solar, “and I’m not dealing with you. Let’s get out of here, luv.”
“Well, that makes three of us,” Solar said. “Something fishy’s going on.” He gave me the evil eye. “I bet you’re a couple of scammers. I bet you don’t have the vessel.” One of his hands slid behind his back.
A chill trickled down my spine. Did he have a gun?
Sage grabbed my elbow and pulled me toward the door. “I betyou’rethe scammer, probably hoping to do away with the money and the vessel. And where is the cash, anyway?” He glanced around the room. There was no sign of a briefcase or anything similar.
My head snapped toward Sage.Don’t give him ideas, you idiot!
A smile spread across Solar’s face as he pulled out a gun and aimed it straight at Sage’s head. “How did you guess?”
Oh, shit!
Sage went rigid and pale.
In all the possible scenarios we’d gone over with Drevan, this hadn’t been one of them. Solar was a loser, not someone who would come up with a plot to screw over two powerful, influential people. What did he plan to do after this? How did he intend to get away with it? I bet he wasn’t thinking it through. He was only thinking of living like a bum for the rest of his life, still in luxury but without his mother and sister to pester him about making something of himself.
He probably meant to leave the country. I bet he was imagining himself lounging on some beach, smoking weed, and doing nothing for the rest of his life. And if he succeeded, he would condemn humanity to its doom. I still couldn’t get over how messed up this was. How could the fate of everyone on the planet depend on one single lousy individual?
“Hand over the vessel,” Solar said between gritted teeth.
Sage glanced at me sidelong, a questioning look in his hazel eyes.Should I give it to him?he seemed to ask.
My mind reeled, trying to figure out how we could stick to the plan. We wanted Solar to feel desperate, trapped. We needed him to realize that the path he was on would only lead him to failure, and he needed to make the right choice. The idea had been for us to leave without giving Solar the vessel. After that, we would tell Richie that we had, in fact, made the exchange. That way, the old man would believe that Solar had betrayed him again, which was exactly what the idiot was doing. Solar was playing right into our hands.
I gave Sage a slight nod. “Give it to him, please.”
My voice trembled as I tried to show fear. My heartwasbeating fast. I didn’t like a gun pointed at our faces. There was always a chance I would not be able to react quickly enough. But I was pretty confident I could disarm Solar with my telekinetic powers, so I wasn’t properly terrified as I should’ve been. Was that my pride making a comeback? I didn’t think so. Drevan was also watching over us, probably invisible in some corner of the room, which meant my heart had no business feeling even a little bit frantic.
As if reading my thoughts, he spoke gently inside my mind, like a caress.
—I’m here.
I relaxed a little.
“Okay, mate,” Sage said. “You can have it.” He raised both hands slowly, palms facing Solar. “It’s in my jacket pocket. I’m going to get it out.”
“No!” Solar spat. “Take off the jacket, very slowly, then hand it over.”
Sage’s every move was calculated as he painstakingly removed his jacket and extended it toward Solar.
“Toss it,” Solar ordered.
Swinging it slightly, Sage threw the jacket, and Solar caught it in midair.
Without taking his eyes from us, he awkwardly held the jacket and inspected its pockets until he found the small vessel. It was made of gold and had three little legs. To my untrained eye, it looked like nothing more than a bejeweled miniature pot with a lid, but the thing was worth over fourteen million dollars and was encrusted with pearls, sapphires, and rubies. Drevan had magicked it out of one of Sir Fernsby’s safes with no one the wiser.
