together, and in so doing, they unleashed Ravenwood.”
Cantrell shook his head. “They ain’t that stupid.”
Al approached the table. “Frank, please tell me why you’re associating with these people.”
“Have a seat, Al,” I said.
“I think not.” He turned the leave.
I stood and blocked his path. “Sit.”
“Mr. Shade, I can destroy you with a flick of my finger.”
I punched him in the nose.
He sat down.
He blinked his eyes a few times then checked his nose to make sure it wasn’t broken. “You hit me.”
“And I’ll hit you again if you start to pull up any magic. Five-second rule,” I said.
I used to think the five-second rule was the length of time a piece of food had to be on the floor before you couldn’t eat it. Back when I was engaged to Naomi, she told me it was actually the amount of time the average wizard needed to pull up any strong magic. Al didn’t know about my immunity to magic, and I saw no reason to reveal it.
“Point taken,” Al said. “Am I bleeding?”
“I didn’t hit you that hard.”
“I may press charges.”
“And I may kick your ass.”
“You’ll go to jail.”
“Your ass will still be kicked.”
“Or I might kill you,” Kelly said.
“Careful, Al,” Cantrell said. “She wields a mean toothpick.”
“What?”
“Can we get back to the subject at hand?”
The waitress started back toward us, but I caught her eye and shook my head. She rolled her eyes and moved to another table.
“Which subject might that be?” Al asked.
“Frank was filling us in on Ravenwood,” Naomi said.
“That’s right,” Cantrell said.
“This is private DGI business, Frank. We’ll handle it.”
“You’ve been doing a bang-up job so far,” I said. “David and Kathy Miller are dead, a civilian was slain by a Sekutar, and that same warrior tried to kill Naomi. Your private business is now our business. Got it?”
“I disagree.”
Cantrell sighed. “Al, you gotta tell them the truth. Maybe they can help.”
“Mr. Shade is a common thug, and this woman”—he motioned to Kelly—“is an abomination that should have been destroyed with the rest of her lot.”
“Well,” Cantrell said, “this common thug and this abomination have handled two reasonably powerful wizards before breakfast with no sweat off their balls.” He turned to Kelly. “Pardon the expression.”
Al fumed.
“I may not be part of your company,” I said, “but I need to know what’s going on. What did you do with the crystals? Did you unite them?”
“Only a moron would unite them.”
“I ask again, did you unite them?”
“Do I look like a moron to you? Don’t answer that. I wasn’t assigned to the Crystal Project. That was David’s project, but he would never unite them. They haven’t even been on the same continent in four hundred years.”
“Why not destroy them?”
“And unleash Ravenwood? Are you daft?”
“That’s the word on the street.”
“Listen closely. Destroying the crystals is bad. They must be protected.”
“Fine, I’ll treat them like Faberge eggs. Where are they?”
“One is in Brazil, another in Australia. The third, the Alyshian, was in David Miller’s possession. I had hoped to procure it from him after he killed Kathleen, but he didn’t have it on his person.”
Cantrell looked surprised. “You were going to touch it? What the hell were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t about to allow it to end up in some evidence locker.”
“Touching it is bad?” I asked.
“If you ain’t descended from the Three, it is.”
“Color me lost.”
“If you ain’t from the Three, you’re easy to control. Ravenwood can get you to do his
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