“I’m pretty much off men at the moment.” Her voice was hard, before breaking right on the end again. “And I have to tell you something…”
I tensed, her breathy whisper was worse than the hard voice. She was not going to be imparting good news.
“Part of the promise I made the twins … I have to go with them into the Romanian prison, and they said that if you didn’t come also, that they couldn’t guarantee my safety. That sometimes supes got lost in the prison system and were never seen again.”
It was a direct threat, but I could tell that Mischa didn’t really see it that way.
“Fuck!” My arm fell off her shoulders as I jumped to my feet. “Why, Mischa? Why the hell would you agree to go into Krakov with them?”
I had a terrible feeling about this as I stood there staring her down. The fruit twins had already freed the marked from that prison, so what did they have to go back in there for?
Mischa rubbed at her face tiredly. “There is a key in there, or a weapon, I’m not totally sure. They promised it was for the benefit of the entire supernatural community. And all four of us would be required to free it.”
“You realize that we’re the other two points on this compass to free the dragon king, right?”
Mischa rose slowly until we stood face to face. “Yes.”
We were mirror images, facing off. “We can’t trust them, no matter what bullshit story they feed you about a weapon for the communities. This has something to do with the dragon king.”
She dropped her chin. Her submissive pose pissed me off and I fought the urge to capture that chin in my hand and wrench her face upwards.
“They … they helped me out. I got myself into a little trouble with one of the shifters and they saved my ass.”
And in return they assured she was guilted into a suspect scheme to infiltrate the prison. Mischa had given her word, and we tried not to break our word. Words held power, and it wasn’t good to tempt the gods with broken promises.
“Can the fruit twins shift into dragons?”
Mischa’s full lips parted, my change of subject had surprised her. “No, they’re not even shifters. They’ve never told me which race they’re from, but they use magic at times so I think witches. And I know I didn’t answer you before when you asked, but their mark is nothing like yours. It’s small.”
I knew her weird expression at the table had been hiding something. Damn, damn, damn. This was horseshit. I had really been hoping that I wasn’t the special one within an already chosen bunch. Whatever being north meant, it was not a good thing, I knew that without a doubt. The jinn’s words reverberated through my mind.
I was chosen. I was special. I was so freaking screwed.
I expelled the next words through gritted teeth. “When is this brilliant break-and-enter supposed to take place?”
There was no way I’d leave Mischa to do this. I could sense the aura of evil on those bitches, and if I didn’t come along I had no doubt they would leave her to the tender care of the prisoners in there. I had no idea how I would convince the Compasses and my father. They would fight us on this.
“Um … uh, it’s going to be, uh…” She started stuttering away and I worked very hard not to scream at her. “Tomorrow,” she finally finished. “We have to go in tomorrow.”
I should have known it would be soon. They were pretty much out of time. The deadline to free the king was upon us, and whatever plans they had to put into play, well, it had to be in the next few days. “I have to tell Dad and the quads.”
If something went wrong we would need backup.
Mischa worried at her lips even harder, her teeth leaving marks along the pink softness. “The twins won’t like it. Everything is a secret to them, but … I would feel better if Mom and Dad knew.”
She was barely even mentioning the Compasses anymore.
“Girl, how long are you going to hold on to this anger toward Maximus? It’s not healthy, you have to let it go.” I clapped my hands together. “I think what we need right now is a chance to run.”
I missed my wolf, and Mischa had definitely not spent enough time learning about her animal. We got a little crazy if we didn’t shift reasonably frequently. It was time.
She jumped on the spot, emotions flying across her face so rapidly that I was having trouble cataloguing them all. But she seemed mostly excited.
I was so feeling that. Together we moved from our room. I picked up the cell phone again, and scrolling through found the right numbers. I sent off very brief texts explaining where Mischa and I were heading. Without waiting for replies, I dumped the phone on the bench again and walked with my sister out of the apartment and into the elevator.