Page 112 of A Thousand Cuts

Liam ran.

Chapter 20

Fix

Fix was walking back to his truck, dodging the crowds of people this close to the center of Slatehollow. Restaurants, stores, and office buildings were everywhere, people going to and fro busily, stray magic in the air.

There was also the main train station taking up a huge amount of space, with overhead billboards attached to the sides of the tracks and on the huge metal struts that held it up.

His phone rang in his pocket and he reached for it lightning quick, always worried it would be about Liam.

He saw Morgan’s name and frowned. “Hello?”

“This may be a complete wild card. I may be waaay off.” Morgan started in at a hundred miles per hour before Fix could even get a grip of the conversation. “But if I don’t say something and it turns out tobesomething then I’ll go to my grave with guilt and I don’t want to become a restless spirit roaming the earth—”

“Morgan,” Fix interrupted, the anxiety spiking his own. “What is happening?”

“Did Liam tell you he was doing a stream today?”

Fix stopped in his tracks on the sidewalk, people pushing past him with tuts of annoyance. Fix ignored them. “What?”

“I just clicked onto his profile to do some more digging and there’s two messages from him today talking about a stream. Well, one’s talking about a stream and the other is cryptic as fuck.”

A feeling started to build in his chest, something suspiciously like dread.

“Send it to me,” he said, already pulling the phone away from his ear and putting it on speaker so he could go to his messages. He found Liam’s name.

Fix:Are you okay?

Liam didn’t reply and the screenshot came through a second later.

Fix read it with a frown, trying to work out what the hell it could mean. All he could think of wasStar Stealer, but how did that make sense?

He pulled up Wren’s contact next.

Fix:Are you with Liam? He’s not answering

The reply came pretty swiftly.

Wren:He asked me to walk King for him. He should be in the house

Fix:How long ago was that?

Wren:A couple of hours? I was just about to head back. Is something wrong?

Fix didn’t know, and that was the problem.

“Listen, Morgan, I’m going to hang up and try calling him—”

“Wait!” Morgan said. “He just went live. He…”

There was a quiet gasp that Fix felt was echoed all around him.

“What? What is it?” Fix demanded.

“The stalker…he’s right there, Fix,” Morgan mumbled hysterically.

Fix’s world fell out from under his feet.