Page 25 of The Shadowed Oracle (The Bonded Worlds #1)
Chapter Fourteen
Ingrid didn’t give herself any room to panic.
She pressed Dean and the twins to agree on their next step, and they decided then and there that they’d go after Sylan, to hunt the hunter—once they knew where he was.
Raidinn was brought back in for further “discussion” with the Wrane, swaggering in with twice the venom he’d had before being sent out.
It only took a few minutes. He threatened to swallow the Wrane’s three sacred seedlings, dig up the pliers his sister had mentioned, then added a promise to cut off its head for good measure.
The prisoner very kindly agreed to lead them to their target.
Raidinn had grinned like a child in a sweet shop once they left the portal room. Now that the decision was made to seek out violence, one massive foot was already out the door.
But Dean stopped him short.
“We’re not ready. One day might not make much of a difference in the advantage on Sylan,” he said. “But it could significantly improve Ingrid’s preparedness.”
Raidinn failed to hide his pout. “Oh, yeah, right. You feel the same then, sis?”
“I do.”
“Great,” Raidinn still wore the disappointment on his face like a black-eye. “No problem. That’s fine. We’re fine.”
Tyla frowned and put on an affected, infantile voice, “Oh, you sweet boy, I promise, you’ll have your shot.” She cupped a hand over her mouth, whispering to Ingrid, “He gets grumpy if he doesn’t kill anything for too long.”
Ingrid wished she could laugh, wished she could even give a polite smile, but couldn’t. “So where do we begin?" she asked.
“Viseer stones.” She would need to learn the basics of the defensive gems, Dean explained, then an all-too-short combat lesson followed by a brief summary of what to expect from Sylan. “Before then, I don’t feel comfortable bringing you out there with us.”
“Fun stuff!” Tyla tried to compensate for the severity in Dean’s voice. “Personally, I’m chomping at the bit.” She looked to her brother for support, but found him still sulking and staring off into the distance.
She quickly jabbed him with her elbow.
“Fuckin’ hell!”
“It’ll be fun, right Rai?”
“Uhh, yes, very fun.”
Ingrid smirked at the twins, then made a sweeping gesture of her hands over all three of her new companions. “So, which one of you will get the honor of training me?”
“Me,” Raidinn and Tyla said simultaneously.
They gave each other a courteous, but awkward glance, stumbling into another half-hearted argument.
“Come on,” Raidinn scoffed. “You really think the newbie can cram your fancy-shmancy dancing style in one night? No way. You’re better off with me, Ingrid.
My style may be simple, but it’s deadly.
” He sighed, as if recalling a beautiful song or piece of art.
“I’ll turn you into a machine in just a few hours.
But the choice is yours. Electric power and force.
” Again, he looked to his sister. “Or dancing around like a ballerina.”
“Shut up,” Tyla spat.
“What was that?” Raidinn tugged at his earlobe.
“I said shut up !”
The venom in the words instantly halted Raidinn. “Alright, alright. Understood. Let’s give her the choice,” he said flatly.
They both flashed hopeful grins at her, swaying with anticipation. She was flattered, eager to start the process as soon as possible. Yet, every few seconds a voice in the back of her head called out to her in warning.
This is crazy. These people are crazy. They are trained killers. The big one actually likes killing. Leave. Leave!
“We started this together,” another voice sliced through. It was calm, reassuring. Raidinn and Tyla no longer made those puppy dog eyes at Ingrid and instead were focused on the other side of the room. On Dean.
“I think I’ve done alright so far.” He locked eyes with Ingrid in a youthful, waggish way. “Not to mention, we’ve already fought together. So why shouldn’t we train together?”
Just as Ingrid was about to open her mouth to agree, Tyla interjected. “I think you’ve hounded her enough, hotshot.”
“Hounded?”
“Yes,” Tyla said nonchalantly.
“How do you figure that?”
“By taking one look at you two.” She flitted her eyes back and forth between the embarrassed newcomer and her old friend. “Don’t pretend you’re not enamored with the girl. It’ll soften you. Which means she’ll be getting less than the full treatment she needs.”
It was as if the air had been sucked out of the entire bunker. Every small movement seemed deafening as it echoed off the concrete and metal fortress.
“Fine,” Ingrid broke the tension, averting her eyes from a suddenly very shy Dean and met Tyla’s obstinate gaze instead.
As much as she’d wanted to squirm out of the uncomfortable implication of Dean’s infatuation with her, or simply scream at Tyla for embarrassing her, Ingrid let it go. “You should train me. I pick you.”
It seemed to be the wise choice. Raidinn would’ve gotten on her nerves, or accidentally killed her with that brutish size of his. And after this small, but poignant moment of awkwardness, she couldn’t see herself focusing properly if Dean were the one teaching her.
“You sure?” Tyla offered one last time.
“I’m sure.”
“That settles it,” Tyla said. “Meet me back here in, let’s say half an hour. I know you probably have some things to sort out.”
Ingrid nodded. “Thirty minutes. Got it.”
Tyla shuffled off and Raidinn followed just behind, leaving Dean behind again.
He lingered a moment, opening his mouth but shutting it quickly.
They shared an understanding moment of mutual embarrassment, then he walked off and closed the door behind him, giving Ingrid the space she needed, and the silence she needed to do it in.
Ingrid paced back and forth in the deceptively enormous basement, mulling over what to say.
Her boss and closest friend Franky was still in the dark about where she was, and she’d been dreading the inevitable conversation since last night.
It wasn’t just saying goodbye to a friend.
It was saying goodbye to her only friend.
Her only connection to the world outside of the revolving faces of her bar regulars.
No matter how impossible an alternative route was, how badly she’d wanted to tell Franky the truth about all this, she felt that lying to him was some kind of betrayal.
She’d always promised herself that she’d never abandon someone she cared for.
That she wouldn’t add to the cycle, wouldn’t let her trauma infect others.
It was why she was so meticulous about who she let into her heart. But she would have to.
For his safety, she’d have to lie.
Since her phone had been destroyed, Ingrid made the call on a thirty-year-old landline that was placed inconspicuously between two large filing cabinets on the back wall.
It was completely hidden in darkness, where she could speak in private without the physical reminders of who and what she was now surrounded by. Which helped immensely.
This new reality and her old reality, as Dean had said, they simply could not coexist.
“Hello?” Franky was clearly hesitant at the unknown number, but once Ingrid spoke she had to pull the phone a few inches from her ear as Franky bellowed out his relief.
He asked if she was well, if she needed help, and if she was safe.
“I’m safe,” she said, recounting a shortened version of the events from the day before, all the way up to the point when the invisible creature attacked her. Only in this version, the assailant was a masked man.
“I’ve been moved to a safe house. And it really is. Safe, I mean. I’ll be okay.”
“Thank god, kid.” The stout man released more exalted sighs, anger underlining his curses and gratitude.
“Is there anything I can do? Just a few hours ago, I was talking with Jillian about putting the story out there. And I think we can get security for both doors at the restaurant in just a matter of days. More cameras. A few guards disguised as hostesses and waiters. It’ll be easy. ”
He went on and on, just like he always spoke when trying to help. With each offer, Ingrid’s heart sank deeper, and her eyes grew heavier. She could barely speak, barely form sentences in her mind, and it didn’t take long before the jovial man sensed something had drastically changed.
Franky knew Ingrid. He knew she was always honest with him. Which meant if she was silent, it was to avoid lying.
“I’ll be gone for a while,” she said finally. “And I can’t make contact past this phone call. It’d be too dangerous for you.”
The humming quiet was too much for either of them to endure.
“Okay,” Franky said, his voice cracking. “I’m so sorry, kid. You don’t deserve this. Not after everything…” He paused.
The two of them had never discussed in detail all of the hardships Ingrid had been through, but they’d talked about enough for him to know. To understand.
The pair weren’t much for words anyway.
“I will see you again.” Ingrid felt like she’d swallowed one of those viseer stones. “Don’t get sappy on me, old man.”
Franky tried to laugh it off. “I know you’ll be fine. You always are.” That same anger, along with a sprinkle of pride was now evident in his words. “This maniac, whoever he is, he’ll rue the day he decided to fuck with Ingrid Lourdes.”