half-lich 02 - void weaver Read Online Free PDF Page B

her, he still had that narrow-eyed smile on his face, though in this light she could see his eyes weren’t as dark as she had originally thought; they were misty gray. “Nothing to say?”
    Alice sighed. “Don’t take it personally. I’ve been cooped up here for a week and I don’t know what’s going on. Smalltalk isn’t what I need right now; what I need are answers, and to get out of here.”
    Cameron’s smile weakened. “I have bad news on that front.”
    “What bad news?”
    “Do you want to sit down?”
    Alice’s heart began to thump hard against the left side of her ribcage. When someone about to deliver bad news asks the other person to sit down, it usually heralded the impending revelation of someone’s death or injury. Isaac wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be.
    “I’ll stand. Tell me what’s going on.”
    Cameron sighed. “Long and short of it is this; Isaac isn’t getting out anytime soon. He’s still under heavy investigation and the magistrate hasn’t decided what it’s going to do yet. They’ve had some preliminary talks, but Isaac hasn’t been too cooperative with them so they’re holding him until they can gather all the evidence they can. He really does know how to piss them off.”
    “Evidence of what?”
    “That he broke the law.”
    “Do you know what happened to him? Has he told you?”
    “He didn’t have time, and in any case he wouldn’t have had to explain anything to me. Isaac and I go way back. He asked for my help, so here I am.”
    “Just like that?”
    “In a heartbeat. I owe him big.”
    Alice took a moment to process everything he had just said. Isaac wasn’t getting out any time soon. How long is that , she thought. A day? A week? A month? “So, you don’t know why he was being investigated?”
    “I do. I’ve heard rumors that something happened at the museum; someone attacked him and trashed his exhibit in front of Pleb—humans.”
    Alice cocked an eyebrow. “Did he tell you if he managed to find any leads on were his attacker went?”
    “He’s been locked away since the night the legionnaires picked him up. I doubt he’s had a chance to do more than read the books he was given. His lockup doesn’t even have a TV, and he isn’t allowed a cell phone or even the paper. Can’t use magic either; the place is warded to keep mages docile.”
    “Docile?”
    “ Unable to use magic . Kinda like the wards around this place. I felt it as soon as I walked in here. I’m about as magic as a ham sandwich right now.”
    “That’s good to know.”
    “Not really. Not for me, anyway. It doesn’t feel right to not have my magic. Feels like I’m naked.”
    Alice caught herself thinking, purely aesthetically, that it wouldn’t be entirely tragic if he were naked.
    “Look,” he said, and his voice snapped her back into the moment. “I won’t sugar coat it. Things don’t look great right now. Isaac got word to me on a wing and a prayer—literally—and I don’t know how long he’s going to be stuck with the magistrate, which means I don’t know how long you need to be in here and under my protection.”
    “Your protection? The answer is simple,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “Zero minutes.”
    “I don’t want to be that guy , but I don’t think you have much of a choice.”
    “I have a choice, and I choose to be the captain of my own destiny. If Isaac hasn’t been investigating what happened after the night of the attack, then I have to.”
    “I hate to break it to you, but you can’t leave,” Cameron said. “If Isaac asked me to come over and make sure you’re safe, you must be in some kind of trouble. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re not a mage, and seeing as I don’t know what you are, I can’t just let you walk out of here.”
    Alice regarded him cautiously, trying to read his bodily cues and determine his angle. Everybody had an angle, and Cameron was no exception. She could get what she wanted from him, but