The Scribe Read Online Free PDF

gestured to the dryboard, meaning no and knowing that it wouldn’t stop him.
    “So, do you want to tell me about you and Ava?” he asked.
    “What do you mean, me and Ava?” My shoulders tensed.
    “C’mon, Sasha,” he said. “You clearly have a shared history. If she’s going to be part of our team, I need to know what it is.”
    “We don’t share a history. We both had the same Clan leader, different times. The one that forced me to use my ability in ways that still give me nightmares.”
    “The one she ran away from?”
    I nodded. “He’s dangerous, Julian. We can’t send her back there.”
    “No, of course not.” He studied me for a moment. “Is that all? You’ve never met before?”
    “No.”
    He frowned but nodded, then dug his phone out of his pocket. An incoming call lit it up, and he mentally nudged it to answer. The holographic display popped up over the thin silver screen, floating a miniature head in the air.
    “Who is this?” Julian asked, his voice flat. “How did you get this number?”
    It took me a split second to realize it was Arlis. I jerked back, trying to keep out of the screen’s range. Julian barely noticed, he was so intent on the image hovering above his phone.
    “Mr. Navarro!” Arlis boomed from his tiny projection. “I’ve heard a great deal about you, son. You’ve taken our little community quite by storm.”
    I shrunk further away from Julian and his phone, wedging myself into the corner I had marked for a future shower silo, but it didn’t have any doors yet to block Arlis’s view. The bathroom suddenly felt like a tiny box with nowhere to go. But Arlis didn’t seem to notice me.
    “And you are?” Julian asked.
    “Arlis Specter.” He used the same fatherly tone I remembered too well. “I have a small Clan, not too ambitious, just working the New Metro suburbs, trying to stay on the right side of the Feds. Not unlike you, I’m sure. And I’m hoping we might do a little business.”
    My head shook no, my breath frozen in my chest, but Julian focused on the phone.
    “Business?” Julian asked.
    “I believe you have something that belongs to me.”
    Julian’s jaw worked. “You mean someone.”
    “Yes, yes.” Arlis’s beefy cheeks bunched up, his smile all the more menacing for being the picture of grandfatherliness. It made me shudder. “She’s a pretty little thing, isn’t she?” His smile disappeared. “But I’d like her back.”
    “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” Julian said, which allowed me to take a breath again.
    “Well, now, maybe you can just put her on the phone,” Arlis said, “and we can have a little chat.”
    “That’s not going to happen either. She’s not interested in returning to your Clan.”
    “Look, Julian,” Arlis said. “I know the girl is valuable. I’m sure we can work out an arrangement to compensate you for your loss. This is just business. No need for things to get messy and involve the poor girl’s family. I’m sure she’d agree, if you’d put her on the phone.”
    Julian’s expression fell as flat as his voice. “Perhaps I’m not making myself clear. Ava is under my protection. Any move against her family will be treated as a direct threat to this Clan, and I assure you that you do not want that to happen.”
    “I don’t take kindly to threats, Mr. Navarro.”
    “It’s not a threat, Mr. Specter,” Julian said. “It’s a promise. Good day.” The phone went dark, Arlis’s holographic image winking out of existence. Julian looked to me. “I don’t think he saw you, Sasha.”
    I nodded then realized the steel nails were biting into my palm hard enough to bring out small trickles of red. I worked my hand to rub the pain away.
    “He’ll carry through on his threats, Julian,” I said softly. “He gets rather… obsessed with things.”
    Julian nodded. “I’ll send Henry out to her family, right away, to move them to somewhere safe.”
    “Good.” My heart still pounded and my