Aces Wilde: Immortal Vegas, Book 5 (17 page)

But there was something in this temple that did not belong, that had not been put there by its long-dead builder.

There was something in the grasp of a god that called to me.

I stared at the Bakan Sanctuary, the tallest spire in a forest of spires that made up the Cambodian masterpiece of Angkor Wat. The spectral light that spilled out of the tall windows and doors of the sanctuary nearly blinded me—there was no doubt this was my location.

But even as I edged closer, I felt something pulling at me, drawing me away. I sensed a presence I could not ignore, grasping, straining toward me.

“Sara.” Eshe’s voice held a note of caution, but I didn’t need her to tell me of the danger I was experiencing. I’d been seen by members of my own House, but this wasn’t the surge of interest and fascination. This was dead certainty.

And I had felt this touch before.

Gamon.

She was trying to
follow
me.

I shot up, scattering my focus as the swords flickered and winked out, the beam of light from the Bakan Sanctuary dividing to flow to all the points on the grid where the ley lines intersected. Now there were a thousand lit-up locations for what I sought, and I could sense the frustration of the woman who could not see what I saw, know what I knew.

The robed and masked figure filled my mind’s eye anyway. And her laugh sounded across the planes of awareness to me, power redolent as she pressed against my mental barriers.

She was Soo’s mortal enemy—and now my mortal enemy too.

“You toy with a war you cannot win, should not fight,” Gamon said—though she spoke words in every tongue, as if she wasn’t sure which one I could hear most clearly. “You have no place in the House of Swords.”

Irritation fired anew, but I didn’t want to argue with her. I wanted only to see her dead.

The realization of that anger, that dread promise roared through me with an insistence I didn’t expect, and I threw up my hands at the image, forcing it back. It winked out almost instantly, but the violence of my movement shoved me back as well, even as the world brightened to an unbearable white.

A wall of crackling energy rose up all around me, robbing me of sight, of breath, of sensation—

“Sara! Sweet Jesus, someone get a blanket!”

Nikki’s strident voice rang loud enough next to my ears for me to flinch away. A blanket was wrapped around me, the sensation completely disorienting. I blinked my eyes open, and only then did I realize that something was on fire.

Me, as it happened.

My screams shorted out as Nikki threw me to the carpet, beating out the flames that scattered into mist as Kreios and Eshe stood over us. I rolled to my side in a fit of racking coughs, my lungs suddenly filled with smoke. The two Council members stared at me in wonder as I finally stopped wheezing, like I was that night’s final carnival trick.

“Get off me,” I rasped. Nikki fell away, pulling the blanket free. What was left of my scrubs hung from my shoulders and hips, the light material scorched in several places.

I scowled at Eshe from my position on the floor. “Really? You set me on fire?”

“You stopped speaking,” Kreios said before Eshe could respond. “When you travel, you speak—you always have. If you do not speak, we cannot guide you. You stopped.”

I considered that, pulling myself upright. “And the fire was necessary because?”

Nikki flicked ash out of my hair. “I go out for doughnuts, and this is what I walk into,” she muttered. “The human torch.”

“Your abilities cannot be contained within your body any longer.” Eshe’s eyes still had remnants of their milk-white sheen, her hold on her oracular powers evident. “You are at great risk the longer you remain on this path.”

“Gee, thanks.” I blew out a breath, and could taste the heat against my teeth, as if I’d been charred from the inside out. That’d happened before, but not from a simple trip across the world via mental expressway. “What went wrong here? When did I stop talking?”

“You relayed the sword’s location at Angkor Wat.” Kreios gestured, and an image flickered to life in the space beyond his desk, the same colossal temple I’d seen moments before. The sun had now fully risen over the temple, but everything else was the same—minus the light pouring out of the tallest spire. “It seems our American thief was better traveled than you expected.”

“Cambodia’s a long way from Kansas City.” Nikki’s wide eyes fixed on the temple. “That’s where he stashed the Honjo?”

“I think so,” I said, though my gaze sheered away from the Bakan Sanctuary. Too much had happened on my journey for me to fully process.

I looked at Eshe. “I could be seen, this time. By people attached to Soo’s House. What’s that about?”

“You’re undisciplined, and you foolishly put yourself at risk,” she said, not hiding her annoyance. “Your task was the sword, not the House. You’re not a true member of the House of Swords.”

Her vitriol took me back a step. “What, you’re angry too? I didn’t ask for Soo’s little legacy to fall into my lap.”

“But you are considering keeping it,” she said coldly. “You speak of succession and choices, but there is a part of you that yearns for this role—yearns for it even though you have no idea what it entails, the sacrifices you will make, the damage you will cause.”

I lifted my hands. “You wanna enlighten me?”

Her smile turned craftier. “That would be foolish of me, I should think. Far better that the Magician is so distracted, he’s turned his focus inward and is no longer seeing all that he should see. As head of the Council, he too walks a dangerous path following you. Perhaps I shall let him keep following that path. Let him and you both make choices that will be your undoing.” She shrugged. “Perhaps.”

I scowled at her. “You’ve been hanging around Viktor too long.”

“The Emperor is better suited to leading the Council at least in one respect,” Eshe retorted. “He knows you for the mortal you are. Gifted, certainly.” She flicked her hand at the shield. “Useful, without question. But you are only a mortal, Sara. You’ll always be only a mortal. And mortals have a ceiling on what they can and will do.” She curled her lip. “Otherwise, don’t you think the Emperor would have remained one? He was one of the greatest sorcerers of his time.”

“He was also buddies with Hitler. So I wouldn’t be singing his praises all that loudly.”

“Allying yourself with strength is the hallmark of any great leader.” Eshe sniffed. “He chose the Council when it presented itself, as you see.”

“And angels wept, I’m sure.” I transferred my attention to Kreios. “I’m going to need a plane, some kind of reason to be in Angkor. What I have to do isn’t on the typical tourist itinerary.”

“I’m going with,” Nikki said. She folded her arms as I turned to her. “You are
not
going to Cambodia on a solo jump, girl. You may have forgotten the fireworks from earlier this week, but I haven’t. And if you don’t let me go, you’ll just be stuck with Jiao’s goons on your ass, and I don’t think you want that either.”

“Can’t Brody keep an eye on her?”

“Not that close of an eye. He’s up to his ass in paperwork over the whole shitstorm at the Palazzo. But you really think you’re not going to have a tail on you the moment you show your face outside these walls?”

“Fair point,” I mumbled.

Nikki gave me a toothy grin. “So I’m going with you. To protect you from your own people as much as anyone else. Besides, you were in a hospital bed a mere hour ago and spontaneously combusted just now. Hell, I’m coming along to protect you from
you
.”

“Your concern is appreciated, if misplaced.” Kreios nodded, clearly enjoying the byplay between us. “A helicopter is even now on its way to the rooftop landing strip atop the Flamingo, and a jet is being redirected for your needs. I can have you in Siem Reap in approximately a day’s flight. I’ll arrange for papers and accommodations to be ready for you upon your arrival.”

“Thanks.” I poked at the singe spots on my scrubs.

He nodded at Eshe, though his gaze never left me. “Do not discount counsel even if it isn’t what you wish to hear, Sara Wilde. Eshe is correct, Armaeus is correct. Your own intuition, should you allow it to speak, is correct. The course you have set for yourself with the House of Swords will not end well, unless you allow another to fight in your place.”

“I got it, I got it,” I muttered, my mind already jumping ahead to the task of finding a sword in one of the busiest tourist locations in the Pacific. “I’ll be careful.”

“You’ll need to be more than that,” Kreios said amiably. “If you do not relinquish leadership of the House of Swords, you will die.”

Chapter Fifteen

Like Paris in the summertime, Cambodia is hot. And rainy. And especially rainy and hot.

Nikki, being no fool, had stuck to her camo pants and waterproof hiking boots, her upper body on display in a skintight black cami beneath a flowing, sheer white rain jacket. Her hair was in a ponytail beneath her black CPD ball cap, and I eyed her broad back as we tramped through the rain-slicked streets.

“Um, have you been working out?”

“Girl needs to stay in shape,” she said, lifting one impressive shoulder as she surveyed the scene. “Although right now, girl could use a beer, stat.”

It was nearing midnight in Siem Reap, but the busy Pub Street showed no sign of shutting down. The recent downpour served only to force people inside the tiny cafés and bars lining the streets, or to spread plastic bags on the outdoor seating now that the rain had eased off again. The heat stayed at a constant, steaming off the pavement. We pushed our way into one of the more promising-looking bars, a place selling stir-fried beef and an international assortment of beers. There were no tables open, but the couple who’d entered ahead of us spent a second too long gawking at Nikki. She pushed past them, scoring a prime space at the bar. I sidled up beside her as the bartender came by, and Nikki ordered for the two of us with a pointed finger and an attempt at pronouncing the local fare that was so poor, it rivaled mine.

“I like this place,” she said, grinning at me. She leaned heavily against the bar and snaked her foot around a stool that had been vacated a hair’s breadth before. The disgruntled “hey” of a disappointed stool-stalker was cut short as he followed the reinforced-toe boot up to the top of Nikki’s ball cap. I turned to take in the clientele, sipping on my own beer after making sure I watched the bartender uncap it and slide it my way without any technoceutical additives. Not that I was too worried, though. This wasn’t Tel Aviv airport, it was a hole in the wall in the jungle, and we’d traveled with an Arcana-level of stealth, courtesy of Simon. Tainted food would be the least of our worries.

The bar crowd was an eclectic mix of tourists despite the rainy season, a scatter of Americans, Chinese, Australians, and Europeans. All of them carried on loud conversations over TVs tuned to what looked like a continuous feed of soccer. “We got, what, twelve hours before Soo’s goons figure out where we are?”

“Soo’s goons or the goons of her enemies,” I said. “It’s not like we’ve gotten debriefed on who we should even be watching out for.”

“I get the feeling Soo’d shut up most everyone who needed shutting a while back.” Nikki shrugged. “There’ll be people who move against the House now that she’s gone, but her generals clearly felt comfortable going after you instead of heading off the barbarians at the gate. I suspect her infrastructure is pretty tight.”

“Probably true.” I didn’t like it, though, the sense that I was missing key information about a new purchase—like a rescue dog who was about to have puppies in my living room. Then again, I was almost certain I wouldn’t be keeping the dog, so on a need-to-know basis, I didn’t actually need to know much more than how quickly I could get the Honjo Masamune and hand it off to the first general I could.

“Don’t you get that squirrelly look on your face. That always leads to trouble,” Nikki said, tilting her beer toward me. “What’re you thinking?”

“Nothing. I just want to get this op nailed down.” I turned back to the counter, clearing a space on the scarred wood surface. Then I reached into my jacket pocket and shook loose my Tarot deck, the way an addict of a different sort might break out a pack of cigarettes. I shuffled the deck quickly, then pulled three cards, wincing as lightening flashed in the window, the roll of thunder following behind.

I looked back at Nikki, who was also grimacing at the renewed pelting of rain and the influx of bodies into the bar, everyone smelling of damp sweat. “Really?” she muttered. “Thunderstorms? That’s kinda gonna put a crimp in the sunrise ceremonies tomorrow.”

“I think people show up for sunrise no matter what, in case the weather turns—which it’s already done like six times since we’ve gotten here, so probably not a bad idea.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Her gaze dropped to the cards. “You gonna flip those over, or do I have to guess?”

“You know, I’m not used to having a shadow when I pull these things.”

“Well, I’m the most stylish shadow you’ll ever score, dollface. Get comfy with it.”

I shook my head but couldn’t help grinning as I turned over the cards. It was strange having Nikki along for the ride, but it was good too. In a world where I no longer knew who supported me and who didn’t, she was a constant I hadn’t realized how much I needed.

Which was why I didn’t begrudge her when she whistled low. “Well, that looks like a big pile of suck.”

“You’re not kidding.” Hunkered down in Cambodia in a thunderstorm, I hadn’t expected the cards to be cheery, but this read was exceptionally miserable. The first card was the Tower, complete with its super fun representation of victims flinging themselves off an exploding building. “Could be an explosion, could be the thunderstorm.” tapped the card. “Could be everything falling to pieces.”

Nikki snorted. “Glad to know we’re in the right place.

I moved on. “The Ten of Swords could be betrayal, could be having to look for something along the ground. Could be attack.”

“Or gall bladder surgery,” Nikki supplied helpfully. “Can never be too careful with your gall bladder.”