XIV
679 Words
XIV
Night had fallen on the bog quickly, faster than Celesse Cullis had hoped. She buttoned the suit jacket Lucan had left her and hugged her arms together. The temperature had dropped drastically and she wasn’t prepared for it. She’d picked the wrong day to wear a skirt.
She walked back and forth across the mud trying to stay warm. The thick, peaty smell was making her head swirl, and several times she had to sit down to get her bearings.
The white claw lay in the distance, not too far away, and the magical force field pulsed every now and again to make its existence known.
The magic must have been the reason she couldn’t get cell service. That and the fact that she was in the middle of a godforsaken bog, with no cell towers anywhere near. She’d had to walk a mile to the road just to get one bar. And because her phone’s battery had only twenty percent left, she could only text Lucan to ask where he was. She had to disable the rest of her apps to save power.
Lucan owed her.
In any other situation, he would have called another employee to come wait. But doing that here would have meant they would have lost the tomb.
She thought about the campaign and how the media was likely reporting on Lucan’s absence.
The talking heads would call him flaky and uncommitted. They would claim that Governor Grimoire was gaining “momentum” (always a lie when they said it like that), and that Lucan’s campaign might be in trouble.
That’s what they did. Extrapolated lies from nothing.
She’d have to work double overtime to repair his image, book more events, and position Lucan in districts where his numbers suffered the most from the fallout. He’d have to begin rebuilding the confidence she’d toiled so hard to garner.
All while rebuilding their own relationship. Oh yes, there was a fight coming. A big one.
Earlier in the day, she’d had to call several delegates to apologize profusely on his behalf. Some expected it. Others had nothing but curse words for her. She’d contacted everyone but the dragons. They didn’t use telephones, and they were going to be pissed.
Lucan would have to visit them. She wasn’t doing it. No way, not after begging them for help.
She jumped onto a tree stump and moved around to generate warmth.
Tony sat in the mud, resting his head against a broken birch. Even though he was tired, he had that classic elven, blank facial expression. “Any updates?” he asked.
“He’s on his way,” Celesse said.
“What does that mean, exactly?” Tony asked.
“It means what it means.”
“Is he on the way or is he getting ready to be on his way, which is just another way of saying ‘thanks for your patience’?” Tony asked.
She couldn’t imagine dealing with kids like him every day. College interns were enough. There was a reason she worked in politics and not as a teacher.
“Get some rest,” Celesse said. “I’ll keep watch.”
“I’ve been resting!” Tony cried. “You think I expected to spend all night here?”
“A little longer,” Celesse said.
“I’ve been patient. I showed him the tomb. I’m not even asking to be paid. I didn’t plan on this.”
“Neither did I,” Celesse said. “I’m sick of this place, too, but your attitude isn’t helping.”
Tony stood and walked away.
“Where are you going?” Celesse asked.
“Tell him I stayed as long as I could,” Tony said. “But this is stupid now.”
A tree rustled nearby.
Tony stopped. “Did you hear that?”
Celesse shrugged. Then she heard the sound of leaves crunching.
Were they footsteps?
Leaves crunched again. Crunch-crunch. Crunch-crunch.
The hair on the nape of her neck stood up. Something told her the footsteps weren’t human. It sounded as if something were slithering through the thicket.
Tony reached into his pocket and pulled out a white card.
Celesse grabbed the wooden stake, clutching it as hard as she could without giving herself splinters.
“What do you think it is?” she asked.
An ear-shattering scream ripped through the woods, and Celesse screamed in response.
Tony jumped back and yelled, “Oh, crap!”
Green eyes blinked in the dark and a shadow leapt out of the woods at them.
- Writer
