Read half-lich 02 - void weaver for Free Online

she would have to give something in return. The only question was, did she lie to him about the trouble Isaac hadn’t been able to fill him in on, or did she risk bringing him into the fold? If she wanted to leave—and knowing what she knew now leaving was exactly what she needed to do—then she needed to win him over… or call on her police training and subdue him.
    She sighed. “If I tell you what’s going on, will you let me leave?”
    “If you tell me, I’ll think about letting you leave.”
    “I honestly think there’s little you could do to stop me if I wanted to leave right now. Once I’ve made my mind up about something I’m like a train on a track, and I used to be a cop. I could take you down.”
    Cameron smiled, more at himself than at Alice, musing as if he had just remembered a funny joke. “Yeah,” he said, “I’ve already figured out that much about you. The way you talk and hold yourself, you’re used to having the last word. I also think you’re not the kind of girl who likes to stay put even on the best of days.”
    “Oh, no, there you’ve got me totally wrong. Give me a good book or a TV show to watch, and my sofa becomes my favorite place in the world. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s no TV here, no Wi-Fi, and my cell connection is non-existent. At least before I thought this whole business was being looked into, but it’s been a week since everything happened and both Isaac and I have been locked up and in the dark. The trail is going cold.”
    Cameron folded his arms in front of his chest. His leather jacket squeaked. “Alright,” he said, “Now I’m intrigued. What trail is growing cold?”
    “If I tell you, I’m leaving. That’s the deal.”
    He nodded. “Go ahead.”
    Alice told him. At least, she told him as much as she could in the minute or so she wanted to spend discussing the events of the last couple of weeks, omitting the parts where she ate souls and had, herself, been trapped in the Reflection once before. Cameron didn’t need to know all of the details; only that Helena had been possessed by an old and powerful entity that was now on the loose somewhere.
    Cameron considered all that Alice had said, carefully regarding her in the dimness of the kitchen; an artist trying to understand someone else’s painting. He was quiet for almost an entire minute before he finally said, “There’s something I don’t understand.”
    “What’s that?” Alice asked.
    “You said you had been hired by someone to find this girl, to find Emily.”
    “Right.”
    “Are you a private eye or something?”
    “You don’t know?”
    Cameron shrugged. “Not really. Should I?”
    “I’m a bounty hunter; people pay me to take nasty things down. I’m damn good at it, too.”
    “But it wasn’t Isaac who hired you.”
    “No. I went to him for help.”
    “… because you’re not a mage.”
    “Exactly.”
    “Then… what are you ?”
    Alice cocked her eyebrow again. “You’re asking too many questions. I held up my end of the bargain, now you have to keep yours and let me leave this place.”
    Cameron took a deep breath through his nose but kept his lips pressed together, trying to decide whether to accept her terms or not. When his mind was made up, he nodded. “A deal is a deal,” he said, “Even though we didn’t shake on it, I could hold you to that.”
    “Verbal contracts are binding too. You’re a mage; you should know that.”
    “I’m not that kind of mage.”
    “Okay, well, it doesn’t matter what kind of mage you are—we have a deal.” Alice went to walk around Cameron but he stretched his hand across the open kitchen arch just as she was about to pass him, barring her way. “We had a deal ,” she warned.
    “We do, and I’m keeping it, on one condition.”
    “No conditions.”
    “You’re going to want to accept this one.”
    “Am I?” she asked, placing a hand on her hip and flicking her long hair over her shoulder.
    “I didn’t