Read The Gate Thief (Mither Mages) for Free Online Page B

you,’” quoted Xena.
    “Let’s put the shoe on the other foot, where it belongs,” said Danny. “If we’re such good friends, why would you threaten to stop being my friends if I don’t tell you something that, if it’s true, I clearly want to keep to myself?”
    Sin stuck out her feet. “How does that put my shoes on the other feet? These are the only feet I have.”
    Nothing he did was going to help. Because Danny knew from the family history where this led. You tell drowthers what you are, then you have to show them. And once they see it, they get scared of you, and either they avoid you or they try to become your servant because it’s human nature to want to be close to power.
    Danny didn’t want to find out which way his friends would go. He’d never had friends before, and now he was going to lose them no matter what he did.
    Better to lose them without their knowing for sure what he was and what he could do.
    “I accept your terms,” said Danny.
    They leaned forward expectantly.
    “I’m not going to admit to any of this stuff, so I guess that means we’re not friends.” Danny walked back to the door.
    “Wait!” said Laurette.
    “We didn’t mean it!” said Xena.
    “ I did,” said Hal. “He sent us a mile into the sky, and if he says he didn’t it’s bullshit.”
    Danny opened the door and stepped outside.
    He could hear someone—several people—rushing toward the door. He didn’t want to play out this scene on the front lawn.
    So he gated back to his house and pulled the gate in after him.
    Had he even closed the door behind him? For all he knew, they had seen him disappear.
    But he was pissed off at them. Why would friends try to force him to tell what he clearly didn’t want to tell? They weren’t his friends. He barely knew them. So why did he have this gnawing feeling in his gut?
    “Where did you gate from?” asked a voice.
    Hermia was sitting in his living room.
    “How did you get in?” asked Danny.
    “I used Veevee’s gate,” said Hermia. “I was visiting her, and I wanted to visit you, but you weren’t here so I waited.”
    Danny looked at her steadily. “What are you doing here?”
    “My family came to me,” said Hermia. “My actual parents. I was so honored.”
    “Was it a happy reunion?” asked Danny, sitting down across from her in the only other chair in what passed for a living room.
    “It was all about you,” said Hermia. “They want you to trust them. They say they won’t try to control you, they don’t want a war, but they think you need training.”
    “Like I’d ever let any of the Westilians anywhere near me.”
    “I’ll tell them that,” said Hermia.
    “Are you in their pocket? Do they have some kind of control over you?”
    “Meaning, can you trust me? Yes and no. You can trust me to keep my word. But they have some kind of tracking device imbedded in me, so wherever I go, they know where I am.”
    Danny thought about that a moment. “So they’ve seen you jump.”
    “Yes.”
    “By jumping from Veevee’s place to here, they know where that gate is.”
    “Yes.”
    “Everywhere you go, you show them the gates.”
    “Yes,” said Hermia. “But I told you as soon as I knew, didn’t I? What was I supposed to do, seal myself in a coffin like a vampire and never go anywhere again?”
    “So they know where I am right now.”
    “They know I came to these exact map coordinates,” said Hermia. “They don’t know that you happen to be in this place, but yes, they probably will, very soon.”
    “Shit,” said Danny. She really didn’t have much choice, if her own family had decided to track her.
    “We have to make contact with all the Families eventually,” said Hermia. “Including my Family. If you intend to make a Great Gate and share it.”
    Three cars pulled up out front, one of them actually screeching on the pavement.
    “How long have you been waiting here? Does your Family just hover over you in choppers or balloons or