Eventide (Meratis Trilogy Book 2) (6 page)

Jeff crossed the bridge and went through the park to the quay. Walking towards the Clock Tower, he stayed behind the row of benches, hidden by the trees that hung over the promenade with their early autumn colours. He wanted to see Raul before Raul saw him.

The branches swayed with the wind coming over the water. The heat and humidity were already high, and Jeff appreciated the breeze.

Most of the benches were empty except for the one closest to the Clock Tower. A man sat at the far end of the bench, one leg over the other and his arm stretched out along the back. His head tilted back to catch the early morning sun, his eyes guarded under a pair of expensive sunglasses. He looked perfectly at ease with the setting, and Jeff stopped in the shadows of the tree to stare at him.

Impossible.

No wonder they hadn’t found Raul yesterday. Based on the most practical deductions of their world, they had assumed he would be destitute, a man out of his element, lost in a strange land without knowing the rules of his new environment.

The man on the bench didn’t have any of those problems. In a pressed grey suit with shiny black shoes, a trimmed beard, and stylish sunglasses, Raul could have stepped right out of Forbes Magazine.

“Jeffrey, is that you lurking over there?” he called out. Jeff stepped out from behind his tree. “I see Philippe managed to pass along my message.”

“Is that an Armani suit?” Jeff asked, still shocked at Raul’s appearance.

“Savile Row,” Raul corrected, patting the bench next to him. “Now have a seat so we can catch up without cramping my neck. I was going to invite you to this café I frequent, but thought you might be more comfortable out in the open.”

Jeff perched on the far end of the bench, and Raul chuckled. “I see we might have gone for cappuccinos after all. Come now, Jeffrey, I promise not to harm you.”

“From what I hear, you couldn’t even if you wanted to. Your magic’s gone.”

Raul sighed. Slowly, with the grace Jeff remembered so clearly, the ex-sorcerer pulled off his sunglasses, folded them, and tucked one end into his breast pocket so they dangled from his shirt. Jeff caught a glimpse of the Versace brand on the arm of the glasses before it disappeared.

“You heard correctly, although it hardly seems courteous or politic of you to mention it so bluntly. I’ve lost a great deal of who I am.”

Jeff could relate. Sort of.

“You lost the part of you that topples cities into ruins.”

Raul crossed his hands over his knee. “That’s only a hobby. I am so much more than my destruction. I create, as well. You remember my bear.”

Jeff glowered, his hands clenched into fists in his lap.

Raul leaned back and stared out into the Saint Lawrence. “Although, to speak frankly, I’m glad to have been given this opportunity. The chance to experience your city without the ability to destroy it. I like your world.”

“How wonderful.”

“Isn’t it?” Raul said, ignoring Jeff’s sarcasm. “I’ve learned how much fun it is watching other people destroy one another. I leave on the news stations just to see the creative means people have discovered to make life miserable for their fellow human beings. I also have quite an affinity for your architecture. And your coffees.”

Jeff’s patience hung by a thread. This conversation was going in no way as Jeff expected. But then, Raul had always been a genius at veering away from expectation. Questions flurried through Jeff’s mind, and he didn’t know where to start. He landed on what he thought was the most important issue.

“Why did you want to see me?”

“I’ve missed you!” Raul replied with a grin.

With the sunglasses off, Jeff could see the sorcerer wasn’t nearly as composed as he wanted people to think. On the surface, he appeared tidy and confident. The eyes, skittishly roaming the quay, jumping at every movement of tree shadows, betrayed a certain degree of madness, a wild insanity that made Jeff wish he was much farther away than the other end of the bench.

“Not just that, of course,” Raul continued. “I thought you might have heard by now that Jayden and Brady were taken into my care this morning. I didn’t want you to worry.”

“How did you even know they were here?”

Raul’s eyebrow quirked. “My dear boy, do you think I’ve haven’t kept a close eye on you since my arrival?”

“But—how?”

“You’re far from invisible, Jeffrey. On the contrary, I’ve watched your interviews on television with pride and joy. And I’ve read your books. Most excellent, although my point of comparison is rather small.” Raul smiled. “But I digress. In my circle of friends, it becomes a point of security to watch our potential enemies. Imagine my surprise when I heard you had company. And that you were searching for me!”

Jeff thought of the man in the mint green sweater. As suspicious and obvious as he’d been, Jeff had never figured out how he might be connected to Raul.
It’s not paranoia if someone is really following you.

“At first I considered coming out in the open and letting you know I was here, but once I heard that Feldall bastard and my dear protégé were with you—well, I didn’t want to make things more complicated.”

“How considerate. Why did you take them? Why not just stay hidden once you knew we were looking for you?”

Raul’s smile widened. “Because I need them.” The grin faded, and he bobbed his head, rethinking his answer. “I need Brady. Jayden is an added benefit if it will keep his sister and that enchantress out of my hair for a while, but Brady, if he can be convinced to help me, will be a great asset to my plans.”

“He won’t agree to it,” said Jeff, surprised Raul would even consider it. “He loathes you.”

Raul rested his hand over his heart. “Your words wound me, Jeffrey. But no matter. He helps or he doesn’t, but either way I can’t have them interfering. I just thought he would rather align with me than die a horrible death. That will be up to him.”

Raul pulled up his sleeve to read the Gucci watchface. “I hate to cut this short, but I’m afraid I have another rendez-vous to attend. I don’t suppose you and Miss Murphy would care to accompany me? I’m sure you have more questions.”

Jeff’s spine straightened, and he turned his head to the left, noticing Cassie sitting against the tree behind Raul. The sorcerer may have been without magic, but apparently still had eyes in the back of his head.

Cheeks flushed, Cassie rose to her feet and came forward. Raul stood and took her hand, bending over to place a kiss on the back of it. Cassie stood statue-still, but Jeff read the fury in her eyes and admired her restraint for not slapping him.

“You look lovely, my dear,” said Raul.

“I must say, so do you. How’d you manage that? Summon a boatload of cash before you lost all of your magic?”

Raul clicked his tongue in disapproval, looking from Cassie to Jeff. “Your generation has lost all sense of courtesy.” He looked back at Cassie. “As it happens, I met a few generous individuals on my arrival here. Come, let’s walk to my car as I explain.”

Jeff took Cassie’s hand, and the two trailed behind Raul. The sorcerer talked without checking to see if they followed. Once his back was to them, Cassie gave Jeff a nudge, gesturing to the otherwise empty park. Jeff wished he didn’t understand what she was suggesting, but knew she was right. If they were going to stop him, gain the upper hand, this might be their only opportunity. Who knew where Raul was trying to take them.

He gave her a reluctant nod, and they both leapt, ready to tackle the sorcerer to the ground.

In mid-air, Jeff crashed into a wall and hit the ground with a thud, Cassie landing next to him. He groaned and shook out his head to clear the ringing, his skin tingling with the magic. He recognised the sensations, but didn’t know how it was possible. The effect had been similar to the barrier spell Raul had kept around Treevale. But how had he cast it? And why hadn’t Jeff’s amulet worked to pass him through it?

Cassie sat up and held her hand to her head. Together they looked up to find Raul standing over them, an expression of disappointment on his face.

“Did you think that because I have no power, I don’t have tricks? You forget my pets. I’m a man of experimentation as well as magic.”

“How?” Jeff asked, mouth still dry from the shock of the impact.

Raul’s smile returned, no apparent anger in his eyes, and reached into his jacket pocket. When his hand reappeared, a silver sphere sat in his palm, two perpendicular seals open to reveal the swirling peach-coloured spell within. “As though Fate favoured me, I learned how to harness this little gem months before our trip through the vortex. It’s a propulsion spell for people who, what’s the expression I’ve heard so often here, enter my personal space. It turned out to come in handy as a self-defense tool.” He stared at the sphere in admiration. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Inconvenient
, Jeff thought.

Raul slipped the sphere back in his pocket and turned on his heel. “If you two have finished being ungrateful visitors, perhaps we could continue? I really am strapped for time.”

Jeff and Cassie exchanged a glance. What other choice did they have? If they couldn’t stop him, they could only follow. They had to find Brady and Jayden.

Cassie nodded in reply to Jeff’s silent question and he held out a hand to help her up. Glaring daggers at Raul’s back, they followed him out of the park without further trouble.

“As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted,” Raul continued, “after Magdalen cast the Meratis incantation and sent you home, I somehow got lost in the vortex and popped out far away from you two.” He laughed. “I think it would have been quite cozy if I had landed with you. I could have stayed as your roommate, Jeffrey.”

Jeff’s eye twitched, and he felt Cassie’s fingers tighten around his.

“As chance would have it, I stumbled into the back courtyard of an office building. It was the end of the day and most people had gone for the evening. Only a small group saw me ‘pop out of nowhere,’ as they described it. Executives in an investment firm. I don’t think it could have gone better if I’d planned it. I’ve learned that no one carries ambition quite like a businessman. It clings to them like a potent cologne.

“I promised to endow them with great power once I returned to my world, and in exchange they agreed to help me maintain a certain lifestyle. One I claimed I was used to. I never dreamed it would be so luxurious. Dinners at the most expensive restaurants, a room at the Hotel le Saint James, the best clothes, and most comfortable shoes. Women!”

He brought the tips of his fingers to his lips in a gesture of appreciation.

“Even at my peak in Andvell I haven’t lived as well I have the last couple of months in your world.”

“I’m thrilled you’ve been able to enjoy our hospitality,” said Cassie.

They reached the road, and Raul stopped next to a sleek black towncar. A driver in a chauffeur’s hat and jacket got out, walked around to the side, and opened the back door.

Cassie shot Jeff a look, and he shrugged. Nothing Raul could do in the back of the car, he figured. And at least this way they wouldn’t have to pay the cab fare.

Raul got in first and Cassie and Jeff climbed in across from him to face the rear. The car pulled away from the curb without any directions from Raul.

Jeff glanced sidelong at the driver and tried to make his next question as normal as possible. “So you’re saying they just believed your story? This guy comes out of nowhere, makes all these ridiculous promises, and they just think, ‘That sounds cool’? Seems pretty lucky.”

“It’s amazing what people will do once you’ve demonstrated you can give them something in return,” Raul continued, seeming not to care that the chauffeur could hear him. “If I hadn’t arrived so suddenly in that courtyard, I would very likely be where you expected to find me. Who would have believed me? But have you already forgotten that I didn’t lose everything in my travels? I still have my wits and one or two souvenirs from home. In the face of such obvious proof, how could they deny me?”

Jeff couldn’t imagine how it must have appeared to the executives, but if it was anything like his own experiences, he could remember. The initial disbelief and the determination not to buy in to a fantasy story. The gradual acceptance as the evidence came forward. In Raul’s case, he would have arrived strangely dressed, covered in blood, likely furious and possibly raving like a lunatic by Jeff’s last glimpse of him before they disappeared in the vortex. But once he calmed down, he would have been charming and persuasive, like he had been at Jeff’s introduction. With the pocket-spell sphere and whatever else Raul carried with him, Jeff guessed it would be just as easy to believe a crazy world-jumping tale as anything else.

“So do you plan to give them what you promised them?”

“Of course. It would be terrible of me not to. I am a man of my word. To which Miss Murphy can attest.”

Jeff heard Cassie’s teeth grind together across the car, her blue gaze sharp as knife points.

They rode in silence the rest of the way to the entrance of Mont Royal Park, where the cars had already started to gather in the parking lot to take in the view of the city. Raul waited until the driver came to open his door, Cassie and Jeff scrambling behind him.