"Me?" He was still looking into the distance. "I'm nobody, compared to you people." Then he gave a little wry smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I'm expendable."
Nissa caught Keller's eye in the rearview mirror, looking concerned. Keller just shrugged. Sure, Winnie was telling this expendable guy a lot. But it didn't matter. He wasn't on the enemy side; and anyway, the enemy knew everything Winnie was saying. They had identified Iliana as the third Wild Power; the dragon proved that. They wouldn't have sent him if they hadn't been sure.
But still, it was time to get rid of this interfering boy. They certainly couldn't take him to the safe house where they were taking Iliana.
"Nobody tailing us?" Keller said.
Nissa shook her head. "We lost them all miles ago."
"You're sure?"
"Dead certain."
"Okay. Take any exit, and we'll drop him off." She turned to Galen. "I hope you can find your way home."
'I want to go with you."
"Sorry. We have important things to do." Keller didn't need to add, And you're not part of them. "Look." Galen took a deep breath. His pale face was strained and exhausted, as if he'd somehow lost three days' sleep since he'd gotten into the limo. And there was something close to desperation in his eyes. "I need to go with you. I need to help, to try and make up for what I did. I need to make it right."
"You can't." Keller said it even more brusquely than she meant to. "You're not trained, and you're not involved in this. You're no good."
He gave her a look. It didn't disagree with anything she'd said, but somehow, for just an instant, it made her feel small. His greeny-gold eyes were just the opposite of the dragon's opaque ones. Keller could see for miles in them, endless light-filled fathoms, and it was all despair. A sorrow so great that it shook her. She knew it must be costing him a lot to show her that, to hold himself so open and vulnerable. But he kept looking at her steadily.
"You don't understand," he said quietly. I have to help you. I have to try, at least. I know I'm not in your class as a fighter. But I..." He hesitated. "I didn't want to say this-"
At that moment, Iliana groaned and sat up.
Or tried to. She didn't make it all the way. She put a hand to her head and started to fall off the seat. Galen steadied her, putting an arm around her to keep her propped up.
"Are you all right?" Keller asked. She leaned forward, trying to get a look at the girl's face. Winnie was leaning forward, too, her expression eager.
"How're you feeling? You're not really hurt, are you? You just fainted from the shock."
Diana looked around the limousine. She seemed utterly confused and disoriented.
Keller was struck again by the girl's unearthly beauty. This close, she looked like a flower, or maybe a girl made from flowers. She had peach-blossom skin and hazy iris-colored eyes. Her hair was like corn silk, fine and shimmering even in this dim light. Her hands were small and graceful, fingers half curled like flower petals.
"It's such an honor to meet you," Winnie said, and her voice turned formal as she uttered the traditional greeting of the witches. "Unity, Daughter of Hellewise. I'm Winfrith Arlin." She dimpled. "But it's really 'Arm-of-Lightning.' My family's an old one, almost as old as yours."
Diana stared at her. Then she stared at the back of Nissa's mink-colored head. Then her eyes slid to Keller.
Then she sucked in a deep breath and started screaming.
Chapter 4
Winnie's jaw dropped.
"You-you-keep away from me!" Iliana said, and then she got another breath and started shrieking again. She had good lungs, Keller thought The shrieks were not only loud, they were piercing and pitched high enough to shatter glass. Keller's sensitive eardrums felt as if somebody were driving ice picks through them.
"All of you!" Iliana said. She was holding out both hands to fend them off. "Just let me go! I want to go home!"
Winnie's face cleared a little. "Yeah, I'll bet you do. But, you see, that place is dangerous. We're going to take you somewhere safe-"
"You kidnapped me! Oh, God, I've been kidnapped. My parents aren't rich. What do you want?"
Winnie looked at Keller for help.
Keller was watching their prize Wild Power
grimly. She was getting a bad feeling about this girl.
'It's nothing like that." She kept her voice quiet and level, trying to cut through the hysteria. "You-don't you even talk to me!" Iliana waved a hand at Keller desperately. "I saw. You changed. You were a monster! There was blood all over- you killed that man." She buried her face in her hands and began to sob.
"No, she didn't." Winnie tried to put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "And anyway, he attacked me first."
"He did not. He didn't touch you." The words were muffled and jerky.
"He didn't touch me, no, but-" Winnie broke off, looking puzzled. She tried again. "Not with his hands, but-"
In the front seat, Nissa shook her head slightly, amused. "Boss-"
Tm way ahead of you," Keller said grimly. This was going to be difficult. Iliana didn't even know that the dragon was the bad guy. All she had seen was a boy trying to talk with her, a girl inexplicably flying against a wall, and a panther that attacked unprovoked.
Keller's head hurt.
"I want to go home," Iliana repeated. All at once, with surprising speed, she lunged for the door handle. It took Keller's animal reflexes to block her, and the movement sent another pang through her injured shoulder.
Strangely, as it happened, pain seemed to flicker