Reborn

Chapter Twenty One

An hour later, I was heavily regretting informing Shadow of my whereabouts. Not only had I gone against Vince's wishes but I knew that I couldn't trust him to stay away. I hoped he would; he had promised me, after all, but where my safety was concerned, he wouldn't care about a measly promise he made. I knew that for a fact.

There was nothing I could do now though. I wasn't going to tell Vince or Marl what I had done, though I suspected Shadow may end up calling one of them and telling them anyway.

If Shadow did turn up, then the three of us would just have to leave and if that happened, I wouldn't tell him where we were going. Until then, I just had to put it out of my mind and hope that he wouldn't come and check on me. He knew I was okay now so I prayed that would be enough.

"Problem?" Marl asked, his voice making me feel guilty all of a sudden.

"No." I lied, shooting him a quick smile before turning my attention back to my 'work'. Vince had gone out for supplies and hadn't told us when he'd be back so that left Marl and I alone.

I was currently attempting to copy the pages of the grimoire, which was hard enough without the pages being worn and some of the letters difficult to decipher. It had clearly been read a lot so I knew it would take a while for me to be confident I could fake it. Hell, I wasn't even certain I could fake it without it being obvious that's what I had done.

"This will work." Marl said. "Have faith."

"Right," I snorted. "Have faith that I can pull this off without being killed the second I hand it over?"

"We will not allow any harm to come to you." He promised. "Vince chose you for this because he trusts you. He trusts that you can pull this off."

"Vince hardly knows me." I pointed out, turning in my seat to look at him. "Why didn't he just ask Alec or Leah?"

"Alec?" His eyebrows rose in disbelief.

I laughed softly. "Yeah, okay. Stupid question."

"You can do this."

"It's not like I have much of a choice." I muttered under my breath, even though he could hear me. I was a little frustrated that Vince had told me I didn't have to do this if I didn't want to, especially when he knows that I wouldn't risk anyone else getting hurt. He knew exactly what to say to get me to go along with his plan and while I admired his tenacity, it was a little grating at times.

"Take a break." Marl then said, his footsteps approaching. Before I'd even had a chance to speak, he had plucked he grimoire from my hands and snapped it shut, keeping a tight grip on it as he looked down at me.

"I'm allowed a break?" I asked in disbelief. I'd assumed I would have had to continue working on the fake grimoire until it was finished.

He nodded. "Go."

Well, I didn't need to be told twice.

Heading over to the door, I paused, craning my head around to look at him. "Marl?"

"Yes?" He didn't look at me, his eyes fixed on the grimoire in a strange fascination.

"If Shadow knew about this plan, if he knew it's the only thing that could work... do you really think he'd be so against it?" I only asked for my peace of mind because I didn't like having to keep things from him, especially not something this huge. This was a plan he should be involved in too, I knew that for a fact. So to know I had to keep in the dark didn't sit right with me.

"He would not risk your life." Marl responded.

I faltered, chewing on my bottom lip. "It really is risking my life, isn't it?"