The cat’s eye clattered against the tabletop.

How long before Lienna realized the necklace she wore was the shark-tooth pendant? How long before she realized I’d switched them, and all this time I’d been projecting a vision of the cat’s eye pendant into her brain? She’d thought she was safe from my ability, but I’d had her mind in my hold since the moment she removed the protective spell from around her neck.

Slapping her phone down, a text message conversation open on the screen, Maggie yanked the stopper out of the vial and took a sip of the contents, then passed it to me.

I poured the second dose into my mouth. Bitter onion bloomed over my tongue. Yuck.

“It’ll only last a few minutes,” she warned.

I grabbed her hand. “Then let’s go!”

We bolted across the dining floor and behind the counter. Ignoring the barista’s angry protest, I hauled Maggie through the back room and out the rear door. We rushed into a damp alley.

Were Lienna and Agent Cutter backtracking yet? If they returned to the café, the barista could point them in our direction.

As we sprinted down the alley, Maggie’s phone rang, the sound bouncing off the surrounding buildings. She pressed it to her ear. “We’re heading toward 12th Avenue. Can you be there in—yes, perfect!”

“Who was that?” I demanded as we cut left down a narrow street.

“I had someone waiting to pick me up.”

Ah, Maggie. So paranoid. I loved it.

Drizzly rain clung to my hair and chilled the back of my neck as we jogged down several more streets and into another alley. Ahead, I could see the corner of 12th. Almost there. Almost safe.

As we raced for the corner, a beat-up sedan the color of a bad sunburn pulled across the alley opening, blocking it. The passenger door swung wide, the driver reaching across the seat to open it, his face in shadow.

A beaming smile of relief spread across Maggie’s face, and she sprinted ahead of me. As I scrambled to follow, my own relief lightened my body. Yes! I was escaping! The moment I got in that car, I’d be home free.

“Hi, baby,” Maggie gushed breathlessly, sliding onto the seat.

Baby? She had a baby? Since when? A weirdly affectionate, bubbly happiness spread through my chest, competing with the cold suspicion that was overtaking my relief.

I’d been heading for the car’s back door, but instead, I veered toward the passenger door. Maggie grabbed the handle to swing it shut in my face. I caught the edge and shoved it back open. Bending down, I looked across her to the driver.

The man smiled in a friendly way. “Hey, Kit.”

My mouth hung open. I knew that blond-haired, blue-eyed Garrett Hedlund lookalike.

“Quentin?” I blurted.

“Quentin,” Maggie cooed, leaning across the center console to nuzzle his shoulder with her face. “I missed you.”

“Missed you too, Mags.”

I was … so … confused.

The empath wrapped his arm around her waist as he studied me. “Maggie said you’re working with the MPD and you set her up. That true, Kit?”

She hadn’t wasted any time filling him in while I lured Lienna and Agent Cutter away, had she?

“I wasn’t setting her up,” I told him tersely. “I was escaping, just like you did. I want to come with you.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to join in on whatever the hell they had going on, but I needed to get in that car. Lienna and Agent Cutter were probably searching for my trail. I had minutes at best, seconds at worst, to disappear.

Quentin arched his eyebrows. “We don’t got room in here for traitors.”

“I’m a traitor? What about you? You sent Jeff and Geoff after me!” I wasn’t sure why that was relevant to the conversation. I could have countered with something about how I’d only cooperated as a way to escape, but I was too distracted by the way Maggie was half crawling into Quentin’s lap while cooing affectionately—and the unsettling urge I had to do the same thing.

“I sent them after any MagiPol assholes who were following me. Not my fault you switched sides.” He shook his head. “How long have you been their bitch, Kit?”

“I’m still on your side, Quentin. I just needed to get away. Now I’m away.”

“Too late, man. Me and Mags were gonna invite you in on our plans, but I’m not risking everything for a rat.”

He reached across Maggie and grabbed the door handle. I tightened my grip on the top of the door, opening my mouth to argue.

“Bye-bye, Kit.”

His blue eyes fixed on me—and a potent blast of fear weakened my legs. As I staggered backward, he yanked the door from my grasp. It slammed shut. The engine revved, then the car pulled away. It zoomed into the misty rain.

I stared after them, the cold drizzle soaking my hair.

That was it. The two people who were the closest semblances to friends I had in Vancouver had left me on the curb like a heap of useless trash.

Chapter Thirteen

As I stood there in a pathetic stupor, the obnoxious squeal of air brakes pierced my ears. Twenty yards down the street, a city bus had pulled up at a stop. The doors creaked open and a pair of women in business slacks got off while an old lady with an umbrella and a cane waited to board.

Maggie’s anti-telethesian potion had probably expired by now, and this neighborhood would be crawling with agents in a matter of minutes.

I bolted down the sidewalk. The slow granny had inched onto the bus, and I jumped in after her. She tapped her bus pass on the card reader next to the driver and it flashed green.

I, of course, was sans wallet. My bus pass was in the care of the MPD, along with my credit cards, driver’s license, and a Starbucks gift card worth a whopping ten bucks.

Focusing on the bus driver, I stuck my arm out. The bus pass hallucination in my real hand tapped the reader, and I added an approving green light before shuffling toward the back of the bus. As I sank onto a seat across from the rear door, the bus accelerated away from the café.

Breathing slow and deep, I closed my eyes.

It hadn’t gone to plan, but I’d done it. I’d escaped.

Well, sort of. There was the telethesian problem. All Agent Cutter had to do was find my trail at the bus stop and he could, in theory, track me forever. Imagine a predator—a bearded, plaid-adorned, axe-wielding predator—who could always find you. It was the ultimate “you can run, but you can’t hide” situation.

It was almost as scary as the Predator predator.

I knew a few methods to slow down or throw off a telethesian, but they weren’t all that convenient. My best shot was sticking to vehicular travel. Though it wouldn’t obscure my psychic trail, it would hamper Agent Cutter’s tracking progress.

The bus took me into the downtown core where I switched to another. After a few blocks, I got off and grabbed another one headed in a different direction, each time using my bus pass hallucination to board.

One more bus change and I found myself heading into a coastal suburb called Deep Cove that had a sleepy, Hallmark vibe to it. The sun had set and the streets were quiet.

Not good. Not good at all.

Don’t get me wrong; I desperately wanted to buy an artisanal donut, get some organic kombucha, and book a week-long stay at a cozy bed and breakfast. But if I rounded up all the people I could see on the street, I wouldn’t be able to field an entire baseball team, and that was a problem, because mixing in with a crowd was another way to muddy a telethesian’s tracking.