Behind the Bitmask by Jessica Kagan

Author:Jessica Kagan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2019-10-24T19:10:49+00:00

My phone was ringing again. It was a dark and stormy night ripped straight from a cheesy horror film, and I didn’t recognize the number. For a moment, I considered not taking the call for fear of a phone phreaking technique that magicians could use to detonate your phone if you picked up. Then I remembered that modern phone exchanges and cell towers had been able to filter that stuff out since the late 1990s, so I grudgingly got out of bed and accepted the call. I hoped this wasn’t going to become a habit.

“Hey, Charlotte, I need a place to crash for a bit. Is yours okay?”

Within 15 minutes, Azure knocked on my door, and we were reunited. I suspected Azure would try to hold out against Sigmar’s assault for a few days, but this outcome where she definitely survived was probably better.

“How come you’re not defending your lands?” I asked Azure, once we’d got the usual formalities (read: sex) out of the way and were cuddled up in bed.

“I told my people to immediately surrender. We may have had the resources to hold out if Sigmar had attacked earlier, but now that he’s got Terrorize and Ravage, there’s not much we can do except die pointlessly,” she explained.

“They’re that bad, eh?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. There’s this tape circulating around hell from when they were besieging the fortress of Solaris – they literally grabbed his defenders off the walls and devoured them. They’ve also got huge cannons for when they’re done playing with their opponents.”

Azure paused for a moment, and her eyes bulged slightly for a second. “What if Sigmar kills my underlings for not giving him a fight? Charlotte, you’ve worked under Sigmar. Would he do such a thing?” she asked.

“Personally, I don’t think Sigmar’s reasons for killing are that rational,” I snarked...which was probably the wrong thing to do, but Azure smiled slightly.

“A few of them were definitely planning acts of sabotage once I left, now that I think about it,” Azure said after a minute.

“Sabotage? If I’d known how strong Sigmar was, I would’ve tried that before hiring an assassin.”

“I told them it was too dangerous, but that didn’t stop them from blowing up my precious teleporter! I needed that thing to make dramatic entrances and save money on postage! They aren’t very good at concealing their thoughts.”

That sounded suspiciously like telepath talk, and I considered the ramifications of that for a moment.

“Yes, Charlotte, I am a telepath,” continued Azure, as if I’d spoken instead of merely thinking. “But I still need to use a phone for anyone more than...I’d say about a mile away.”

That makes my first telepath. I shouldn’t be surprised; I’m from Earth. Everyone I know who liked the idea of telepathic powers ended up buying a cell phone instead. I’m guessing there aren’t many telepaths in hell, either – there’d be more tinfoil hat models in the local fashion shows.

Azure interrupted my train of thought. She turned her head to face me, and we stared straight into each others’ eyes for a moment.

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