Between Gates (The Gate Chronicles Book 1)

Chapter 8: Blackmail

Chenn thought about what he’d done. He’d joined Amory because Amory had promised that they were righting things. He’d said that the Balance was in danger, and Andrew Parci was the source of the danger.

At first, Chenn hadn’t believed Amory. Andrew was a kind, generous person. Of course Chenn didn’t know him personally. He’d only talked to him once when he was interviewed for the second time. Andrew had said that Chenn showed promise. That’s why the interviewer had brought him to Andrew. And Andrew had accepted him into the MBC despite his so-called criminal record on Earth.

That was why Chenn had a hard time believing Amory. He still had doubts, but Amory had pointed out that there had been an influx of incidents with powerful magical creatures being released. He had proved that Andrew and Indri were the only two with access to the half of the spell book that would allow such powerful beings to be brought out of the Dark Realms.

It was a good thing, Amory had told him, that Andrew didn’t have the East Base half of the Books of Spells. And faced with such obvious evidence, Chenn believed Amory.

Now though, he was having doubts. He had been close with Indri, and he could only imagine how disappointed his teacher would be. Indri didn’t show emotion in any severe way, but Chenn knew that his teacher still had powerful ones. His eyes could never quite hide what he was feeling from Chenn. Other people might not see it, but Chenn did.

But Chenn couldn’t go back now. West Base knew he had gone with Amory. They would see him as a traitor, and besides that, his teacher was helping and following Andrew, the betrayer of justice and the Balance. Chenn couldn’t abide the idea of returning and apologizing to Andrew for what he believed was right.

“Chenn? What are you doing out here?”

He froze. Vanessa’s soft, lithe form pressed gently against him in the dark. She moved away a second later. He rolled his eyes. Nymphs were so flirtatious, and they never seemed to give up once they decided they wanted a guy.

“Sorry. Didn’t see exactly where you were. I just felt your emotions and knew the general area.”

She was lying. Chenn knew it. She was an Empathic – all nymphs were – and she could get a good idea of other people’s locations just by where their feelings were coming from. She’d bumped into him on purpose.

“Vanessa, drop the act. I already told you in front of everyone that I wasn’t yours to mess around with. Stop bothering me.”

“Stop playing hard to get.”

“Shut up. I don’t want to talk to you.”

She gave a huff. “You’re such a pain.”

“If I’m such a pain, why are you still here?”

“Because I still want you. Why not go out together just once?”

Chenn rolled his eyes, turning to face her. “You never give up, do you? Where are we going to go out? Vanessa, we don’t get paid much for this job. The only reason we got paid when we were on West Base was because MBC has some very rich beings that sponsor it. They have a particular interest in making sure that the universe never gets thrown into another Dark Ages. Earth wasn't the only one to plunge into the Dark Ages, you know. Whole galaxies were plunged into darkness because of the unrest in the Balance.”