The Book of Time

Chapter 2

"I will go with you to his office," Thomas said.

"No. I have something else for you to do," Shay said. She was fully dressed in jeans, a sweater, a jacket and a scarf. Her hair was very thick and long and she never tied it up so she almost never wore a hat. She placed the sheet of paper into the envelope and sealed it. She handed it to him. "There's a man at the library. His name is Marcos McIntyre. He's the one with the very impressive mustache. Give this to him and wait on a reply. You have five hours."

"It will not take me that long," he said. Why, after six months, did she suddenly want him out of the castle?

"What you do with the rest of the time is up to you," she said. Thomas didn't move. "What is the problem? I'm sorry but I have no money to give to you to spend." She was never paid in money.

"That isn't my problem. It just seems a little sudden. You only came back last night. You should be resting. Is there something you don't want me to know?"

"If I didn't want you to know then do you think I would tell you just because you asked? You should know me better by now," Shay said. She leaned back in her chair. "You don't like being confined to the castle. I'm giving you five free hours and you are wasting them here questioning me. I need that reply." She pointed to the door.

Thomas said nothing more and left.

********

He hadn't seen the sun in six months. The tunnels were always dark, and cold. Everything outside was so bright and hot.

He didn't miss it one bit.

When Thomas had first arrived in the Capital, he'd done a sweep of the entire city so it didn't take him long to find the library and the librarian. He was sitting behind a desk at the very back of the reference section. His mustache really was impressive.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Shailene Curtis sent me with this," Thomas said. He handed him the letter.

McIntyre looked at the seal then back at him. "Where's Nina?"

"Doing work. Shay said I needed to wait on the answer."

The man glanced at him again and then broke the seal and took out the letter. His eyes quickly scanned through the words then he pulled out a pen and started writing. He sealed the envelope. He handed it to Thomas.

"Tell Shay she needs to start coming herself," McIntyre said.

"That isn't an option right now," Thomas said. He put the envelope in the inside pocket of his jacket. He didn't wait to hear a reply. He had another stop to make. Hopefully Gavin wouldn't try to kill him. That would be so inconvenient. Shay had recently ordered a new set of clothes for him and this was the first chance he'd gotten to wear them. Gavin always aimed for his chest.

He stopped by Gavin's house first but he wasn't there. He and May had had another argument and she'd kicked him out... again. He didn't really care what the reason was since Gavin most likely deserved it. If he wasn't home, then the next place he would be was at a club somewhere and Thomas had an idea of which club.

Thomas walked to the edge of the city where it got progressively darker and dirtier. He could hear and see the dragons that flew over the city. At least the sabre tooth tigers had been gotten rid of. Those were always a nuisance.

He stopped at a club. He could hear the music from outside. The bouncer looked as if he was going to stop him. Thomas took off his shades and glared at him and the man let him through. That was the only benefit for having one orange eye, because of his fire ability, and one purple eye, because of the electric ability in his cybernetic right arm. They were scary on their own and when a person knew what those colors meant, he was terrifying. The fact that he was half-Isreali and half-Saudi Arabian helped.