Sleight of Hand: The Final Card

Chapter 1

Hali stumbled as her feet met solid ground, gasping when she almost fell and spilled the con­tents of the box she was holding. She breathed heavily, clutching the box to her chest. The light from the box cast a rainbow of colors on her face. Her features shifted from shock to fury.

She had almost done it.

She had almost escaped the Elite with all of the Super­human cards. If it hadn't been for Trebor, she would have done just that. Still, Hali had to admit that what he'd done was slick, and maybe a little crazy.

But he'd succeeded in taking the Elite's cards back. The ones she'd needed to steal the most.

"Hali!" Seamus barked, whisking into the room. He wore a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and dress pants and shoes. His neatly cut, dark hair was askew and messy. His eyes flashed angrily with purple light—the light of Hali's power. His human features were trained into a scowl.

Hali didn't want anything more than to snatch her power back. She wanted to betray the man who called himself The Mage so badly. But she couldn't. Not yet. Not when she still needed him to do the dirty work for her.

It would've been better if the Elite hadn't found out about her plan. About her true colors. She'd blindsided them... a sleight of hand, so to speak. But now they knew who she really was and what her intentions were.

"Did you get them?" Seamus asked, already staring at the box hungrily.

"Sort of," Hali admitted as Seamus snatched the shoebox away from her. His eyes snapped up and met her gaze. Hali mindfully kept her face neutral, even a little fearful. Which wasn't hard... the Mage looked slightly frenzied.

"What do you mean, 'sort of'?" he asked quietly. The purple light in his eyes pulsed agitatedly.

"I almost escaped with them all. But..."

The Mage glowered. "What happened?"

"Trebor."

The Mage's features darkened, making him appear truly evil. "I should have known," he muttered, palming through the multicolored cards in the shoebox. He stud­ied Hali thoughtfully for a moment. His gaze made her uncomfortable, but she didn't let on. She had to be the image of a submissive Superhuman, under his control, not the other way around. Otherwise, her plan would fail. Again.

"That boy is going to find himself meeting a very painful end," the Mage mused. "He should not have sur­vived when I crushed his card. But he did, because of... Aivilo."

Hali replied, "She's not the one you need to worry about." The Mage cocked an eyebrow. Hali continued, "Aivilo fears her power. Fears herself."

The Mage's cruelly shaped lips tugged into a smirk. "Oh, really?" he asked, and Hali nodded.

"She's not what she used to be. She's still powerful, but she won't let herself use that power."

Hali eyed the Mage seriously. "But don't discard her completely. If she learns to overcome her fear, there won't be anything stopping her."

The Mage wandered over to a sofa in his living room and plopped down, still stroking the glowing cards absent­mindedly.

"What else did you find?" he asked her. Hali perched delicately on the chair opposite him, ensuring the coffee table was between them. True, she was in league with The Mage, but that didn't mean she trusted him one bit.

"Well... Kurtis currently has fifteen people in his house, including your family. They're all taking refuge together."

The Mage winced at that. His scowl grew deeper.