Michael (The Curse) (The Airel Saga, Book 3: Part 5-6) by Aaron Patterson, Chris White Page B

past this little scuffle quickly.”
    Ellie’s face was beautifully sinister, and I believed if she could have, she would have growled at me.
    I scowled back at her, then looked down at her sword in my hand. “Think fast,” I said, twirling the grips of the sword around in my hand. I flipped it down and around and tossed it end over end, right at her head.
    She caught it directly in front of her face, one-handed by the grips, and smiled at me.
    “I’ve got my own in the car, so don’t mess with me,” I said.
    “You, young lady, need to get over yourself,” she said.
    Precisely, She said, and I rolled my eyes and turned away from Ellie, but only slightly. I wasn’t sure I could trust her yet.
    Michael caught my eye and I knew he felt for me. “We’re all looking for Kreios. We should work together.” His gaze on me intensified. “Just like Ellie was trying to say.”
    “It’s true,” she added, heaping hot coals on me.
    “I’m sorry, okay? It takes me a while to make friends.” I kicked a brick, making it plop over. “Especially after I get attacked for no reason.”
    “Airel, please accept my apology. As I said, I didn’t know it was you.”
    I looked Ellie in the eyes. I decided to trust her. For now. But she didn’t need to know that.
    “Ellie,” Michael said, “we were hoping to find some clue as to where he’s headed.”
    She laughed. “What? You think he was going to leave you a note or something?”
    Kim giggled, but turned serious when she looked at me.
    “No,” Michael said. “I’m a tracker. I don’t need much. Just thought maybe you’d found something.”
    “Not yet. I’m still looking for clues myself. I’m still too far behind, unfortunately, to make much of what I have. I’ve been going round to suspicious-looking sites and taking notes. What happened, how many were killed, stuff like that. Intel.”
    “Can’t God see what’s going on and just stop it?” Kim asked.
    “Sure. But El has his ways and I don’t question. I just do as I’m told.” Ellie looked away off to the distance, her eyes illuminating a depth of experience that I knew I lacked. It made me jealous. “I really need to be on my way....”
    “The cops are after us,” I blurted out.
    “Are you bragging?” she asked.
    “No. Just … it’s probably a good idea for you to clear out,” I said.
    The wind was still gusting, but it was drier because the rain wasn’t coming down with it.
    Michael shook his head. “No. We should work together. We’ll be better equipped to find him, and more quickly, if we go after him together.”
    “You want me to take orders from you, Demon Boy?” Ellie said.
    “No,” Michael said, “I just want you to be reasonable.”
    “That’s pretty funny, coming from you. Oh, yes, I know all about your situation. Word gets around. And you talk about being reasonable?”
    I wondered how much she could know, though. If I were a betting kind of girl, which I wasn’t, but if I were, my money would be on fatal shock whenever she found out about Michael writing in my Book. She just couldn’t know about any of that.
    “Believe it or not, yeah, I am talking about being reasonable,” Michael said. “I’m not going to get into all the reasons for or against right now, but it’s pretty obvious—even to Little Demon Boy— that this is a time for, I guess you might call it ‘consolidation of force.’ Even if the truce between us is uneasy.”
    Ellie spat on the ground and it sizzled in the dust of brick and mortar. Was she convinced? I couldn’t tell.
    “We need you,” Michael continued. “Come on. You can’t tell me that you’re not at least a little suspicious that this is El, and not a chance meeting.” He paused. “Airel needs you too,” he said, looking at me, and I wanted to kill him where he stood. “She’ll never admit it, but she needs anyone and everyone who can help her find her grandfather.”
    I gave him the stink eye.
    “Yeah, I know exactly what