The Sorcerer's Ring (Book 1) by Julius St. Clair Page A

stairs.
    “No,” Remi replied, bursting through the inn door. “But whatever happens, you take care of you. Don’t let me hold you back. Even if I faint, you keep up the chase.”
    “I’m not going to leave you behind,” she said as they saw the mysterious man running down the street to the right.
    “Keep telling yourself that,” Remi said, giving her friend a wink. Olivia gave her a nod and then they both followed the lanky man. Remi grit her teeth as she tried to wipe the strange substance from her forehead. All it did was burn the tips of her fingers. She glanced at it for a second. It looked like a gel, but it had traces of little red squares inside.
    What the heck was it? And why had the stranger marked her with it?
     

Chapter 8 – Disturbance of the Peace
    “He’s fast!” Olivia shouted as they weaved through the couples on the street. Each pair they passed were now giving them the attention they thought they were going to get earlier. Eyes went wide. Jaws dropped. Fingers started pointing. Shouts telling them to stop running or asking them what was happening. Olivia and Remi ignored them all as they kept their focus on the suited man in front of them, making wide strides and dodging the people he came across with such ease it was like they were stationary.
    “What if this is a trap?” Olivia asked aloud as Remi took a deep breath and ignored the ache in her legs. At least she wasn’t cold anymore with all the running she was doing.
    “I hope not,” she said. “But it could be. What are we going to do about it? Stop chasing?”
    “No,” Olivia said adamantly. “That’s the one thing I don’t want.”
    “He went that way!” Remi shouted as she took a quick right turn and followed him to what appeared to be a dead end. The stranger came to a halt as he faced the gigantic brick wall before him, still dripping with clay and mud.
    “Looks fresh!” Olivia shouted as he turned to face them. “Didn’t know that was there, did you?”
    “Looks trapped,” Remi replied, staying a few feet behind Olivia. She tried to slow her breath as Olivia’s blade now glowed a fiery red, lighting up the alleyway. The stranger squinted his eyes as he reached down and unbuttoned his suit. He whipped his arms to the left and right respectively and then shook them out, preparing for the battle before him.
    “We don’t have to fight,” Olivia said, gripping her sword tight. “We just want to know what’s going on.”
    “What did you do to me?” Remi asked, and he turned his attention solely to her.
    His lips barely parted. “You’ve been marked,” he replied, his nasally voice bouncing off the walls.
    “What does that mean?” Olivia demanded.
    “It means you’re fair game,” he said. “Cimmerian can kill you without starting a war with Paragon. Don’t you know what marks are?”
    “Obviously not!” Olivia yelled. “Why don’t you tell us?”
    “No,” he scoffed. “No, I’ll choose to stay silent. You’ve been marked. There’s no use educating the dead.”
    “Then we’ll have to force the information out of you.”
    “You can’t do that. I’m not marked. That means you can’t touch me.”
    “We’re not from Paragon.”
    “It doesn’t matter. Cimmerian won’t believe that. Now let me through. I did my job. It was nothing personal.”
    “Who told you to mark Remi?”
    “I choose not to say. Now let me go before I choose to report this to my superiors.”
    “You can’t do that if we won’t let you leave.”
    He sighed and relaxed his arms. “Fine. We’ll do this your way…but my superiors won’t like this.” He sprinted forward with his arms straight behind him and Olivia stepped up to swing at him, but before she could even cock back her arm, he whipped both of his arms at her head, slapping her twice and knocking her off balance. She stumbled to the side and her head hit the brick wall. The stranger tried to follow up with a kick to her face but Remi grabbed his ankle at