Helpless (Blue Fire Saga) by Scott Prussing Read Free Book Online Page A

and it had an inch-wide strap and a brass clasp that kept it closed, like a purse. Yet it was too small to be considered a purse. Whatever it was, it was clearly very old—the leather was dark and lined with age. Surprisingly, the corners showed no wear at all. And though she had just seen Dominic pull it from his pocket, it now looked too large to have fit in there.
    Dominic reached into the wallet and pulled out a thick stack of one-hundred dollar bills. Somehow, in his hand, the stack appeared thicker than the wallet. He placed the money on Leesa’s desk and reached back inside the wallet. This time he came out with a handful of gold coins and glittering jewels. He dropped them onto the desk beside the cash.
    Leesa stared dumbfounded. The wallet was clearly magical to hold so much stuff, but that wasn’t what amazed her the most. Dominic was a wizard—that he had magical implements did not come as too much of a surprise. No, what amazed her was the small pile of treasure now sitting on her desk.
    She got up and limped over to the desk so she could examine the treasure trove more closely. There were at least a dozen gold coins of varying sizes and designs, and even more jewels. The clear ones were almost certainly diamonds, the red ones rubies and the green ones emeralds. What the yellow, blue and orange ones were, she had no idea. She wasn’t an expert on jewels by any means, but she knew the pile of gemstones was worth far more than the cash beside it.
    Dominic had a bemused smile on his face. “So, can you buy me a car with this?”
    “Ha! I think I could buy you a yacht with it,” Leesa said, chuckling. “Maybe two. Where did you get it all?”
    “My people have collected such things for ages,” Dominic explained. “Some of it is payment for services rendered in ages gone by. I managed to escape with quite a lot.”
    Leesa looked at the wallet in Dominic’s left hand. “Lucky you had that thing to carry it all in.”
    Dominic hefted the wallet in front of his stomach and smiled. “It does come in handy.”
    “Is there still more inside?”
    “Oh, yes. Much more than I’ve taken out. And some other stuff, besides.”
    “That thing is obviously magical, but you don’t seem worried those guys chasing you can sense it when you use it. Why not? It seems like active magic to me, unless I’m missing something.”
    “As with your ring, the spell I used to create it was active magic, yes,” Dominic explained. “But that was several hundred years ago. Once the spell is in place, it becomes passive magic. Using it carries no risk of detection.”
    Leesa realized she still had an awful lot to learn about how the different kinds of magic worked, let alone figuring out how to use any of it. She thought of an old proverb she had always liked: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” She felt like she had taken only a very few steps on what was going to be a long, long journey.
     

 
    6. ROAD TRIP
     
    T wo hours later, Leesa and Dominic stood in front of a large gray clapboard home just off Washington Street, less than half a mile from the Weston Campus. Sitting in the driveway was a dark green Chevy Blazer with a big red and white For Sale sign in the rear window. The Blazer was an older model, but it looked to be in pretty good shape.
    Leesa had found it on craigslist, and since the house was with-in easy walking distance, she had told the car’s owner they would be right over. And so here they were.
    The sun had set almost an hour ago, but so much light reflected off the snow-covered ground they could easily examine the car without any added light. It was cold out, but not unbearably so. They were giving the Blazer a quick look over before calling the owner to let him know they were here.
    The body had a bunch of dings and scratches like you would expect to find on a vehicle this old and also one small dent on the right front fender, but none of the damage appeared to be anything