INVISIBLE PRISON (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) by Mary Buckham Read Free Book Online Page A

sweeping across the floor. And I hadn’t noticed anyone paying particular attention to what I was doing either. That might have been a nice lead.
    “Damn,” I whispered, not realizing I’d said it aloud until both Stone and Monroe looked at me.
    “No luck?” Stone jumped to the heart of the problem.
    I shook my head, still feeling wiped from the attack, small as it was. It wasn’t the residual tingle of pain remaining but more the unspoken threat behind the action. Someone able to use magic wanted to hurt me. Maybe not kill me but take me out of the lineup of potential Invisible Recruits. If I hadn’t caught on to what was swirling around me, or Monroe had been more aggressive and Stone less astute, I’d simply be a potential agent who couldn’t hack the grade because I had failed a sparring match.
    But who wanted me gone? And why? Except for Ling Mai and Stone I hadn’t met any of these people before last night. Amazon Woman and the Chiquita? Yeah, I’d butted heads with them at dinner but was that enough to have one, or both of them, hunting for me? What about Kelly Kindergarten Teacher? I’d sooner believe the Energizer Bunny was after me before I could see her spell casting.
    So who did that leave?
    “Watch your back,” Monroe murmured next to me.
    I snorted. “As if I needed that reminder.”
    She countered with a smile. The first non-threat here, except for cheerleader Kelly.
    “If we’re done pampering,” Stone growled, though it held more bark than bite and was directed at Monroe more than me. “Let’s get back to work.”
    Monroe moved off and as I started to follow her at a much slower pace, Stone nodded toward a side bench. “Not you, Noziak. Sit this one out.”
    Great. A Princess took me down in Krav Maga and now I got to be a bench warmer. Keep this up and I’d be on the fast express back to prison.
    Except it looked like Stone had other ideas as he slid down next to me and asked, “Given you’re the only known witch on the roster present this morning, who’s sending out the magic?”
    I glanced at him, not worried about hiding my surprise. I’d assumed the magic had been witch generated. It held that taint, but then I hadn’t practiced a lot of witchcraft lately; killing someone with magic tended to have that side effect. At least for me.
    “You have any part witches?” I asked, wondering where this was leading.
    “Not that anyone’s admitted to,” came the terse reply.
    I held my tongue for a moment, weighing the possibilities, but in the end there were only two options. I cleared my throat, looking straight ahead as I murmured for Stone’s ears alone. “Then someone is either lying to you about what they can do or . . .“
    “Or?”
    “Or someone is intentionally messing with you.”
    And me, too.

 
    CHAPTER 8
     
    I made it through the rest of the martial arts drills intact and upright until we broke for lunch, where I sagged a lot as I was joined by Kelly, and to my surprise, Vaughn Monroe.
    “Meant to tell you nice job back there,” Monroe said, as she slid her salad and smoothie drink onto the table. No way could she have the strength, speed, and agility she did on liquids and rabbit foods.
    As if she were reading my thoughts she laughed and lifted her glass. “Protein powder,” she said, making me reluctantly like her even more. Anyone who could spoof herself was okay in my book.
    “Thanks,” I mumbled around a bite of rare roast beef. “You, too. Think you threw Stone for a loop.”
    “I’d say I wasn’t the only one,” she shot back, looking me in the eye.
    Smart and a fighter. If it wasn’t every recruit for herself to stay with the agency at this point I could find myself rooting for Vaughn Monroe.
    “He, or you, find out who was behind your you know what?” she asked, trying not to spill too much with Kelly sitting right there.
    Since none of us really knew what the others could do, the less said publicly the better. We all understood who was being