They piled into the minivan, but Phantom tipped his nose at it. “I’d rather walk.”

Derek leaned out the window. “We’ll get there faster in the van.” Phantom took a deep breath, then studied the van again. Derek hit a button, and the trunk door opened with a beep. “Grizzizzik needs some company.”

“Like hell I do,” the rogue muttered from the back.

Phantom didn’t look thrilled about the prospect, either. After Phantom told Derek where to go, he climbed in the back as Grizzizzik glared at him. It brought a weird atmosphere into the van as Derek pulled onto the road.

Alejandra fiddled with her hands, no doubt worried about Quetzal. Rafael patted her shoulder. “He’ll be alright.”

She sighed. “I guess I’m more worried about the influence Calawit will have on him.”

Tyler turned around, smirking. “I created her. Do you want me to predict what she’ll do?”

“Yes, please.” She tried to sound relaxed.

Tyler kept his smirk as he closed his eyes. “She doesn’t exactly know how to interact with babies, so she’ll talk to him like he’s already an adult. She’s starting the speak to animals ritual now to explain why he needs to stay away from certain areas of the store. Cal will figure out if she can get some odd jobs out of him, even though he’s smaller than her. If Quetzal does well, I can see them forming quite the partnership among her store.”

Rafael felt his little sister relax next to him. “That… does sound good. If… odd.”

Tyler smiled as he opened his eyes. “Good, yet odd. Two words that describe Cal perfectly.”

“Witchcraft. That’s what this is,” Phantom muttered. “You shouldn’t be able to predict what Calawit does with such certainty.”

Tyler glanced at his phone. “If it makes you feel better, I’ve never been able to predict what you do. I’ve always rolled dice to determine if your encounter with these characters is noble or selfish.”

“Seriously?” Derek’s eyebrows rose. “That’s what you’ve done?”

Tyler shrugged as a frown tugged at Phantom’s lips. “Beg pardon, what?”

Tyler quickly returned to his phone. “Nothing.”

They needed a change of subject, so Rafael cleared his throat. “So, your name is Phantom?” The tense atmosphere deflated. Milo smirked, and Clarissa and Ezekiel exchanged humorous glances. “What?”

“My name is not… Phantom.”

This confused Rafael. “But you respond to it.”

“Better Phantom than…” the thief trailed off.

“Mistweaver?” Milo asked.

A smirk appeared on Clarissa’s face. “Jasper?”

“Nightstriker?” Ezekiel asked.

“Oh, there was that one name. What was it?” Milo placed a finger to his chin.

“Hyde Yertreasure,” Hraktar said.

That brought a snicker from all the characters. Phantom kept his mouth shut, his lips a thin line. Tyler slid his phone in his pocket, a confused look on his face as he glanced at Phantom in the back. “Derek, pull over.” He obeyed. They were on the outskirts of town as Tyler and Phantom continued to look at each other.

“Tyler?” Alejandra asked.

Phantom slowly got to his knees, his eyes narrowing. “You… know my name, don’t you?”

Tyler let out a tiny sigh. “I know you keep your real name hidden, so I never learned it. The name you had when you were a guard for the King of Osvoroth.”

Anger trickled into Phantom’s gaze. “Open this vehicle, now.”

“Tyler?” Derek asked.

“Whatever his true plans were for this, they have now turned selfish,” Tyler whispered. “We cannot trust his—”

A dagger flew past Rafael’s ear, and Tyler jolted back into his seat. The dagger zoomed out of the car. Grizzizzik unsheathed his hell dagger, but Phantom already grabbed Milo around the front, placing his scimitar against his throat.

“Whoa, dude!” Derek said. “Back off!”

“Open the back door. That fortune teller boy comes with me, or I’ll slit the mana fusor’s throat,” Phantom said.

Rafael’s muscles tensed, the need to do something making them quiver. However, he remained in his seat, glaring at Phantom. “You can’t possibly think we’ll let you kidnap Tyler.”

Milo grunted as the scimitar started to cut the skin of his neck. Phantom glared at Rafael. “Try me.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Alright, so… you’re incredibly touchy about your name,” Rafael said, his palms forward.

“Let Milo go,” Tyler said, already opening the door. “I’ll comply.”

“No, kid. Don’t comply.” Grizzizzik moved the hell dagger into his other hand. “Phantom is such a weakling. All I’ve got to do is dig this into his shoulder and he’ll do what we want.”

Milo grunted as Phantom dug his scimitar deeper into his throat. A trickle of blood ran down his neck. “Should we prove how soft you’ve gotten, Grizzizzik? Try it. Try to dig the dagger into my shoulder and I will slit this one’s throat. I will show you once and for all that you’ve got friends. That you’ll be devastated if one of them dies.”

Grizzizzik growled, a fury in his eyes that Rafael couldn’t interpret. The fact was, he wasn’t sure how the rogue would react, and Nick wasn’t here to clue them in.

“Tyler?” Derek asked, sounding afraid.

“Open the back.” Tyler unbuckled himself. “We need Milo.”

“We also need you,” Rafael said.

Despite the situation, a small smile appeared on Tyler’s face. “I know how your five characters work together. I’m not worried.”

The back door beeped, and Phantom released Milo, keeping his scimitar pointed toward Grizzizzik. “You stay here for ten minutes. If I see any of you before then, I will kill the Tyler boy.”

Alejandra pushed against her seat belt. “You can’t kill him.” She glanced at Tyler out the van window. “Can he?”

“I’d rather not figure that out,” Tyler said. Phantom grabbed him, pulling out a length of rope.

“Ten minutes. Then you can come find him,” Phantom said.

“Shit,” Milo said. “You were going to betray us anyway today, weren’t you?”

Phantom started tying Tyler. “You will never know.”

“Ten minutes waiting in here?” Derek asked, hands lazily on his wheels. “Bet you anything there’s a dozen traps out there.”

Milo pulled out a cloth, holding it against his throat as Phantom tied Tyler’s wrists behind his back. “Goblins and hobgoblins. That’s who you said is out there. They don’t gather in such large numbers because they will kill each other for territory. The fact that they’ve been this way for a week or more means they have a leader. That’s why Calawit had you check to see who it was. But she didn’t realize their leader is you.”

Phantom glared at Milo as he finished tying Tyler’s wrists. Derek smirked. “Don’t mess with a former law enforcer.”

Rafael didn’t know Milo’s backstory. He didn’t realize Milo had one. The mana fusor was just there. Phantom gave the rope around Tyler’s wrists an additional tug, causing him to grunt.

“What was that army to be? Another little gift for Akshi to get closer to licking his boot?” Grizzizzik asked.

Phantom ignored him. “Good luck getting through my traps.” He grabbed Tyler’s arm and led him away.

The rogue folded his arms. “See you in eleven minutes.”

Phantom shot him a glare, but kept going, dragging Tyler away. Rafael felt deeply uncomfortable. “So, they can’t kill him, right?”

“No.” Derek pulled out his phone. “But we’re trying not to let the two worlds interact so much.”

“Are the police really going to help?” Rafael asked.

“They still can’t see anything. I’m calling Evelyn. They should know what’s happening,” Derek said.

Rafael fell silent. Alejandra kept her phone out, counting down the seconds until ten minutes. Grizzizzik pressed his face against the window, tsking. “Phantom is a complete idiot. Does he really call that stealthing?”

“Hello? Derek?”

Rafael’s heart stopped. Derek put her on speakerphone. He had gone out of his way to avoid her for so long that it made him uncomfortable to hear her voice in the same vicinity.

“Hey, Evelyn. Just wanted to update you fast. Tyler’s been kidnapped by Phantom, and we’ve got to wait ten minutes before going after him.”

Evelyn gasped. “Oh my god! Is he okay?”

“I mean… pretty sure. Grizzizzik, keep an eye on him. Maybe we can follow his pattern to avoid traps,” Derek said.

Grizzizzik slipped out of the car. “Already on it. The guy is nothing more than a bumbling fool. We’ll have Tyler back in no time.” The rogue leaned against the van, watching.

“I can’t see him,” Clarissa said. “I should be able to see him, since it’s the desert and I’m a desert elf.”

“Did you roll anything recently?” Derek asked into his phone.

“Yes. It was a three.”

“That explains that,” Derek mumbled.

“Where are you guys? I’m coming there.”

“No.” The word stumbled out of Rafael.

Derek glanced at him, his face hard to read. “No?”

“Nick’s grounded. He can’t come, and we can’t call him without his father knowing. As much as this sucks, Evelyn’s got to stay there to keep Nick posted about this, and also be there if he needs to contact us. Because… I’m assuming Nick’s got to know, too.”

Derek nodded. “Did you hear that, Evelyn?” They heard some shuffling on the phone and Evelyn’s whispered.

“What!” This was unmistakably Nick. There was more shuffling as Nick’s voice came in louder. “Is everyone alright?”

Derek pulled it off speakerphone and talked into the phone. Alejandra was gnawing on her lip. Grizzizzik chuckled. “The idiot set off his own trap. How stupid could a thief get?”

“I’m far more concerned about the goblin army he’ll hide behind,” Ezekiel said.

Alejandra glanced at her phone. “Seven minutes left.”

The mana fusor pulled out some wood and began whittling it. “Might as well get a head start on my flame thrower.”

The cleric rubbed his head. “We cannot let them reach the goblin army. We’ve got to get Tyler back before then.”

“We don’t even know where it is,” Milo said.

“Somewhere in that direction.” Grizzizzik pointed at the small figures of Phantom and Tyler.

“Okay.” Alejandra took a deep breath. “This is fine. Absolutely fine. They can’t hurt Tyler. He’s going to be fine.”

Rafael wanted to change the subject, so he glanced at Milo. “So, um… you were kicked out of law enforcement?”

Milo was crafting his cannon, hardly looking up but still nodding. “Sure did. Had a natural talent or what not. Tried to integrate my mana fusor inventions into investigations, but it, ah…”

“Blew up in your face?” Ezekiel said.

Milo shrugged, his eyes still focused on his cannon. “You could say that.”

“You seem to do that a lot,” Rafael said.

“And I intend to fix my mistakes, too.” Milo glanced out the window. “We’ll get back.” The certainty in Milo’s voice surprised Rafael.

“We’ll keep you updated.” Derek about turned off the phone, but lingered. “Yes, yes, okay.” He let out a sigh. “Of course I promise. We’re all pretty confident we’ll get Tyler back before the evening.” He hung up, squirming in his seat. “We’re pretty confident about that, right?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Alejandra’s eyes were wide.

It hit Rafael then about the real-world consequences of this. A thief captain who was touchy about his name kidnapped Tyler. Soon, goblins and hobgoblins could surround them, and they needed to get him back before the day was done, or else people were going to notice. Or forget about Tyler. Rafael curled his fingers into a fist. They needed Tyler. This group needed him. He was the glue holding everyone together, and if he wasn’t there, they’d never recover.

“Oh, god, we’ve got to get Tyler back,” Rafael said. Tyler was the one emailing Neal and the others. He was their game master. They needed Tyler to not be surrounded by an army of goblins.

Derek unbuckled himself. “That’s the plan. How much time do we have left?”

“Three minutes,” Alejandra said.