Born of Hatred Read Online Free
check that things are okay, and you're going to go back to reading your paper." I slipped a fifty pound note onto the desk. "Something to say thank you. There's some more in it for you when I come back down, if you forget I ever existed."
"Deal," Roger said instantly.
I pushed the button for the lift and waited a few seconds for the number above it to drop down to GF and the doors to open. "Good man," I said to Roger again, and pressed the button for the penthouse.
"Apparently they didn't go inside the building to look around," Tommy said inside my ear.
"Well maybe next time you should send people who will do a better job."
"It was their first assignment; sit in the car and watch. I'm sorry; I'll speak to them when we get back to the office."
Any anger drained out of me. "Okay, don't go overboard though. My first ever assignment didn't exactly go to plan, either."
"Weren't you about thirteen?"
"Twelve," I corrected. "Even so, it wasn't the sparkling success that Merlin had been after. Anyway, we have another issue."
"Which is?"
"The lock on this door is a bastard of a thing. You sure I can't just kick the damn door in half?"
"Not exactly a stealthy option is it?"
I mumbled something under my breath and placed my palm against the door's lock. White glyphs cascaded from my fingers, across the back of my hands and down over my wrists and forearms, vanishing beneath the sleeve of my hoodie where they would continue up my arms and across my chest and back.
Magic is a complicated beast. For the most part, you think about what you want to do and, if you're powerful and experienced enough, the magic will form on those thoughts. Magic wants to be used, to flow freely from the sorcerer, no matter how dangerous that might be. In contrast, the actual control of magic is very difficult. Even the smaller uses of magic, like lighting a candle, require precise movements and power, so that you’re not left with a big puddle of wax and a lot of fires to put out.
It’s why a young sorcerer is so dangerous, they don’t have the control needed to temper their magic and have, on occasion, caused devastation when their power has exceeded their ability.
Using air magic to fill the inside of a lock in the exact same way as a key was both time consuming and tiring. When the magic touched the inside of the mechanism, I felt it as if I were using my own finger. It's a matter of remembering where each part was so that I could construct the key and turn it. One wrong move and I’d had to start from scratch, and it's not something that I could do in a hurry. The more complex the lock, the more of a pain in the ass it is to use magic to open it.
The lock on the penthouse was one of the more secure locks that I'd ever had to pick. The main problem was that you had to turn the key once to make it click, move the key back to its original position and then do it again, but this time the click came further away. It took me ten minutes to get the lock open. I certainly would have been happier kicking the door in.
The second the door closed behind me, a continuous beep sounded from an alarm panel on the wall next to me. I inputted the six digits and the beeping ended. That had been my major worry. What if Neil had changed the code and not told anyone? Turns out, I needn't have been concerned.
"I'm in," I said, and started looking around the spacious flat.
"You see anything suspicious?"
"Who in their right mind would have weird shit sitting around the second you stepped into the house, Tommy?" I asked. “He might be nuts, but I'm guessing he's not the 'hang the dead corpses of your victims from the ceiling of your home' kind of nuts."
I started searching the flat, but found nothing more than an incredibly tidy place and some questionable movies next to the huge TV in his front room. Off the large main room was a kitchen at one end and hallway at the other. The kitchen, like everything else, was so clean that I made out my
"Deal," Roger said instantly.
I pushed the button for the lift and waited a few seconds for the number above it to drop down to GF and the doors to open. "Good man," I said to Roger again, and pressed the button for the penthouse.
"Apparently they didn't go inside the building to look around," Tommy said inside my ear.
"Well maybe next time you should send people who will do a better job."
"It was their first assignment; sit in the car and watch. I'm sorry; I'll speak to them when we get back to the office."
Any anger drained out of me. "Okay, don't go overboard though. My first ever assignment didn't exactly go to plan, either."
"Weren't you about thirteen?"
"Twelve," I corrected. "Even so, it wasn't the sparkling success that Merlin had been after. Anyway, we have another issue."
"Which is?"
"The lock on this door is a bastard of a thing. You sure I can't just kick the damn door in half?"
"Not exactly a stealthy option is it?"
I mumbled something under my breath and placed my palm against the door's lock. White glyphs cascaded from my fingers, across the back of my hands and down over my wrists and forearms, vanishing beneath the sleeve of my hoodie where they would continue up my arms and across my chest and back.
Magic is a complicated beast. For the most part, you think about what you want to do and, if you're powerful and experienced enough, the magic will form on those thoughts. Magic wants to be used, to flow freely from the sorcerer, no matter how dangerous that might be. In contrast, the actual control of magic is very difficult. Even the smaller uses of magic, like lighting a candle, require precise movements and power, so that you’re not left with a big puddle of wax and a lot of fires to put out.
It’s why a young sorcerer is so dangerous, they don’t have the control needed to temper their magic and have, on occasion, caused devastation when their power has exceeded their ability.
Using air magic to fill the inside of a lock in the exact same way as a key was both time consuming and tiring. When the magic touched the inside of the mechanism, I felt it as if I were using my own finger. It's a matter of remembering where each part was so that I could construct the key and turn it. One wrong move and I’d had to start from scratch, and it's not something that I could do in a hurry. The more complex the lock, the more of a pain in the ass it is to use magic to open it.
The lock on the penthouse was one of the more secure locks that I'd ever had to pick. The main problem was that you had to turn the key once to make it click, move the key back to its original position and then do it again, but this time the click came further away. It took me ten minutes to get the lock open. I certainly would have been happier kicking the door in.
The second the door closed behind me, a continuous beep sounded from an alarm panel on the wall next to me. I inputted the six digits and the beeping ended. That had been my major worry. What if Neil had changed the code and not told anyone? Turns out, I needn't have been concerned.
"I'm in," I said, and started looking around the spacious flat.
"You see anything suspicious?"
"Who in their right mind would have weird shit sitting around the second you stepped into the house, Tommy?" I asked. “He might be nuts, but I'm guessing he's not the 'hang the dead corpses of your victims from the ceiling of your home' kind of nuts."
I started searching the flat, but found nothing more than an incredibly tidy place and some questionable movies next to the huge TV in his front room. Off the large main room was a kitchen at one end and hallway at the other. The kitchen, like everything else, was so clean that I made out my