Cooper side-eyed the energy drink in his hand, then set it aside. Maybe he should lay off for the rest of the day.
He traced the symbol lightly with his finger, even though he knew he probably shouldn’t be touching it. But Ivan hadn’t said anything about needing to be careful in preserving the thing, had he? And Cooper could swear there was heat coming off it too.
If Cooper were bolder—and if he had zero respect for the sanctity of books—he’d want to rip that page out and…what? Hang it up? Tuck it under his pillow? He wasn’t sure. But he knew he’d want to keep it close, to pull it out and look at it whenever he wanted.
Well, whatever. He wasn’t going to deface one of Ivan’s books and run the risk of being defaced himself in retribution. After he scanned it, he could make the symbol the background image on his laptop if he really wanted.
But first, he needed to scan it in.
Cooper opened the app on his phone again and took a careful picture. The image took longer than the others to upload onto his computer, the lines seeming to swirl and pulse in and out of focus as the image resolution came through. Cooper rubbed his itchy nose and traced a finger over his laptop screen, the way he’d traced it over the book.
Red smeared on his screen, covering the now clear image of the symbol.
Damn it.
Cooper clapped a hand over his face, reaching for a tissue. A fucking nose bleed. Too little sleep and too much caffeine were finally catching up with him.
He stuffed the tissue into his nostrils, leaning forward so blood didn’t start trickling down his throat. It would stop by itself in a minute, if past experience was any indicator. Cooper grabbed another tissue to wipe his screen while he was at it.Gross.
He really was a fucking gremlin today, wasn’t he?
He stared at the pretty symbol as he waited for the bleeding to stop, but his perusal was interrupted by a chat box popping up.
Which was strange because it wasn’t from any chat program Cooper recognized. Nothing he’d set up himself; that was for sure.
But there was a message anyway, in a bright-yellow font that hurt his eyes.
You summoned me?
By the timeCooper’s nosebleed had stopped and he’d run to the bathroom to wash the blood off his face and fingers, his suspicion had only grown.
Where the fuck had the message come from?
He tried to look into the program, but there didn’t seem to be one running. Just the little gray box with bright-yellow font, front and center. It had a close-outxin the corner of the box too, but Cooper wasn’t dumb enough to click it. Not when the whole thing could be some phishing scam.
So the little box stayed up on his screen.
After another minute of Cooper poking around, a second message popped up below the first one in the box.
Well? Summoner? I don’t have all day.And then, immediately after,Well, I do. But it’s very boring in here.
That prompted a chuckle out of Cooper. He could relate well enough to mind-numbing boredom today.
He should leave it alone, but he was curious. And Cooper wasn’t stupid enough to click on any unfamiliar links, or to send any personal info, so what was the harm in replying?
How did I summon you?he asked.
Clumsily, the program replied.
Cooper let out another soft snort of laughter. This secret messenger was kind of funny. Was this an AI thing? They didn’t usually have a sense of humor, but sometimes the comedy was accidental, as the programs tried to mimic human minds without any of the millions of layers of subtext real humans walked around with.
And what’s the next step?he asked.I give you my bank info?
The next step is we make a deal.
Oh, of course. Something like…Cooper’s social security number and birthday in exchange for the promise of a hundred grand, once the displaced prince he was talking to had secured his fortune?
Ridiculous.
