The Mapmakers Union (The Doorknob Society Saga Book 3) Read Free Page A

breath.
    “What do you want Slade?”
    “I want you to know I understand. Nightshade and I didn’t see eye to eye but he did what I couldn’t, and I will always be grateful to him for that. I know you want nothing to do with me right now and I get it. I let you down. I’m going to try and prove to you I’m worth your time again.” He waited with a hopeful look in his eyes.
    “Whatever.” I shrugged not willing to forgive him so easily.
    “I’m serious, Chloe, I’ll do whatever it takes.” He stepped forward and reached out to take my hand.
    There was a time I would have welcomed Slade’s touch, but not now. All I could think about was Nightshade and how I felt when he kissed me. I didn’t think that I would ever know such a loving kiss like that again.
    A small twinge of guilt pricked at me for not having told Slade about it.  The guilt dissipated fast enough. The memory was for me alone to keep.  The only person I had shared it with was my grandmother and I was pretty sure she was going to keep my secret.
    “Okay, Slade.” I patted his hand and moved away from him.
    “Okay then.” He gave a slight nod and grin as if he wasn’t quite sure if we were okay and reluctantly walked away, leaving me to my thoughts.
    I took a deep breath and turned to once again look out the window. How the hell had my life become so complicated? I didn’t want to hurt Slade but I was still so angry with him for deserting me when I needed him. And I couldn’t deny that Nightshade’s ghost hovered around me always near yet so far out of reach.
     I walked back into the antechamber and found Mr. Miller sitting at the table with my friends sitting across from him. I slid into the chair beside Jess.
    “Thank you all for coming. As you know due to your success in dealing with the First Kind, they failed to obtain the Impossible Engineer artifact. However, they did succeed in acquiring the Legends of the Mapmakers Union book, which is a guide on how to use the artifact of the Mapmakers. We’ve learned from our contacts in the Mapmakers that someone has been trying to access the artifact. We need to get that book back or find a copy of our own.” Mr. Miller leaned back in his seat and waved his hands opening the floor to questions.
    “Do we have any other leads?” Edgar twisted his hands together excited by the prospect of working on anything that involved the Mapmakers Union.
    “The last copies of the book were thought to have been destroyed during the Darkwatch episode over a hundred years ago. You all came across the only copy known to exist during your battle with the First Kind.”
    Something about that clicked in my memory but I wasn’t sure what, something about the Darkwatch seemed familiar.
    “So any suggestions as to how we can locate it?” Edgar asked eagerly.
    Dad walked into the room and sat beside Mr. Miller. “I think you’re going to have to go to the Tavern at the End of Time.”
     “Are you kidding, Uncle Eli?” Jess asked as if she hadn’t heard him right.
    “No, not at all,” he said bluntly as he looked directly at each of us.
    That tone and look I was familiar with...  Dad wasn’t kidding.
    “Oh, okay,” Jess said, and then grew quiet.
    “Okay, I’ll bite, what is the Tavern at the End of Time?” I asked curious to find out about a place that could turn my cousin silent.
    “The Tavern is one of the few places where time and space intersect,” my dad explained. “You can meet with people from any time in history. That’s what makes it so dangerous. You can learn your own fate or get lost in the time stream. It’s not for the faint of heart and I don’t particularly care for the idea of any of you going there.” His eyes lingered on me when he said that. “Unfortunately, I learned this morning that there was an incident last night that precipitated the withdrawal of the Skeleton Key Guild from all truces as of today.”
    “What happened?” I had a good idea but I wanted to make