Elysia: Ignite [Elysia Trilogy Book 1] (EDITING) ✔

CH1: The Car Thief

"Well, who the hell do you think you are-"

"Shut the fuck up and listen first." Something about her voice was authoritative enough to have me complying. "I know you're headed to Elysia."

My blood froze.

"I... I... how, what...," dazed, I stammered. The goddamn alcohol was still messing with my head.

"You're out alone in a big, wide world, honey. And in case you haven't noticed, it's a fucking dangerous one. Better learn how to hold on to your belongings if you wanna survive a week on your own," the girl sneered and took out a black leather wallet from her short flight jacket lined with dirty fur.

"Oh, I'm not even surprised," I spat, sarcasm dripping from the tone, as I attempted to snatch my wallet out of her hand. But she was faster. The wallet was out of my reach, and another cocky smile snaked across her red lips.

"Not so easy, buddy." She clicked her tongue. I watched helplessly as she fumbled through the wallet and shifted out a piece of small paper carefully folded in half. The thief chucked the wallet on the ground (I could easily see how it was already ripped of any cash I'd stuffed inside) and unfolded the paper, flashing it before my face. "A crappy map to Elysia. You circled your destination with a red marker-are you an actual dumbass or a stupidly naive kid?"

"Both. With a pretty face and a Cadillac." I snatched the paper out of her hand and shoved it in my pocket. "And what may be your business about it, huh?"

"Well," she started, standing up and pulling out a cheap cigarette from her pocket. She lit it up and drew in a breath, exhaling the toxic smoke in my direction. I coughed and shot a fierce glance up. Her amused expression annoyed me even more. Though I must confess, I was already curious about what her suggestion could contain and where it would lead me to.

"Well, what?" I asked. With some pathetic effort, I scrambled to my feet and stared into the light brown pupils boring into mine. It was evident that behind those charming eyes, her wily little brain was musing all possibilities and cooking up juicy stories that would hook me into some kind of perilous adventure. Her eyes were facing mine, but she was lost in thought.

The girl breathed out a lungful of smoke-this time thankfully not directly in my face-and lowered her hand. "Unless you're a complete dimwit, you'd know that getting to Elysia, and getting into Elysia, is practically impossible."

"Yeah. And?"

"I know a way."

"What?" I blurted out. Perhaps too loudly. To be honest, this girl-thief, hot and daring as she was, looked nothing like the kind of person who would know a path to the last hidden Shangri-La allowed to only highly prestigious, eligible individuals. More like a gold-digger type of woman who would rob a man of all his wealth after planting a knife in his heart on the bed. In. Cold. Blood.