“No, I’m not going to do it, you are,” Rufian said, passing the baton to me.
“I’m not doing anything but calling Gavori and having enforcers take them away. And if you have a problem with that plan, then tough luck.”
Rufian cocked an eyebrow at me, that frown on his face not moving my stance. I was ready to throw another punch at his face if he wanted to fight me again, but after Gam pivoted his head between the both of us a couple times, Rufian finally stood down.
With a smirk, he shrugged. “Very well. The Deo Guild lives, courtesy of one gullible warrior fae.”
“Call me whatever you want, but my vendetta isn’t with them. Besides, if it wasn’t for Gam, you’d be dead.”
I walked down the kitchen and headed for the hallway, Rufian stopping me immediately, asking, “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To grab the prism.”
“You? Shouldn’t I grab it? Pixie is asleep. I can teleport in and out.”
“No, I’ll do it.”
Rufian chuckled. “Don’t trust me, Syodas?”
I grinned. “Of course I trust you. Why else would I leave you alone with Gam?”
Gam jumped. “What?!”
“Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you. Because he knows what’ll happen if he does, right Rufian?”
Rufian gave me a dark and stoic expression of an answer.
“When I come back, I’ll call Gavori, and we can move onto the next step in your master plan.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Sneaking into the bedroom of a giant fae and her sidekick wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. For one, Pixie was a loud snorer. She had the entire room rumbling, which made it surprisingly easy for me to slip in undetected. And two, her prism wasn’t in her inventory, which meant that I had clear access to it. The only downfall was that it was wrapped around her neck like Rufian had hoped, and peeling it from her might be tricky.
I tip-toed around the room making sure to stay out of sight just in case one of them woke up. Pixie was sleeping on one end, on a single-sized bed that was clearly too small for her, and Lanette slept in the other. Pixie was snuggled up next to a big white polar bear plushie in her polka dot sheets that matched that of Lanette’s. As the sound of her snoring reverberated off the walls, I thought about what Rufian had said, thinking about how not too long ago I was ready to kill both of them.
The scenario changed—they weren’t about to slaughter an innocent couple. Again, it was hard for me to kill outside of self-defense, aside from some rare cases. Even though Rufian was right about what they’d done, I wanted to let the authorities handle them. I’d just feel like a crook for killing them in their sleep, no matter how much they deserved it.
Once I made it to Pixie, I used my surgeon fingers to manage my way around her neck. Luckily all I had to do was snap the ball-chain necklace with my fingers and slide the prism toward me. The reflection of the prism bounced off and on my face as I maneuvered my fingers around the chain after I broke it in two, my eyes carefully watching Pixie for any sudden movements. Sweat started to roll down my temple, but in a few seconds more, I finally had it!
I took a breath of relief and pivoted around, but I nearly stumbled backwards into Pixie’s hard-set abs, noticing Lanette standing right behind me!
She wore a plastered look on her face, her eyes shallow and her mouth agape. I froze stiff, itching to react, but I held myself back when I realized that she wasn’t all there. In fact, I think she was—
“Sleep walking?” I whispered to myself, lifting my hand over her face and fanning it to make sure.
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t in trouble after all.
Lanette didn’t react, and didn’t do much of anything but stand there with her high pig tails, the shorter length courtesy of my blob of goo. I worked my feet around her and then dashed out to the hallway, using the Loquirra-Emparra Talisman Gavori gave me to contact her.
“Sorry I’m asking for a favor so soon, but, you’re the only fae I could call right now.”
According to Gavori, using it was pretty simple. I cupped it in my hand and thought about her, hoping it would reach the right person. After all, she did snatch her brother’s, and I was worried I’d reach him instead. But to my surprise, the gold talisman with a red ruby-like gem in the center started to glow, its piercing light reflecting a woman’s silhouette. Emerging from the center was a small Gavori hologram, the sound of her heels clacking on marble making my elf ears twitch.
By the looks of it, she was stepping out for some privacy. I explained to her my dilemma without revealing my actual identity, and shockingly enough, she agreed to help me.
I gave her our coordinates and she instructed us to stay put until they arrived. Gavori was more than happy to lock the Deo Guild behind bars, and we were just as eager to see them pay for their crimes.
Rufian and I had teleported out just as the enforcers arrived. I wish I’d seen Pixie’s face when she realized she was being arrested, but for the sake of not being tangled in their affairs, we fled the scene completely. Rufian landed us in an unmarked zone, but I didn’t think anything of it. We got our hands on all four ingredients, and Rufian told me he had the last one already—the blood of the caster.
“Why didn’t you tell Gam Clave was dead?” I asked Rufian as we hiked barren lands.
Rufian smiled as he looked over his shoulder to me and led us to our next destination. “The same reason you didn’t tell him.”
“And what do you think that reason was?”
“To keep him from asking too many questions…”
I scoffed. “Is that right?”
“The little he knew, the better.”
“I thought you wanted to use him as an excuse to kill Gam.”
“I still don’t agree with you letting him go.”
“He’s not going anywhere. We made sure of it when the enforcers arrived at their hideout.”
“And we teleported right after. There’s no telling what happened in that confrontation.”
