Page 43 of Monster Married
He held out a folded shirt and said something to Fellisse, who waved him inside.
“He’s brought you a change of clothes on Hove’s orders,” Fellisse said. “You know him?”
The kid unfolded the shirt and said, “Rory.” He was so sweet. The shirt was light gray like the uniforms I’d seen the teenage bagua wear around here, though Sonyo wore copper. I took it from his hands.
“We sort of ran into him and his brother yesterday. With Lissir.”
“Ah, I see.”
The kid watched me take my torn shirt off, and maybe unsurprisingly, his eyes widened when he saw my chest. Clearly, my nipples were stealing the show again. Who’d have thought they’d ever get this much attention, and for simply existing no less?
The kid pointed at my bandaged elbow and said something to Fellisse, who responded.
“He just wanted to know how you’d gotten hurt. I told him your brave mate protected you.”
I smiled and slipped the new shirt on. It tied at the side, and the kid made grabby hands and said something, and I nodded. The salespeople yesterday had been pretty much the same before touching me, and the kid just showed me where to tie the shirt. He kept chattering on all the while.
“He says he likes your friendship bracelet,” Fellisse translated, then flashed Sonyo his own. Sonyo headed over to Fellisse while I finished the last two ties on my new shirt.
Sonyo didn’t seem fazed about reaching for Fellisse’s wrist to get a better look at his bracelet, and they were kind of cute together, big Fellisse and the wide-eyed kid examining his bracelet.
That cute scene wasn’t meant to last, and with how the day had been going, I really shouldn’t have been surprised.
There wasn’t a knock on the door this time, no, Vergis just burst right in, panting, staring around. His eyes locked on me.
“We’re leaving,” he said.
My jaw dropped. “What?”
“You and me, we’re hopping through the veils again.” He looked over at Fellisse. “Koa Esher came across the wall where I hadn’t finished the warding yet. They had guns. They are definitely working with humans. The ones who tried taking you back at Tara,” he said to me.
Fellisse cursed in Lugarra, and Vergis strode into the middle of the room and pulled his knife out.
I backed away until I was sitting on the table.
“No, wait! Everyone’s here. We can’t just leave.” I pointed at the kid, who had no idea what was going on, but he looked scared. “We can’t leave.”
Vergis rolled his eyes. “When did you have time to grow a backbone? Fellisse, find Inki and the others. I can get us back exactly to the southern ko seal for the wall, right inside the seal. They’re breaching from the northeast. With Rory, I should be able to get us there and back with some firepower in twenty, twenty-five minutes. Earth minutes.”
“What?!” Breaching and firepower didn’t sound like anything I wanted to be involved with. The Koa Esher were nothing I wanted to be involved with. Magic was definitely nothing I needed in my life.
“We’ll clear that for you,” Fellisse said. “But Vergis?—”
“Yeah, yeah, I won’t let the fucking white mages take us.” He looked at me and closed the distance between us. Before I could scramble across the table and get away, he grabbed my ankle. “Stop the fucking squirming already. We’re doing this, princess.” He tossed me a bag I hadn’t noticed he was carrying. It was tied at the top, and something was squirming inside it.
“Wish for clear skies,” Vergis said, and pulled me toward him across the table.
“But—”
“They’re attacking with guns, and there are none here, which needs to change,” Vergis said. “Wish for clear skies already so we can change it.”
I thought I felt a heartbeat where I was clutching the small, fluffy thing in the bag to me.
“Clear skies,” I said, and felt the heat of magic, the brightness of shifting through the veils. In my hands, the bag stilled and grew empty. If I looked now, I’d see nothing more than black ash inside.
The smell was what let me know I was home. Well, not home, but Earth.
“Good. Now up.” Vergis pulled me to my feet.
