The ghost shrugged. “She needs help to complete the spell. We’re allowed to help her, right? She figured out everything else she said on her own.”
Bennett’s false confusion faded, and he sighed. “You’re smarter than he gave you credit for,” he said to me.
“I would have to be an outright idiot not to realize some of this shit going on in front of me.”
I wouldn’t mention how I’d been an outright idiot for far too long. Just like I wasn’t going to mention all the quality time we’d spent together, or my growing affection for every man in the room despite evidence informing me they were far from trustworthy. Ignorance is bliss. Even when it was wilful ignorance.
“We were discreet,” Bennett said defensively.
“How would you know? For the record,youwere discreet. As soon as I found out about Waylon’s spiders, that one was pretty obvious. Throwing spears through my chest screams of Kirin.”
He sat back, pulling Waylon closer to his chest as he regarded me warily. Was I not supposed to have insight into their personalities? I didn’t have any information they hadn’t willingly offered in previous cycles. My heart clenched at the implication that maybe, for a blink in time, they’d all trusted me enough to share. They didn’t anymore, obviously.
“This is all beside the point,” I said, waving my hand. “We have way too little time to gather everything we need for this spell. Kirin, I’ll have you grab me the ingredients for the poultice from Felix’s office.”
Grabbing a pen and notepad from the console table beside the couch, I scrawled the details on it and handed it to him. “You might need your glasses to read my handwriting,” I said. “If you get stuck on finding anything, don’t bother rifling around. Just ask me. I remember where it all is.”
The orc was dazed, his fingers lightly clasping the paper like he was scared it was going to break. He looked between me and the list of ingredients blankly. I must have short-circuited him with the speed of this conversation and everything happening. With a sigh, I snapped my fingers. “Kirin, go. Now.”
He shot up, back ramrod straight and a dark blush coating his cheeks, and nodded. “Yeah. OK. Got it.”
I didn’t wait for him to exit the room before turning to the rest of the men. “Bennett, you’ll help me prepare and mix the poultice ingredients once we unearth the recipe from the book it’s in. Waylon will grab the rest of the ingredients for the magic-enhancing artifact I have to make. Zan, help him.”
Whipping up another list of different ingredients I’d long since memorized, I handed it off to the pixie. Shockingly, he didn’t complain about his task. There was no sass coming from him at all. It was unnerving. “What am I to do?” Abraxas asked, leaning casually against the back of the couch as he often did.
“Go have a nap.”
Four sets of eyes turned to me, Waylon and Zan pausing on their way out the door. “I’m sorry, Abby gets to dowhat?” Waylon asked.
Ah, there was the sass. He wasn’t some passive helper put into the pixie-demon’s body. “Have a nap,” I repeated.
“And why doesn’t he have to, you know, fucking help?”
I laughed. “He does, but later. If he doesn’t have a nap this morning, he’ll be grumpy as fuck by the time I actually need him. You guys should know that better than I do.”
“You shouldn’t know that at all,” Waylon muttered under his breath.
“I’ve known you for two months. I’m going to know some things.”
“It’s fucking weird.”
I fought back the quick lancing of pain through my chest. Weird. Me knowing things about them. What would Waylon say if I told them about my true feelings? Nothing to make me feel better, I was sure. Letting out a faintly choked laugh, I waved him out the door. Zan gave me a sympathetic look and hurried him away. At least one of them knew me like I knew them.
Maybe when this was all over and they refused to have anything to do with me, Zan would tell them some stories to remember me by.
He better not tell them the sex stories, but it would be nice if they heard the cute ones.
“What do we do in the meantime, while Kirin is gathering supplies?” Bennett asked.
Abraxas was pulling himself up to the second floor through the hole in the ceiling, and we were alone in the living room. I took a deep breath, pushing aside all emotion. There would be a time to be sad later, once we were all out of here and I’d escaped whatever future Felix had planned for me before his death. “We gather supplies too. Mixing bowls and a container to keep the poultice in while it sits. Come on.”
I got up and led him into the kitchen, creating a stack of bowls and spoons and knives. He effortlessly lifted everything and brought it upstairs, meeting Kirin on the way with the first load of ingredients. He’d had trouble finding a couple, but I gave him specific instructions on where to find them and sent him back down. I didn’t miss the way his gaze briefly dipped down to take in my breasts, expression filled with awe. Kirin was the ultimate confidence boost.
“I don’t think I mentioned this, but I really need you all to not kill me until I’ve attempted the spell,” I said as I spread out the bowls across one of the coffee tables in the library.
Bennett was on the ladder fetching the book Zan and I had found ages ago, back when I’d still been terrified of him. He snorted. “We’re not going to kill you.”
“Forgive me if I’m not confident in that promise.”
