Zayden had an evil look in his eyes before he snatched the parchment and pen and ran to the other side of the room, tripping over a sleeping Ajax, as he started writing on it. Ajax swiped at Zayden, cursing him and his ancestors, but Zayden didn’t care as he plopped himself in a corner.
“What the fuck is he doing?” Ajax asked, rubbing his tired face with his palm.
I looked over at Emerald, who looked taken back for a second, surprised by Zayden’s grab job, before she slowly got up and walked over to him asking him in an exasperated sigh, “Zayden, what are you writing? I only use it for need-to-know information.”
Ajax looked over at me, pointing his head in their direction, asking me silently for information. “The prince.” I said before I looked back at the Zayden and Emerald, curious as to how this was going to go down.
Ajax’s eyes narrowed in my peripherals as he demanded, “Explain,” but I was too busy trying to catch on to what Zayden was doing to answer.
Zayden was smiling like a loon as he finished writing, staring at the page as he waited patiently for his response. As soon as I heard the light scratching noises, Zayden responded to a looming Emerald, “Oh, nothing crazy. Just telling him you free jumped off a mountain.”
“You did what?!” Emerald lunged at Zayden as he laughed. He couldn’t outrun her, so he just stayed where he was as she snatched the paper and turned around, looking at what the prince wrote. Zayden, being the sneaky devil he was, took advantage and snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her to sit in his lap. She seemed unphased by this as she was apparently consumed with reading the novel that the prince was writing.
Zayden looked over her shoulder, resting his chin on her. “Oh. He is not very happy with you, my gem.” He didn’t look too broken up about it. Emerald grumbled about infuriating boys and ego complexes as she started to write back to him, still in Zayden’s lap.
Zayden looked over at both of us and winked, but as soon as he settled his hands on her hips, causing Ajax to puff out angrily from his nose, Emerald got up. “I need a flat surface,” she mumbled as she glared at the paper.
I gave a low whistle to Zayden to get his attention. “What did it say?”
He smiled widely. “Oh, he threatened to pull her off the mission if he hears about her pulling another stunt like that. He underlined a bunch of words and put others in all capital letters. He even cussed a few times. He seemed really mad.”
“Why should we give a fuck if they fight?” Ajax said under his breath as he watched Emerald.
Zayden crawled his way closer to us, “Because idiot, if they fight, then that takes out one of our competition.” He pushed his chest out proudly.
I felt bad for Emerald fighting with her friend because of us, so I decided to tell them both that I truly think they were just friends. “Guys, I don’t- “
A knock came at the door before it opened wide. “I’m covering my eyes. I can’t see your orgy, I promise.” Hemlock comes in, obviously peeking through her fingers.
“Damn it!” She smacked her hands down to her sides as she looked at all of us with Emerald on the other side of the room. “I was hoping to see you all in action to get how it all works.” She swirled her hand around all of us and stuck out her lip as she pouted.
Emerald turned and raised an eyebrow at Hemlock, who just blushed. “What?! I’ve never seen a four way. I wanted to see the mechanics.” She started to make thrusting motions with her hips.
When she saw Emerald’s lips turn into a frown, she stopped and put both hands up in surrender. “Okay. Okay. I can see I crossed a boundary. Good to know. Anyway,” this girl can change subjects like Emerald can throw knives, “It’s time to head out. The first part of the trek is easy because it’s ours and the mountain man’s border, but once we cross into cannibal land, we need to go faster and be more on the lookout. Let’s go!”
She turned and walked out the door. “Meet you at the front gate in five minutes.”
It didn’t take us even five minutes to pack as we didn’t really unpack, so we were there waiting before Hemlock and her team got there. Emerald was giving Zayden the silent treatment, so he was being extra talkative.
“Awww come on. Don’t be mad at me. It’s not like he could really do anything! I mean, really, how can he take over without you?” He paused as he was standing right next to her as she was looking outside the force field that blocked us from exiting.
When she didn’t respond, he tried another angle. “My gem, please. This normally wouldn’t bother me so much, cause let’s face it -you’re not the most talkative person- but now that you are purposely not talking to me, it’s kinda driving me crazy.” His eyes were pleading with her to talk to him, give him something, but still nothing.
He rubbed his hand over his face, his eyes going wild, his body visibly shaking, and his voice cracked for a second before he steeled it. “One word, please!” Something about the way he said it felt different, felt meaningful. The air crackled, and I saw Emerald close her eyes for a second, fingers clenching around her biceps, before opening them again.
Emerald didn’t look his way but said, “Magic.” He looked up at her in confusion, opening his mouth to talk when she turned to face him, “You just used your magic. I felt it.”
His eyes got wide and fear crept in. “I didn’t mean to! I’m sor-”
She cut him off. “It’s a good thing. Now, how did you do it? Reflect on what was going on in your head and in your body when you use it. When you think you have a good idea about how it works, we can try it again.” She wasn’t smiling, but she didn’t look mad at him either.
He lifted his hand to touch her. A need to know they were ok spread from the center of his eyes, taking over his entire face. Then we heard a crazy voice ask, “Trouble in paradise?” We all turned to see Hemlock and some of her crew behind her, all strapped with weapons and bags. It looked like Talican, the bowman, Rath, the big burly guy, and a few people that were in the original party that brought us here.
“Nope. Just practice,” was Emerald’s response. So, I guess she was taking this magic thing seriously if she was pushing Zayden and offering to be a guinea pig for Ajax. Zayden’s jaw dropped at that, still staring at her. Emerald easily slid her hand under his chin and closed it without even looking at him as she asked Hemlock. “Are you ready?”
Hemlock nodded. “As ready as a flying pig.” She motioned someone forward and a few of her people came up to us, giving us all our weapons back. Hemlock smiled as she watched Emerald stroke her two swords in reverence before she strapped them onto her back. “Your going to need those for what's to come.”
She then went up to the force field and started to write fae letters, just like Talican did when we got here. This system was interesting, and I tried to memorize the letters as I saw them written, but they were like quicksand in my mind. As soon as I focused on them, they would disappear.
