Day narrowed her eyes and hissed.
Probably for the best that the giant scary green faerie man couldn’t hear her.
Talos opened the trunk so he could lift up the massive bronze head inside. He set it on his neck, and there was an audible click. He stood, the bronze face unmoving though his face on the screen appeared irritated.
Zolrya turned his attention back to Talos, frowning. “What is the matter, love?”
“This is but the shell.” Talos removed the head, and his long fingers expertly cracked it open. It was empty inside, smooth and shiny so that it wasn’t immediately clear what was missing.
“What?” Zolrya snarled as he whirled on Absolis and Vilanos. “Where is the rest of it?”
Absolis and Vilanos both froze, their eyes comically wide.
“Well, you see,” Absolis stammered. “We are, we?—”
“We are going to find out!” Vilanos chimed in. “We swear it, Your Majesty!”
“We swear!”
“No. I’ll take care of this myself.” Zolrya gritted his teeth in a vicious snarl. “You two vapididiotsare clearly incapable of fulfilling even a simple task. You didn’t find a damn thing. It was this human who did it for you! Talos saweverything! He seeseverything! Andoh, how I do so long for more dancers. I will take your precious little city, every last soul, and thenyours?—”
“Ah, my love. Please. Allow me,” Talos said sweetly as he returned his head to the chest. His other screens came to life with displays of spiraling code, vibrating as his face fragmented and glitched. “I will bleed into the cell phone towers, travel through the signals, and burn every last one of them until?—”
“Ah, but my good lord Talos!” Absolis politely but quickly interjected. “Your king needs you here.”
“Yes! The king needs you,” Vilanos urged. “You can’t possibly leave!”
“Think of the dances!”
“So many dances!”
“Oh, yes, thedances.” Zolrya hummed, draping himself over the metal man with a soft smile as if he hadn’t been outrageously pissed off less than a minute ago. It was as if a switch had been flipped, and he sighed happily. “It is true. I do need you, my love. So very much. You can’t possibly leave me right now. How about a waltz? Or a minuet? Perhaps something else, one of thoseintimatedances, just for the two of us and us alone.”
“Of course, my darling.” Talos chuckled. The screens went blank once more, though his digital face remained partially fractured. “Anything for you.”
Zolrya flapped his wings and giggled. “Mmm, you’re so good to me.”
“You deserve only the best.” Talos beamed.
“Which is why I have you.” Zolrya reached up to the screen, urging it down for a deep kiss.
Seeing anyone make out with a big piece of glass was weird enough, but then there was tongue.
A lot of it.
Day grimaced and retched noisily.
Sariel found the grass interesting, though he extended one of his wings to brush against Seymour’s arm. It was no doubt meant to comfort him, but Seymour really didn’t feel that great.
He wanted to get the hell out of this demented place, and he wanted out right this damn second. He kept his teeth together, deciding that being very quiet was the best thing he could do. It was clear Zolrya and Talos were absolutely insane, and he better understood now why Absolis and Vilanos had insisted on not involving them.
What with the whole murdering everyone in Somerstown being their idea of investigation or whatever.
Seymour tried to wave and get the attention of the twins so they could catch a ride home, but they were both staring at Zolrya and Talos swapping spit. This was stupid. As far as he could tell, he had done what the twins had asked.
It wasn’t Seymour’s fault that something was missing, right?
Well…
