He watched me for a long moment. “Why do they want my blood?”
“A spell.” I winced at the look on his face. “They want to start a business. Apparently gnomes are… lucky.”
Gary laughed. When he realized I was serious, his laugh abruptly cut off and he shook his head.
“We’re no more lucky than anyone else. Or weren’t you here when my store was torn apart?”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re actually lucky. The tengu believe you are, and they want to trade with this realm. I’ll have them swear a geas that your blood will be used in no other way. But it has to be freely given.”
He stared at me for a long moment. “Why don’t you explain to me what this has to do with your demon.”
I took a deep breath, and it all came pouring out of me. The Spell of Three, the sword, my bargain with the seelie king, our alliance with Finvarra, and the information I needed. Gary was silent for a long moment.
“If I do this, I no longer owe you.”
I gave him a dark look. “You don’t owe me anything anyway. If you do this, I’ll owe you.”
“You know that’s not how it works. I owe you a blood debt.” He smiled, but there was no humor in it. “And this is the blood required.”
“If you don’t want to do it, I can figure something else out. It’ll take me longer, but I’m not going to–”
“Hush. Swear to me that you’ll protect us.”
“I swear it.”
“Fine.”
I blinked at him and he smiled. “If you say you’ve got it covered, you’ve got it covered. If only to make sure you don’t end up raising my kids if I’m killed.”
My lips turned numb. I could feel the blood draining from my face as I stared at him, appalled.
“You don’t mean that, right? You’re fucking with me.”
He bared his teeth in a feral grin. “Keep me alive, and you’ll never have to find out.”
I wrestled with that while he jumped off his stool and sauntered into his stockroom, obviously pleased that I was currently unable to speak.
He poked his head out of his stockroom. “Better come in here so we don’t scare off my customers.”
He’d found a small glass vial and a dagger, and he handed the vial to me before cutting into the back of his arm. Gnome skin was thick, so he had to stab deep.
“That should do it,” I murmured when the vial was almost full. “Thank you.”
“This clears things between us.”
“I told you, there was nothing to clear.”
His mouth tightened and I sighed.
“Fine. The debt is clear.”
“I hope you manage to wake Samael up,” Gary said. “Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
I stepped out of the store, my hand sliding down to my Colt as someone moved in my peripheral vision. Rose narrowed her eyes at me.
“Jumpy much?”
