Myra had put her gun away and held a clear seashell in her hand. I knew what it was, even though I hadn’t seen it in years. It was a token Dad used to keep in his pocket. He said it let him hear the truth.
Coupled with the spell-worked handcuffs on his wrists, that little shell was going to let Myra know if Bathin was lying or not.
“Delaney,” Bathin said. “Your sister seems reluctant to believe our agreement was entered into willingly by each party. Would you care to tell her?”
“No. Just because you have my soul does not make you my boss.”
He laughed, loud and deep, and yeah, somehow that made him even more handsome.
Myra’s expression softened into something near confusion or maybe curiosity. Her mouth even lost that hard line and sort of tipped up at the corner.
Bathin was a good-looking guy. Even Myra couldn’t miss that.
He shook his head. “I cannot begin to tell you how enjoyable you are.”
The little seashell glowed a soft green. The truth.
Myra made a frustrated sound. “You don’t need to be here for this, Delaney.” She hadn’t even looked at me yet. “I’ll handle him.”
I could hear it in her voice. Worry. Anger. She was standing in the middle of a nightmare and thought it was her sole responsibility to wake up us all.
Forget that. I walked over to her, and put my hand over her hand, covering the seashell so that it was in both of our hands. Then I turned her toward me so she would stop looking at Bathin like something she wanted to shoot.
“I know I made a bad decision.” The seashell glowed a kind of purple. Okay, not the whole truth. She raised one eyebrow.
“I know I’m going to regret my decision.” Soft green. Better.
“You’re worried and angry. So are Rossi and Jame. No one who loves me is going to think what I did is right.” All green.
“But I trust us. I know we’ll find a way to get my soul back. That isn’t what frightens me. What frightens me…” Lavender. “What I know frightened memore, is losing Ben. When I went to see Yancy, he said Ben would be returned to us through a favor given by something that does not walk the land of Ordinary. As far as I can see, we’re gold. Bathin owes me a favor and he’s something that doesn’t walk the land. He can bring Ben home.”
Green, green, green.
“I might be wrong, might have made the wrong decision, and I’m sorry for that, if I did. But we need to put that aside and play the cards in our hands while we have them.”
“You think I’ll just do what you want now? Now that you’ve…now that you’re…that?”
Ouch. Even though emotion was sort of at a distance right now, I felt her words like a sharp stab in my chest.
“This is too far, Delaney. You’ve gone too far for me.”
“For you to what?”
Love me?
“Trust me?”
Finally she nodded.
Green.
That should hurt too, knowing my sister didn’t trust me, but there was no sensation other than the need to see this through, to bring Ben home. Trust could be earned. I could earn it back from her. I’d have time.
“Then don’t trust me. Make sure you put someone on me to keep me on the level. Or have someone brew up a spell or something to make sure I don’t do anything crazy.”
“There will be no spells,” Bathin said.
“Not your property,” I reminded him.
