“I was going to do it behind your back,” he said with a dirty chuckle.
She giggled louder. “Oh,you.”
“But,” I interrupted, “that’s not happening because no one gets to make decisions for how you want to live your life or who you want to spend it with. Xtelle. Xtelle, are you listening to me?”
“What?” she murmured. “Is someone talking?”
I tapped her rump. “I’m not breaking the contract for you.”
“What?” She finally twisted to look at me over her shoulder. “Don’t you have a pudding factory to de-mule? Why are you bothering me?”
“No one is breaking the contract between you and Vychoro.”
She scoffed. “I know that. Why even bring it up?”
I closed my eyes for a second and indulged in the image of taping her mouth shut with one of those pallet-wrapping machines.
“Avnas was trying to force Delaney to break it,” Myra said. “That’s why he’s in jail.”
She swung her head, stared at Myra for a second then lifted a hoof and somehow snapped, like she had fingers. “There.”
She hadn’t done magic. I would have known if it was magic. But she had done something…supernatural. Something tied to her. Something tied to the Underworld.
Thunder crashed so hard the entire building shook. The rumble rattled bricks and spells. The floor shivered and rolled with an earthquake shimmy.
A whiskey-hot wind whipped through the room, and a high, warbling voice called out, “Doom! Doom!”
Before I could tell anyone to dive for cover, it was over.
The wind dropped, the voice silenced, the floor settled, and the thunder faded, faded, and was gone.
“Everyone okay?” I asked. I got nods all around, except for Than who just yawned.
Pan had taken the brief distraction to put his goat arm around Xtelle’s neck. It was probably supposed to be comforting or protective, but it just looked awkward.
“What was that?” I asked Xtelle.
“Oh, I just broke the contract between the king and myself. I am a queen without a realm. Woe.” She batted her eyelashes at Avnas again, but leaned her head on Pan. “Who shall protect me now?”
“You broke the contract with a snap of your fingers?”
“Yes?”
“You could have done that at any time?” I went on doggedly.
“Of course.”
“Then why didn’t…” But I didn’t finish the question.
She wasn’t paying attention to me anyway. Avnas was glaring at Pan, his eyes burning with jealousy. Xtelle was eating that up like whatever it was demons prefer to eat, which I was beginning to think might be pudding and donkeys.
“The thunder, earthquake, and doom warning?” Myra asked.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Xtelle said breezily. “Woe to me. All alone. A queen without a country.” She shifted closer to Pan while throwing sideways glances at Avnas to make sure he was catching the act.
“Delaney Reed,” Avnas said, looking away from Xtelle with some difficulty. “I have done as you required. I told her the whole truth. And now, I’d like to sign that contract.”
Myra, of course, really did have a copy of the contract in her pocket. She raised an eyebrow in question. I rolled my eyes, but nodded.
