“If you don’t return, I’ll look after Margaret and the boy.” The doctor gave him an unreadable look, and Dan wished that he were already outside the room instead of witnessing their awkward conversation.
“Thank you.” Sondre sighed deeply, before he turned to leave.
But Dr. Jemison asked, “Are you going with Prospero?”
“I am. She has the wherewithal to do what needs to be done,” Sondre said in a tense voice. He didn’t glance back at her, at any of them.
“Kill them, you mean.” The doctor sounded increasingly upset.
Sondre turned around. “Mae… I know you heal, but this may not involve you. If they survive, I will try to bring them back to be siphoned—”
“Which will also kill them,” the doctor rebutted.
“Probably. I can insist it’s done when you’re in attendance in case Aggie can be saved. In case any of them can, but justice must be served.” Sondre glared at her, and Dan felt like his parents were fighting. It was a peculiar feeling, but he had a bit of hero worship over Sondre, and the doctor had saved him.
Literally, shecured his cancer.So he thought she could do no wrong.
Dan cleared his throat loudly. “So, kids, I’m going to bed. There’s a lot of tension in here, and I need my battery-recharging time or whatevs.” He looked at Dr. Jemison. “Glad you’re not dead, doc.” Then he looked at Sondre. “And congrats on the new job. Don’t die.”
Then he stood, stretched, and walked to the door. At first, it didn’t budge, but after a weird ripple of magic, the door opened, and Dan strode out of the room.
Sometimes living here felt weirder than he thought he could manage to unravel. Small town where everyone lived for centuries? More drama than he had anticipated at first. It made sense because there were a limited number of people and a lot of them worked in close quarters.And magic seems to screw with self-control.That was the part no one had said out loud, but he was fairly sure it was a fact.
The infirmary door flapped closed behind him, and Dan exhaled.
A hob appeared, standing atop a suit of armor around the corner.Not Clancy.Dan had no idea which hob it was. The tiny man put a finger to his lips and gestured for Dan to follow him.
“Man, I just want to sleep. Do you have any idea how tired I am?” Dan grumbled, but he still went in the direction of the hob, who was now standing under a giant stained-glass window. Since his arrival here, “follow the hob” had always been a good idea. For whatever reason, they all seemed to take a liking to him, and so if a hob gestured for him to follow in any way, Dan obeyed.
By the time Dan reached the window, the hob had vanished again.
Dan looked around, not seeing any hobs. He turned a corner, looking from side to side. There at the end of the hall was a door—and the hob.
The hob pointed at it, and then he vanished.
By the time Dan reached the door, he had started to think about the horrors that could lurk behind the door. He’d never been led astray by a hob, but Sondre was being supercautious and talking about war and everything felt precarious today.
I can trust the hobs,he reminded himself.
Dan still thought that this world was amazing, but there were definitely some downsides he hadn’t expected to find.
In fairness,he thought,did I ever expect to find a magical world?
There was no way to love fantasy books and franchises as much as he did and not at least imagine it, but that was just fanciful dreaming. It wasn’t an expectation. Now that he was here, living in a castle, able to do actual magic, he couldn’t imagine any other future. He felt like he washome.It was that feeling he realized now that he’d chased his entire life. He suspected it was why people switched careers, moved, dated serially… the urge to find thatclickdrove people, and he was no exception.
“Whatever’s in here, I’ll deal with it,” he muttered as he pushed the door open cautiously.
Inside, the room was lit by candles, and a small wooden table was heaped with an odd assortment of food. On the side of the room farthest away from the door, in the darkest shadows where the candlelight only barely touched, was Axell.
“Daniel.” He didn’t stand in greeting, and it was obvious that he had taken a moment to create the whole scene. It was all about enticement, from the inviting way he was sprawled on a love seat—one arm across the back as if inviting a person to fall into a waiting embrace—to the choices of the food on the table to the candles casting a calming light across the room.
“Hi.” Dan shut the door and turned the oversized key in the lock. Sure, people could teleport from place to place, but they needed toknowwhere they were going, so the likelihood was that a locked door was enough to assure privacy.
“I thought you might be hungry,” Axell said mildly, as if the word was only literal, but Dan knew well enough that there were other offers in that word. With him, there always were.
“How…?” Dan gestured around the room.
Axell lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I had time and wanted to do something special for you.”
