Axell aimed a cocky grin at the man. “I like a lot of things, but tonight, I want to make someone suffer.”
The words rang true, and the dealer leaned forward. “Tell Howie all about it.”
“I was eavesdropping…” Axell glanced at Dan, who gave a nod. They’d practiced this. Literally stood away from Ellie and Prospero, who talked together but not to them so theyhadeavesdropped. Truth could be so very relative.
“And what did you learn, pretty?” The dealer patted one of the grungy pillows. “I will give you a discount if you want to convince me.…”
Dan’s stomach twisted at the predatory tone and tried to put it in his voice. “We want to buy poison. Thisbitchwas bragging about trapping you, and we thought… maybe you’d cut us a deal.”
“Something liquid to put on a blade,” Axell added.
“Revenge is silly. Pleasure, that’s the good feeling.” Howie cupped his crotch, and for a moment, Dan thought they were going to get an unwelcome show.
“Maybe we’d try some powder later.” Axell smiled, watching Howie’s hand like it was enticing. “Or molly?”
Howie shook his head. “Got thingslikemolly. Get you some real hallucinations.…” He glanced at Dan and added, “Have a spell that is like the little blue pills, too. Keep you up for hours.” His sentence was accompanied by a tug on his crotch. “Like a rock.”
Axell wrapped an arm around Dan’s middle. “We don’t have any need for that.”
“Poison, though,” Dan added.
“My lover has a temper.” Axell said the words like it was endearing. “Such a vicious man.”
For a moment, Dan was frozen by the reality that they could not lie here; most witches could read a lie. They could twist and dissemble, but Axell was saying that Dan had a temper, and that they didn’t need pills for sex, and… those were truths.
Was his interest in drugs for later true, too?
“Look. We just want to hurt that bitch,” Dan blurted out. He didn’t specify which one. There were faces of people he’d wanted to hurt, although it wasn’t a thing he’d acted on as a rule, maybe the occasional petty revenge. “Some people deserve what they put out there.”
“Ah, there it is.” Howie rose to his feet. “The headmaster likes you because you’re a Grendel like him. Vengeful boys. Maybe you want something to bulk up? Make yourself fight-ready?”
Dan didn’t flinch as Howie approached. He had a moment of thinking itmightbe amazing to be able to toss people around, to overpower them, to take what he deserved. “Prospero took advantage of me. I want her to get what she deserves.”
Howie stopped midstep. “No. I don’t cross that one, and you won’t get any poison here if she’s your tar—”
“Do you have any?” Axell asked, reaching out as if to take hold of Howie’s hand. “Or know where we can get any?”
“If I did, she’d already be in pain.” Howie shuddered all over. “Canny thing. She’d know, and what I did have wouldn’t be strong enough to take down a house head over here in Crenshaw.”
Axell nodded. “Thank you.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t do business.…” Howie oozed closer. “Plenty of things to distract you. No good comes of crossing her or her wife.”
“I think we should go.” Dan stepped backward. “Err, thank you, though.”
“You’ll be back.” Howie grinned wider than a human mouth ought to stretch. “Once you come here, your kind always come back. Addicts are the best customers.”
Axell shook his head. “Not tonight, though.”
“Bye.” Dan waved cheerily and tugged Axell along with him, stumbling and looking back as if Howie would follow. He didn’t, though. He was back on his pillows, pants shoved down, staring after them.
Axell shoved the door open, and they stood in the clean air. He pulled Dan in for a long hug. “Do not let me go to this village alone, Daniel, if I am sad or we have fought. Ever.”
“I won’t. I swear it.” Dan looked back. This perfect magical world still had a flaw, and Dan wanted to remove it, to yank it out and destroy it.
Ellie’s voice drew his attention away from the building. “Well?”
“Not him. Also he hates you both,” Dan said bluntly.
