Miriam arched one eyebrow at me sprawled in the dirt. “You’re still alive. How surprising.”
“I’m like a cockroach that way. I just keep coming back.”
She gave me a crooked smile, then glanced behind me. “Vampire.”
“Witch,” Liam said.
“I see the spell to find your wayward charge worked.”
He inclined his head.
Did she mean me? I thought the sorcerer had been the one to lead them to me.
“The items. How could you give them back to that, that, creature?” the sorcerer moaned, coming to stand beside me.
He stared mournfully at the grave.
“You’re welcome to dig the grave back up and get them back,” I told him.
“No,” both Miriam and Liam said.
Miriam gave a strained smile. “That will just wake the draugr back up. Right now, he’s sleeping. He’ll remain there unless someone takes those treasures from him again or disturbs his grave.”
I slapped the sorcerer on the back. “Guess that means you’re not getting them back unless you dig them up yourself. Sucks to be you.”
He turned to me and held up his hand. “Remove this. I’d like to torture you now.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”
“You have to. Our deal was that I release you from your chains and you remove this.”
“Is that a genie’s handcuff?” Liam asked.
I nodded.
He gave me an interested stare. “Where’d you get an item like that?”
I gave him a noncommittal shrug. A girl never reveals her sources.
“Our deal, vampire.”
“I don’t think so.” I gave Peter a nasty smile. “You failed to hold up your end.”
“That’s a lie. I released you.”
“I don’t count sprinkling that liquid on the chains and then fleeing as fast as you can in the opposite direction as freeing me.”
“You wouldn’t be free if not for that liquid, so in essence I freed you,” he said, leaning forward and pointing at the headstone in emphasis.
I stared at him through narrow eyes. He had a valid point. The chains would never have loosened enough for me to pull free if he hadn’t used whatever that stuff was on them. I also never would have escaped if I hadn’t used a considerable amount of brute strength.
“You left the job half done,” I said. “No deal.”
Good thing too, now that the sorcerer had a claim on me for the next hundred years. Things would be a lot easier on me if he didn’t have access to his magic.
“That’s not how this works,” he said through gritted teeth. “You will release me or I’ll declare you an oath breaker. This should be obvious to anyone with any experience in our world, but since you continue to display a considerable lack of intelligence, I’ll explain it to you.”
I folded my arms. This should be good.
