“Fine, fine.I promise I’ll bear in mind that this is all politically tricky and my ken isn’t up to snuff for comprehending it all.”
He smiled.“That works.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “once we identify the astra thing, we’ll sell it, and it won’t be our problem anymore.We’ll take our big pile of coin and head to Dy and Phin’s cottage for ale and rosemary twists.Peasant food,” she added with a sly smile for him, “but delicious.”
“No doubt.”He set a hand on her thigh and caressed the inner curve.“I’ve discovered a recently developed taste for all things human and peasant.”
“All?”she countered archly.
“A select few,” he allowed, then pulled his hand away, alas.“You know I can’t go.”
To Dy and Phin’s cottage for ale and rosemary twists.Yeah, she knew that.Dy had laid down the beginning of the work-around ley line, so Cha sent Katu down it.It prickled the back of her neck and between her shoulder blades to be doing this in broad daylight, but she trusted Dy—and Azul—to keep them hidden.The ley line felt good, maybe a little too good, not nearly as fragile as the one Dy had created on their way in.Likely the sorceress had abandoned using a thin line to keep attention away and was relying on her and Azul’s ability to glamour to protect them.
The teamwork that included Azul gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling that she resented mightily.Probably she should enjoy the moment, but the looming future where all this would be gone gnawed at her.Might as well embrace the disappointment now and get used to it.Speaking of which… “I assume you want to be dropped off at Lenorae’s family domicile of doom?”
He considered.“How close can you get me?”
“Well, as I don’t know theexactlocation, I can’t answer that with authority, but I can get back to the spot where I picked you up.”
“I can guide you from there, unless you’d rather not get too close.”
“Hey, door-to-door service is all part of what we provide here at Bandit Express.”Besides, she really wanted a good look at Azul’s future bride.How else would she torment herself at night imagining him withher, wrapping the bitch in his glorious wings and doing to her what…Yeah, self-destructive was Cha’s middle name and she was at peace with that.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t think of a way to resume semi-normal conversation after that exchange.Mostly the demand to knowwhyhe had to go back to that unsavory situation battered at the backs of her teeth.He couldn’t answer and, even if he could, she wouldn’t like what he had to say and it would change nothing, so she clamped her jaws down hard to keep any whining and clinging from escaping.
Azul sensed her mood.Or felt the same.Whatever, because he was quiet for a while, the silence stretching uncomfortably.“It’s never a perfect world,” he finally said.
At first Cha thought he meant their inevitable parting and his even more certain dismal unhappiness at Lenorae’s hands.Was it so wrong to hope Azul would be miserable with his ideal bride?A better woman would be able to wish him happy, but Mrs.Evermore’s little troublemaker had never been destined to be a better person.Cha viciously hoped Azul would pine away for her, forever regretting that he didn’t stay with her and…and what?Live a cozy cottage life with her like Dy and Phin?Have half-fae/half-human babies and send the sulky, criminally minded critters off to Miss Mulry’s?No no no.She shuddered at the image.No amount of rosemary twists could make her want that life.
“Not even a close to perfect world,” she agreed.“It’s all right.I know you have to go get married toLenorae.”She didn’t quite spit the woman’s name and was proud of herself.
He gave her a quizzical glance.“I meant your list of all that needs to go correctly in the next little while.”
Oh.Well, fuck her life and her stupid heart blabbing out nonsense.“That’s why they pay us the big bucks—this isn’t a corporate cargo run.This is dangerous living and we’re the best.”The depot loomed nearby, not nearly as sparkly as at night, but still glittering like a bedazzled starfish in the morning light.“Besides, we nearly have the first bit done.”
She really shouldn’t have jinxed them like that because right then, Dy’s sorcery flickered through the ley line, slowing them.“Bandit,” she said on the amethyst channel.“We’ve got a problem.”
“I’ve got a solution,” Cha replied.“Give me a slingshot.”
“Won’t help.Take a gander.”
Cha stood in the driver’s seat and shaded her eyes.An Obsidian blockade sat across Dy’s ley line, a row of winged Obsidian fae holding spears leveled right at them.
“Fuck me,” she said, on a sigh.It really never was a perfect world.
~41~
Hitting the Mobstacle Course
“Idon’t supposeyou could just use your magic to vanish them?”Cha asked Azul, waving a hand at the line of warriors.
“I actuallycould,” he answered, “but there would be repercussions.”
Well, things were looking up.“What kind of repercussions?”
“Unpleasant repercussions.”
“More specific, please.”
