“I have madesomestrides into investigating this issue. It’s not as simple as I had first assumed,” he hedged.
“Do continue.”
“Faye was starting to suspect something was amiss – and was getting entirely the wrong idea – so I tried to explain the strange phenomena to her last night,” Raxx explained.
“Oh? And how did she take it?” Tabitha asked.
“She didn’t believe me.”
“Naturally.”
“So I...” Raxx sighed and rubbed a hand down his face.
“You?” Tabitha probed.
“Ishowedher what the problem was in the hope it would convince her I was telling the truth. Turns out, it’s justmeaffected by this Tabitha. Faye didn’t feel a thing.”
After a moment of stunned silence, the witch burst out laughing. Raxx felt his headache worsening by the minute.
“What’s so funny about that?” he snapped.
“She’s more powerful than you,” Tabitha grinned. “Her majick is dominating yours. That’s why you’re the only one feeling the pain on contact.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Raxx grumbled.
“I like the sound of this princess. You’ll bring her here to meet me this evening.” Tabitha nodded, perching daintily on her desk.
Raxx’s head shot up. “No, I can’t.”
“Nonsense, of course you can.” The witch flapped her hand dismissively.
“Okay, not can’t – won’t,” Raxx replied. “You’ll scare her to death.”
“After everything you’ve told me about her, I highly doubt that.” Tabitha smirked.
“It’s risky to—” Raxx began, but the witch held her hand up to interrupt him.
“Do you want my help or not, Raxx?” she asked, her ruby lips pursed with irritation.
“Yes, but—”
“Great, then you’ll bring her to meet me. Midnight.”
Raxx shook his head and got to his feet. It was no use resisting Tabitha once she made her mind up about something. He had learnt that lesson the hard way on more than one occasion.
“I’ve got some errands to take care of,” he muttered.
“Yes, of course. As have I.” Tabitha nodded and hopped down from her desk.
“I suppose I will see you later?”
The witch gave him a sly smile. “I’m counting on it, Del’Raxxin.”
The shadow demon groaned before slipping away into the shadows of the dusty office and out to the front of the inn.
It was snowing, which was no real surprise. Raxx stood still for a moment in the quiet street, watching the snowflakes sailing through his disembodied form.
Faye was stronger than he was. It was hard to believe such a small, naive faerie could house such potent majick. Raxx was not threatened by Faye’s superior majick, far from it. He had grown up in a witch coven – having his arse handed to him by women had been an almost daily occurrence whilst he had been learning to harness his majick.
