“Tonight?”
The reaper wraith nodded.
“I can ask when I see them.”
LeeAnne’s mouth pinched. “How about now?”
Mal glanced doubtfully over her shoulder at Law.
“He’s fine. He doesn’t need you.”
Mal studied LeeAnne’s face, trying to see if there was any double meaning in her words. “I can ask,” she said finally.
LeeAnne’s smile was wide and fake as a three-dollar bill. “Please do. We’ll wait.”
Since the ghosts were splitting time between the charging stations and looking for Elliot, she was going to have to go searching for them and it would take a little while, so she wasn’t going to get to see how Law dealt with the pixies and the glitter bomb.
Mal wasn’t actually worried about him. They’d shielded before the bomb had ruptured, so the pixie dust mixture hadn’t gone everywhere, and he had plenty of power and skill to deal with it. Though now it appeared it had begun to eat through the ceiling. Or rather, begun eating and digesting the ceiling. Globs had begun to bubble up and form appendages. She smirked. LeeAnne had to be feeling the attack through her connection to the place. With any luck, it was seriously uncomfortable.
She strolled across the lobby, taking her time, wincing as she realized she had splinters sticking out all over herself and a few of them had gone pretty deep. She was going to have to take care of those.
By the timeshe made it back, the pixies were gone, and the lobby had been restored to its pristine glory. LeeAnne and Law stood with their heads together near the desk, while Moira Withersmen sat in one of the nearby seating areas.
As she approached, both Law and LeeAnne looked up. They definitely made a pretty couple. Mal hated the spurt of jealousy she felt. LeeAnne hadn’t exactly been subtle about her interest in Law, who had been very clear he didn’t return said interest. All the same, Mal looked at the woman and couldn’t imagine why anybody wouldn’t want her. She was gorgeous, elegant, svelte, smart, sexy—basically everything a man could want in a woman.
And peevish, she reminded herself. The woman was positively peevish. And irritating. Also annoying, aggravating, bothersome, and grating. Not to mention unpleasant and provoking.
She was still coming up with words to describe her nemesis when she approached LeeAnne and Law.
He scrutinized her with narrowed eyes. The apartment had been her first stop, as she’d hoped to find one of the ghosts there while she cleaned up. She’d taken the time to remove the wood splinters and apply bandages, then changed her clothing.
Law, on the other hand, showed no sign that he’d been wounded or that his clothes had suffered any sudden perforations. Easy peasy when you could tap a nearly endless power supply.
“How are you?” he asked, gaze fixing on the one bandage that peeked out above her collar.
She was sore; some of the wood splinters had gone deep. But she wasn’t about to admit it. “I’m good. What happened to the pixies?”
“Sent to the grotto with warnings to behave,” he said.
Mal was willing to bet that after getting a talking-to from Law, the pixies would think for possibly a whole second or two before getting into more trouble. Maybe they’d even give it five or even ten seconds.
This wedding was going to be such a disaster.
“The ghosts are willing to help out,” she told LeeAnne. “They asked if Moira would meet them at the koi pool by the waterfall, so they don’t have to stop charging. They’ll be there all day.”
LeeAnne nodded. “I’ll let her know. Then you and I can have coffee.”
“What happened with the glitter bomb fallout?” Mal asked as she and Law headed for the bistro.
He shook his head. “Not a lot. Some new creatures, possibly. I conveyed them to the menagerie quarantine cells until we can decide if they should be released or not.”
“Seems unfair to be the only one of your kind and to only exist because of a pixie prank.”
Law shrugged as they reached a table. He pulled a chair out for her. “Magic has a way of evening things out. Look at the giants and the pixies. No one would have seen a marriage happening there.”
“I still don’t,” Mal said as she sat. “Who besides pixies are willing to put up with them?”
The waiter approached and took their order. LeeAnne sat down and added hers.
