“You’re quoting the Bible?” Mal asked. “Isn’t that some sort of sacrilege? You’re a demon.”
He shrugged. “Not my book and if the shoe fits and all that. Found her stumbling across the lobby on her way out here. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was drunk.”
“We were attacked,” LeeAnne said.
Even though she was wobbly, she was clearly in full possession of all her mental faculties, unlike Law.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Mal said. “Why is Law so much worse off compared to you?”
“We were integrating deeper into Effrayant when the spell hit. Law pulled out and I didn’t. I assume he took a harder hit because of it.”
He pulled out because of her. Mal knew it without having to ask. Stupid fucking knight-in-shining-armor complex.
“This is going to take a whole lot more than foot massages and chocolate to make up to me,” she told him through gritted teeth. “You had your own job to do and you should have fucking done it and let me do what I do. But no, you had to run to the damsel and save her and now you’re sick and who knows how bad and I swear I will kill you if you try to die on me. Do you understand? I will get a necromancer to raise you, and I’ll kill you and do it over and over until your body falls to pieces and then I’ll wire your bones together and keep going. Do you understand me?”
She jammed her finger into his chest as she ranted, tears running down her face. Angry tears. Not sad tears because those would be silly and ridiculous, and she had nothing to be sad about and everything to be mad about.
“You… don’t… kill.” Law’s words came out slurred and he laughed, sounding half maniacal and half drunk.
Mal kicked him in the shin. Hard.
“Ow!” The pain made it through the haze in his body and mind.
“Well, at least he can feel that. How do we help him?” She asked LeeAnne and So’la. “What kind of spell is it? How do we counteract it?”
LeeAnne shook her head. “I’ve never heard of anything like this. But no one in our world would disclose if something like it had happened. We wouldn’t want anybody getting ideas.”
“So’la?”
“What did you do to save yourself? Try that.”
Mal stared, wanting to slap herself for missing the obvious answer. She whirled and set her hands on Law. Pulling magic into herself, she put the pieces of the spell together and shoved it inside him.
It burst apart in a corona of blinding light, and Mal half expected to see the shadow of his bones through his skin.
The light vanished, leaving bright blots swimming across her vision. She cupped Law’s head.
“How are you? Did it work?”
He looked at her, but his pupils were too small, and his eyes still didn’t seem to want to focus.
“Everything’s fuzzy.” At least his voice sounded stronger.
Mal straightened and glared at LeeAnne. “I don’t get it. Everything was fine. You guys were putting out healing energy. There was nothing wrong. Then suddenly Law is staggering, numb, and incoherent. Why? If that spell hit everybody else right away, why did it take so long for the two of you?”
“It didn’t. Effrayant protected us, but the spell worked its way through those protections. Because I was immersed still, I was able to limit the effects. Law did not.”
The disapproval in her voice indicated what she thought of that. Mal completely agreed. She might even admit it to LeeAnne one day. A cold day in hell, but still. It could happen.
A click of hooves caught her attention. Elliot came bounding across the courtyard. Edna wasn’t with him, and Mal had no idea where he’d come from, but since he didn’t respect magic or human walls, it could have been anywhere.
He gave a flying leap as he approached, and she caught him, cuddling him against her chest. He nuzzled her, banging his horns against her jaw.
“At least it didn’t hurt—”
Something clicked in her mind as she spoke, and Mal set Elliot on Law’s lap, pulling his arms around the little goat, who immediately started nibbling on his hair. Law tried to twist away, but Elliot would not be denied. He put his front feet up on Law’s shoulder, took a hunk of his hair in his teeth, and yanked. Law yelped and lunged to his feet, his arms tightening.
Mal grinned. He moved with his normal fluidity, reaching around to push Elliot’s nose away from his head. Elliot bleated protest.
