Clayton had a split-second to react, which was more than enough time to realize that Mal would be a great asset right about now. Without thinking, he whipped out his crystal box and flung it at Mal, hoping against hope that the man could drain it of magic like he did with the spell patch earlier. He winced when the box exploded on contact as its contents realized all of their potential at once.
Oops.
For a moment, Clayton thought he’d just murdered his only backup and was about to get vaporized by a magic gun, but then he saw a bit of his crystal box sticking out of the side of the massive fuck-off gun. Its main crystal was shattered, now useless and dark.
A completely unmutilated and definitely not dead Mal growled and shot to his feet, eyes clear and full of murder.Clayton nearly twirled in joy, until he realized he didn’t know who the murder glare was for. Then Mal stormed toward Jerkface, shot out a hand, grabbed the man by the face, andpulled.
Black veins crawled across the kidnapper’s face and spread down his neck. Electricity sparked and hissed as Mal drewsomethingout of the man. Lightning arced and leapt for Guy Number Three, who hadn't succeeded at getting his shield back up. Both men gave a strangled keening noise before collapsing to the ground as lifeless husks.
Electricity crackled in Mal’s coal-black eyes.
“That’s one way to do it,” Clayton managed.
Chapter
Seven
CLAYTON
“Wait,” Eira said. “You mean to tell me people from another dimension were taking our stuff and then moved onto our kids?”
“Actually, they were trying to take the children but kept getting objects near them instead,” Mal interjected from his seat on a rock near Eira’s door stoop. He didn’t look anything like a man who had nearly died from magic drain. But then sucking the life out of two kidnappers probably did a world of good for… whatever species of Other he was.
At what point would it be polite for Clayton to simply ask what Mal was? Because he was currently dying to know.
“Why wouldn’t they just hop over here and take the children? Seems unnecessarily complicated,” Eira groused.
“I got the feeling they weren’t supposed to be over here in our dimension,” Clayton said without thinking.
Mal’s eyes cut through him like a blade, but he didn’t say anything.
“Oh yeah? What makes you say that, boy?” Grampy called from inside the house. He might have been old and occasionally confused, but his hearing was obviously still good enough to participate in the conversation while he made post-battle snacks for everyone.
Clayton sighed. It had been nice being called Guardian while it lasted. “Just a hunch.”
“I didn’t know the Guard hired people because of their hunches.” Mal flashed an irritating half-smile showing a hint of fangs.
“Well, you learn something new every day, don’t you?” Clayton retorted.
He had no intention of relaying his little hallucination to the group. It seemed like little more than a dream now that all the excitement was over. Had he really tapped into something back there? Or had he just had an unbelievable string of good luck for once? He was probably due, considering.
Clayton prodded the spot in his head where he’d felt the switch flip earlier. Did it feel different now? Or was it just wishful thinking? Maybe… no. It would be better for him if he didn’t allow his thoughts to go down that path.
Things like that didn’t happen to Clayton. He was support for the real guardians. Today had been nothing more than a small break from reality. When he returned to the chapter house, he’d go back to being a glorified gofer.
Except…
“What about the children?” Clayton asked.
“What about them? Do you think they’ll be okay now? Or will more dimension-hopping kidnappers come for them?” Eiraput an arm around both children and pulled them close to her minuscule form.
Merry clutched her brother and shivered.
Clayton kneeled, took her tiny hand, and said, “If they do, they’ll need someone to look after them. There’s no telling how many more of those guys are out there.”
Here came the tricky part. He wasn’t sure how things happened with the Benighted, but among the Beloved, children didn’t tend to fall into the cracks. Cym’s case was one of the rare exceptions, which meant Clayton didn’t know how to propose what had been dancing around in the back of his mind since the moment he’d laid eyes on that little cardboard box home.
He plunged in, hoping the Benighted had as loose a social structure as he guessed. “You could come home with me.” He looked Merry in the eye, willing her to trust him. “I have friends who can help keep you safe.” Eira gasped, and Clayton spoke quickly. “No one down here will have a problem with that, right?”
