“Yes,” Garzaxie said. He turned his attention back to Ben and squeezed his hand with more strength than Ben expected. “Must save the King and King Consort.”
Ben nodded. “We will.”
The trust in Garzaxie’s eyes gutted Ben. He’d never seen a hobgoblin in such rough shape. He’d never actually treated one. They were one of the strongest supernatural creatures. How could they stop the manticore if he’d been able to do this kind of damage to Garzaxie?
He glanced at Koios who looked at him and smiled. It sent a shiver down Ben’s spine. Now Ben understood why Koios liked it when he was a little evil, because that look meant Koios had a plan.
And that made Ben very, very happy.
25
BEN
Ben absolutely did not like Koios’s plan. The dreaded hooded cloak made another appearance, and Ben couldn’t even give it a dirty look when one was richly deserved.
Instead, he had to pretend everything was fine as they walked toward the doors of the throne room. Gideon stood to Ben’s right, and Logan rounded out their foursome.
All they had to do was get through the two fae warriors standing outside the door to the throne room. Because their plan depended on it.
As far as plans went, Ben wasn’t impressed. At all. He’d mentioned it a number of times, in fact. “This is not a good idea,” Ben grumbled.
“Yes, it is,” Koios said. “Just be all strong and doctorly. Let Logan and Gideon do the fighting.”
Ben grunted. “You do realize I’m going to have to perform surgery in an unfamiliar realm with only the equipment I have in my pack, right?”
“Yep. But magic, Ben.Shh.You’re distracting me. Also, Logan might miss if you keep talking.”
“I don’t miss,” Logan said.
Then…BOOM.
The gun in Logan’s hand went off, and one of the fae warriors fell to the ground. Gideon fired at the second guard, once to the chest, again at the knee.
“And now we’ve lost the element of surprise.”
“Are you narrating our adventure for a reason?” Koios grumbled. “Also, guns are so loud.”
While Logan and Gideon dealt with the still struggling warriors, Ben did his assigned task and rushed to open the throne room doors.
He shoved them open and moved to the side. The creepy but smug cloaked creature stepped into the room, the glowing orb floating out in front of it, and began moving toward the manticore.
As far as entrances went, it wasn’t bad.
Still, gunshots and danger. Ben didn’t like it.
“The warriors are stable,” Logan said. “We’ve bound them in iron, but it’ll only buy us a few minutes.”
“That’s all we’ll need,” Koios said.
Cosmo’s song echoed throughout the throne room and Ben fought hard not to look at his friend. From the thready weakness in his voice, Cosmo had been singing for hours. He wouldn’t have much magic left.
“We’ve come for our friends.”
Koios’s voice echoed throughout the room.
The manticore sat on King Silenus’s throne. Ben looked at him through his lashes, not staring directly into his eyes as he’d been instructed. They didn’t know how his compulsions worked, but direct eye contact was one of the more common ways to create them.
“Finally,” the manticore said. “I’d honestly begun to think you weren’t going to come save the faun. Then again, you’ve yet to discover that these are your people, so perhaps I put too much faith in your powers.”
