The rest of the pack stood well out of the way as they worked on the potion that would help put things back to rights. Honestly, Koios didn’t want to ask too many questions. With Cosmo, Silenus, and Thudlez all seriously injured, the hobgoblin wasn’t in the best mood.
Taj and Gideon had gone to deflect any curiosity seekers from the castle. The Unseelie would be dealing with the fallout from this misadventure for a long time.
“Twelve drops,” Garzaxie said. “And not a single drop more.”
Koios nodded and accepted the vial. He carefully added the required amount, then passed the bottle to Phoebe. She returned it to the shelf while they waited for Garzaxie’s next orders.
“Stir six times, clockwise as the humans call it.”
“Got it,” Koios said.
The huge ladle was made of a material he’d never seen before. It was a type of metal, that much Koios knew. He could sense metal now, from the cauldron to the weapons each person in the room wore. He could even feel the gold in Iris’s earrings.
“Focus,” Garzaxie barked.
His sisters both snickered.
Koios completed the required turns. Garzaxie dipped a chalice into the cauldron and filled it with the foul-smelling potion.
“Give this to the king,” Garzaxie ordered. “Only as much as he can drink. I will watch.”
Koios nodded and took the chalice. The metal sang against his skin. Garzaxie grunted. “Your ancestors will be proud of your strength and magical prowess. Now do as you’re told!”
Several more members of his pack snickered at his expense, but Koios didn’t care. He knelt at the king’s side and held the potion to his mouth. Cosmo gently lifted his mate’s head.
“Rub his throat, Cosmo,” Ben said. “Gently. It’ll help him swallow until the instinct kicks in.”
Cosmo did as Ben asked.
“Enough,” Garzaxie said. “Now the consort.”
Cosmo groaned but took several deep swallows from the chalice. “Garzaxie, can’t you make these things taste better. A nice pear ale, perhaps sweetened with honey?”
“If I wanted to reduce the potency, I would do as the consort asks. Since I don’t want to do that, I shan’t.”
Koios carried the chalice to Thudlez next. Garzaxie sat with his mate, his fingers tracing the collar they’d yet to find a way to remove. Koios held the chalice to Thudlez’s mouth until Garzaxie pushed it away.
“Now you,” Koios said.
Garzaxie frowned but did as Koios said and took a few long drinks himself. “Now we wait.”
Koios sat down the chalice and stared at the small, broken figure beside him. His fingers twitched and he reached out to the collar. Options ran through his mind, but then he felt something…a weakness in the metal? No, the original joint where the magic had once sealed the metal into place.
“What are you doing?” Ben asked, moving to kneel at Koios’s back.
“Trying to figure out if I can get this thing off of him.”
“You can do that?”
“I don’t know,” Koios said. “I think so. It’s a feeling. The metal…I feel it.”
“Sawyer can feel metal,” Ben said. “It makes sense that you have metal magic with what you did with your wings.”
“Your brother-in-law has a lot more metal magic than I do, considering the whole god thing.”
“Former god,” Ben clarified. “But he still has the ability to work with metal.”
“My mate would be much distressed to awaken with such a cursed object on him,” Garzaxie said.
