“Don’t forget your sword,” the genie says.
Right, I have responsibilities. Ugh. “Can you go to the knights’ chambers and check that the sword arrives?” I ask.
He salutes me and disappears. I’m still figuring out my powers. Although I called the sword to me, I haven’t yet tried putting it back. I unclip the sword from the saddle, still wrapped in its cloth. My eyes flutter closed and I picture the sofa in their chambers. The sword’s weight disappears from my palms. I flick my eyes open and grin at my empty hands.
The genie reappears with a blush gracing his blue face. “Did it work?” I hope so, because I have enough problems remembering where I put things with intention. If I misplaced a magic sword in a kingdom, I had no hope of finding it. Maybe there’s a lost and found for magical objects?
“I can confirm the sword is safely in the knights’ chambers.” His hand disappears around his back, and he rubs where his ass would be if he wasn’t a wisp below the waist. He’s forgotten we can see through him.
“Did it poke you?” I ask as I try to suppress my smile. My sword is a tricky thing. He enjoys practical jokes and toying with people.
Genie grimaces. “It has been an age since I felt the touch of anything, then suddenly that steel slices through my ass. It needs an education in appropriate behavior. We have an unwritten rule: no touching each other in those places. I have a good mind to report him to the authorities.”
There’s an authority for magic objects and creatures? Good, because I have a million questions about both the sword and the trident.
“Come on, Daphne, let’s retrieve your sister,” Malachi says, reminding me what our primary aim is.
I huff in annoyance. Every time I get closer to understanding something, it slips through my fingers for more pressing issues, and none was more urgent than rescuing my sister from Prince Poopfloof and his wandering hands.
Theo leads the way, with Malachi at my side. We stride around the outside of the castle, bypass the maze, and spill out onto a wildflower meadow. My gaze scans the enormous expanse, spotting various pairs. But no Gwyneth.
Until my vision narrows on a couple lying on a blanket. My sister’s blonde hair fans out on the ground as the asshole on top of her wrestles her hands down. Oh no, nope, not happening. I’m about to commit my second murder of the diurnal, and I will have zero regrets.
Chapter
Twenty-One
There’s nothing more motivating than protecting those you love. It causes you to do stupid shit like committing a crime. Rationality and logic fly out of the window, not that I had much of either to begin with. My feet stomp down the hill, my gaze focused on Charming, who is about to become a eunuch. Theo and Malachi are a step behind me, a silent force of protection at my back, but they seem to know better than to get in my way.
I fist the back of Charming’s stupidly soft blond hair and snatch his head back before dragging him off my sister. I slap him so hard my palm stings, making him shriek like a girl. What a mellow.
“In what realm do you think it is appropriate to climb on top of a female and force yourself on her?” I snarl. “No matter your station in life, this is a crime.”
“Daphne,” Theo says, trying to get my attention, but I refuse to be swayed from teaching this asshole a lesson. I tried to be nice. We even drugged him and pretended that he had a night of passion with my sister.
“I thought you were dead,” Charming grumbles.
“And I thought you’d grown a brain. Seems we are both disappointed.” I rattle his brain in his stupid head, making my point.
Charming clutches his hair, trying to pull it free from my grasp. “I’m trying to save her,” he cries out.
I jerk his head. “From what? Oxygen? A peaceful life? A worthy suitor? What could you possibly be trying to save my brave, capable, beautiful sister from?”
“Daphne,” Malachi snaps. He never raises his voice. My head swivels to them as they crowd my sister. Theo slides his hands under her arms from the back. What in the Blazes?
My eyes land on my sister’s pale and sweaty face. Her hands clutch her throat as her eyes bulge. Panic sluices through my veins as I drop Charming like a hot potato and fall to my knees in front of her.
“What’s wrong?” I whisper. If she dies, I will single-handedly obliterate the Charming bloodline.
“She has a slice of apple lodged in her throat,” Charming mumbles.
I will pick apart why this happened after I save her.
Theo links his fingers together under her breasts and jerks them toward him. Her body heaves forward, but the apple remains stubbornly in place.
“Grab her head and tilt it up,” Theo demands. “It will make it easier to dislodge the apple.”
Terror swirls in my chest, freezing me in place. Malachi moves to do as Theo instructed and then does it again. No luck.
