When Perennial Bloom came into focus, Kizros nearly crashed through the door.
“Aofe? Aofe!” he shouted, then stuttered to a stop in the dark interior.
Dozens of vials had been shattered. One bookcase was tipped into another that was barely holding upright. Soil and glass littered the floor at his feet, and the ceramic was…
Tim.
And next to his shattered pot, was one of Aofe’s crutches.
“Aofe!” Kizros screamed, gaze darting through the mess to see if she had been caught under the bookcase.
Until there was a muffled, “Over here.”
The moment he heard Aofe’s voice, he was running again, slipping as he scrambled behind the desk to find a ball of silver fur tucked into the gapunderneath.
“Attie, Attie,” Kizros urged, fingers digging for anything solid to help the atteapir get unstuck. Finally, he managed to pull a leg free, and then blue hair spilled out.
Aofe sucked in a wild breath from where she’d been smooshed into the tight space. “Farting fudge, fresh air.” She smiled weakly up at him. “Attie needs a bath.”
Kizros continued to help Attie free from the confines, and then he was dragging Aofe out as gently as he could.
His hug, however, was not as gentle. His arms nearly wrapped around her twice, his tail filling in where he couldn’t hold her, and he buried his face in her neck to ground himself with her scent of sweet sunshine.
“Oof,” Aofe grunted, her arms wiggling from where he’d trapped her. “Kiz, we gotta check Attie. She got scared with that noise, and I thought it was a quake so I figured this was safe, but she got wedged.”
He nodded, reluctant to let go, but the moment he did, Attie was nuzzling between them, her whimpers traded for what sounded like relieved coos. Not a scratch or injury on her, only a little bit of dirt in her fur. Kizros gave her a rub behind the ears as she nestled her head on their laps, but the moment he looked up, he sent her flying off.
“Aofe!”
His hands shot out, gripping Aofe’s tear- and soil-stained cheeks. He pulled her face closer, noting the redness under her eyes and the scrape below her chin. Her freckles seemed unharmed, at least, but her sweater was ripped at the shoulder,red blood staining the fabric, and around her neck was a blooming bruise.
“What in the blazes?—”
“There was an incident, but I’m okay,” she said, grabbing his cheeks in turn. She squeezed, sending his glasses askew. “Kiz, baby, I’m running on so much adrenaline right now. I need you to listen before I start freaking out.”
That was going to be very hard when he wanted to eviscerate whoever had hurt his beautiful human, so he clenched his jaw hard enough he might crack a fang.
“Tholvich attacked me when you left, trying to get back at you because he’s jealous, but he failed, okay?” Aofe squeezed harder, like she knew his anger was starting to take over his rational thought process. “He chased me through the shop, breaking things to make it look like it was unsafe to work with you, but it’s okay now.”
“Okay?” Kizros blurted, fangs elongating as he snarled. “He attacked you, hurt you. How is that?—”
“Kizros,” Aofe urged, shaking him gently. “I mean, it’s okay.”
Only then did he notice her eyes darting up to the ceiling. “What are you looking at? Why are you—Tim?”
He’d barely noticed the darkness in the shop, too worried about finding Aofe, but now he could see the real cause of the darker-than-average interior.
Tim’s dark purple vines pulsed across the ceiling, woven so intricately the glow of Kizros’s magiclighting the shop couldn’t escape. Leaves fluttered in a nonexistent breeze, nearly three times the size they were supposed to be.
And trapped within them, completely helpless, was Tholvich. His eyes were wide, a thin gash across his forehead and two snapped horns, while his arms were splayed out in opposite directions, legs and tail bound tight. For good measure, a vine had wrapped around his mouth, keeping him quiet.
Kizros’s gaze dropped back to Aofe who was still clutching his cheeks. “But Tim’s pot?—”
Her grin against his palms was wide. “I did a rune.”
“You did a—” Kizros spluttered, then nearly squealed his excitement. “A rune? You did a rune? That one? You made Tim into anactualguard plant?”
“Yes, yes,” Aofe was laughing after each of his questions. “In his soil. I was so scared, Kiz, but I just kept thinking about how much I didn’t want to be taken from you, how much I loved this place, and the rune worked. Tim was so amazing, pulling Tholvich away from me and?—”
