I balked. “Um, can we talk without you pointing a sword at my face?”
He didn’t budge. “That depends. Are you still possessed by the demon Faust?”
My heart flipped with fear. Was this dude actually going to skewer me if I gave him the wrong answer?
Faust spoke in my mind. “He’s just threatening you. Otherwise I would’ve taken over.”
I blew out a shaky breath. I didn’t love being possessed, but I had to admit, it was nice knowing I was never in danger of physical harm.
“The answer’s yes, so I guess I’m staying on the ground,” I said.
The sword guy looked pissed. “Where is Sagitta?”
“Er, he went to get me lunch.”
My stomach growled loudly, just to make me look like even more of an idiot.
“See?” I offered him what I hoped was a friendly grin. “I’m not dangerous. Just hungry.”
The swordmaster narrowed his eyes at me. Even his glare was familiar. He and Sagitta were definitely related.
He angled the weapon like he was about to slice me open. My body tensed with supernatural magic. Faust was on standby, ready to react.
“Cygnet, stop!” Sagitta yelled.
As he ran towards us, I couldn’t help but notice the cute goldfish-fabric wrap in his hand. There must’ve been a boxed lunch inside. Did he make that for me?
“You’re way out of line. You can’t just threaten my client,” Sagitta said. “Chase, stand up.”
I waited to see if Cygnet would stab me for my insolence, but Sagitta’s warning made him back off, although he didn’t stop glaring as I got to my feet. I never thought I’d be terrified of a dude who was five-foot-two, but life was full of surprises.
“What exactly did you say to me earlier? That you’d handle it?” Cygnet sneered. “You turned your back for one second, and he’s already trying to escape.”
I tried to interject. “Hey, wait, that’s not—”
“Be quiet!” the exorcist brothers snapped at me.
I shut my mouth.
“He’s our guest, and he was hungry. Do I not have a responsibility to feed him?” Sagitta argued.
Cygnet scoffed. “He’s possessed by a demon and you bought that excuse?”
“Ooh, I love it when siblings fight,” Faust chirped.
I wished he would shut his mouth, too.
“If I hadn’t been here, a powerful demon would be loose in the city right now, and it would be all your fault,” Cygnet said. “You should be begging for my forgiveness.”
Sagitta’s nostrils flared in genuine anger. “I won’t be spoken to this way. Don’t interfere with me or my client again. Chase, we’re leaving.”
After pulling me to my feet, he stormed off in a tizzy. I stayed close to him in case Cygnet decided to throw the sword across the hall like a giant dart.
Within moments, we’d returned to the room I’d just left. Everything happened so fast that I didn’t have a chance to talk to Sagitta about the mix-up. Even if itwasthe wrong room, I breathed a sigh of relief when we were safely inside.
“Geez, that was—”
Sagitta’s hands clenched the front of my shirt and he slammed me against the wall.
