She’s barely making a sound, her movements are small. I hate it, and I don’t understand why.
“Would you like to buy your beautiful omega a necklace?”
Ronit chokes on the water he was drinking. “I’m sorry, auld woman, but what?”
“Auld woman?” she says in a huff. “I’m not so old!” To be fair, her hair is grey, her skin a wrinkled map, and she is bent over. She is old for humans.
“Uh, worldly woman? Decrepit human?”
She growls, and Ronit blinks, looking completely out of his element. He wasn’t made for small talk. He and I were born to cut the bodies of our enemies upon the fields of war.
“Sorry, he’s a bit flustered. We normally keep him locked up,” Lirin says charmingly.
She beams at him. Most people do. Lirin has all the people skills that the rest of us lack. Charming, innocent, without ghosts. Not to say he has none, just that he can hide them better.
“How are you today, miss?”
She giggles and blushes like she’s young instead of with one foot in her grave.
“I’m good, better now. Would you like to buy a necklace for your lovely lady friend?”
Leaf snorts, folds his arms, and steps in front of the witch. “Mine!”
The woman looks between them, confused by his sudden claiming.
“You really are the perfect pack. You look so beautiful together.”
I think the five of us snap our heads towards the woman in perfect synchronization.
“No, we’re not-”
“Here, just give it to her later when you take her out to dinner. She looks a little stressed. Poor thing. You have a gorgeous pack, darling, even if the giant is a bit scary.”
And I’m not?!
The woman presses the necklace into Lirin’s hand. He looks at Ronit, who motions with his hand to just let it go. She pats his cheek and then ambles off, her bulk swaying as she moves.
People move around us. I grab Leaf and pull him in front of her, yank her wrist up to his back and wrap her fingers around the fabric. I’m thoroughly out of patience with all of them.
“Hold on to him.”
“I don’t need-”
“Don’t be inconvenient. We don’t have the time to baby you. Leaf is wide enough and weird enough that everyone will get out of his way.” Why am I explaining? “Just do it.”
She bristles, but she doesn’t let go of his shirt, and when we start walking, she follows the motions of his body as if they were already in tune.
Diablos and Hartley have disappeared, but this test will continue until we fail or figure out what’s wrong. I’m not a fan of tests, but already, I’m starting to filter through what it could be.
The details flood my mind. A woman in pink with flour on her nose, smiling widely and fluttering her lashes at the tall man. The tall man has a hand in his pocket. Is he hiding a weapon or something less sinister? No, he’s leaning into the woman, everything about him says interest. He’s flirting. A moment later, he pulls out his phone, and she takes it.
Courting.
I dismiss them, noting that there are lots of banners and scraps of material with hand-painted and printed designs and letters flapping. A man is doing an acrobatic display while a massive group of people ooh and ah. There are stalls with food, I pass one with weapons, but the man who is selling them is sitting in a chair with a hat over his eyes and is sound asleep.
What is it that we are meant to be seeing?
A group of children run past, but a girl stops. She looks like she might be seven. This child zeroes in on Ronit, her eyes getting bigger and rounder.
