Chapter 24
NERO PULLEDinto a parking spot next to Mr. Collier’s truck, but he knew Josh wasn’t going to let him drop that bomb and just disappear, so he tried to minimize the damage. “It’s not as bad as it sounds.”
“It sounds like, in a moment of shock and grief, you did the one thing guaranteed to screw you over. And possibly everyone else too.”
Yeah, he’d considered that. Long after the fact, of course, but that was one of the things that kept him up at night.
“Enough with the stoic shit,” Josh huffed. “What—exactly—did you say? And I do meanexactly.”
“I don’texactlyremember.”
“Mother of—”
“Stop being so dramatic,” Nero snapped. “I’m not even supposed to be talking to you about this.”
“Screw that. Talk.”
Nero sighed. If only it was that easy. If he gave Josh the full details, then Bitterroot was going to make him pay. Period. But at the moment, Nero didn’t care. He owed Josh the truth. More than that, hewantedto tell him the truth. It was too heavy a burden to shoulder alone. “Bitterroot owed me a favor, so I called him and got a mulligan.”
“Bitter—you know—is the fairy?”
“Yes.” And obviously Josh already knew the dangers of saying a fairy name out loud. That’s why Nero hadn’t said the guy’s full name.
“And a mulligan is a what? You get to replace your team with someone else?”
“What? No!” He stared at Josh. “Where did you get that idea?”
“That’s what a mulligan is in gaming circles. You get to replace your hand with new cards and do the turn over.”
Nero’s eyebrows rose. Apparently there were some things the über-geek didn’t know. Score one for the sports reference. “A mulligan ingolfis a do-over. A repeat. I’ll get dropped back in time—”
“Oh! An Omega 13 device.” And when Nero stared at him, Josh blew out a breath. “Galaxy Quest. We’ll watch it….” There probably wouldn’t be any more movies together, no matter what happened tomorrow. “Never mind. How does it work?”
“I’ll start up right before the attack, and this time I’ll save every single one of them and kill that fucking demon—”
“No! Don’t go and attack. It’s still suicide to go in with untested equipment.”
Nero watched as Mr. Collier unlocked the factory door and disappeared inside. How he longed to be done with this conversation, but he already knew Josh wouldn’t let him go so easily.
“A fairy mulligan has specific rules. We still have to attack. There’s not a lot I can change.” He looked at Josh. “But I can bring a weapon for each one of my team. Your design—”
“Is not a weapon!”
“Fine! Your plan and your tech will keep them alive. I just need them to survive the blast, then we can kill it. I know we can.”
“No, you don’t know that. All you know is what the demondid. Not what itwill doafter it shoots off that plasma blast.”
Yes, Nero had thought about that, but there was only so much he could plan for. “I saw the… creature afterwards. It was a pink blob and completely defenseless.”
“Except for the gun. Except for whatever demon powers—”
“Stop arguing with me, Josh. It’s done, and I’ve run out of time. I go tomorrow morning at dawn, whether I have your tech or not.”
Josh reared back. “Dawn! There’s no way I can make five shields in that time—”
“I need the one. I’ve been texting with Bitter. He says if I’ve got one, then he can duplicate it.”
There was a moment of silence as Josh processed that, but his mind obviously wasn’t where Nero’s was. “Fairies have cell phones?”
