The imp shot over a fireball aimed at his wings and spun around in the air, cocking his big bulbous head at me.
Taking one step, then another across the field, I laughed even louder. “The way you got all six of them with a direct hit to the face with those pies was truly inspiring. You’re so funny. I love playing with you!”
“Argh!” Ravenscar slashed and tore at the net, ripping it off his wings. Jumping to his feet, he plucked three feathers from his wings and waved his hands over them—shouting a string of words in a language that my brain refused to understand. A barbed net appeared over the imp’s head.
Its wide eyes still fixed on me, the imp pointed up and suddenly the net vanished... and reappeared over Ravenscar.
“Agh!” Ravenscar thrashed under his own trap, letting out a string of curses and obscenities that made my ears bleed.
“Wow, you got him good,” I sounded off, slowly skirting around a hole with an enraged werewolf in it. “You’re so clever, I love playing with you.”
“What nonsense are you spouting, boy!” Erlik bellowed. “Stop trying to get the creature to fuck you, and kill it already!”
“I like to play pranks and have fun too,” I called up, ignoring Erlik completely. “See? Look!”
Running to the left of the field, I picked up a fallen pie and scooped out the cream. I slapped some on my jaw and around my lips, gave myself a beard and mustache, and then stuck my tongue out at him.
Pulling my ears, crossing my eyes, lifting the tip of my nose, I whipped out all the funny faces in my arsenal.
“Teehee.”
I beamed, hope soaring in my chest.He laughed?
“You— Ah!” I blinked and the imp was right in front of me—their wings flapping as they giggled at my cream-covered face. “H-hey,” I got out when my heart recovered from the shock, “do you want to play another fun game?”
He nodded.
“Great! Because you know, my favorite game in the whole world is hide-and-seek, and you’re soooo awesome at creating illusions, I bet you’d come up with the best hiding places! Don’t you think?”
He nodded hard, grinning from ear to ear.
“Perfect— Oh, but wait?” I said, snapping my fingers. “It’s going to be hard to play here with all these holes in the ground. I could fall inside and get hurt, and then I couldn’t play with you anymore.”
His face fell at the very thought.
“So why don’t we”—I pointed to the finish line—“play over there.”
The imp looked from me, to the finish line, and then back to me. He nodded.
Just like that, the imp floated over and sat on my shoulder. Complete and total disbelief fixed on us as I walked freely across the field, bypassing the carnival of mayhem as if it couldn’t touch me. They were all so shocked, everyone forgot to attack. Erlik lost his speech and forgot to be a d-bag. Tristan stopped scrabbling at the dirt and just clung to the rim of the hole—gaping at me.
“This is my friend, Tristan.” I knelt before him and held out my hand. “He’s going to play with us too.”
The man goggled at the appendage like he had no idea what to do with it. “I— I’m your... what?”
That depressing conversation with Sabrina bounced back in my mind. “You’re my friend, Tristan,” I said clearly. “It means I like you.”
Jaw dropping, blood rushed into his face so fast and hard, he slapped his hands over his cheeks to hide them and—
“Ahh!”
—fell on his ass.
It took some more scrambling, and more blushing, to get the adorable hunk back onto the surface. By then, the other werewolves, vampires, demons, fae, and Erlik had recovered from their shock.
Erlik was losing his mind, roaring at me that the imp was right on my shoulder and in perfect killing distance, so what was I waiting for?
I wasn’t taking his advice, but everyone else was. Magical attacks were coming at us from every which way, but it seemed dodging wasn’t the only trick up the imp’s sleeve.
