Page 44 of Rescuing Air

“Yeah, took me a minute to wrap my head around it too,” I teased. “Guess it’s a perk of being Synergy. I get all the sexy magic men to myself.”

Apparently, I’d pushed the man too far, and he fainted upon hearing I was Synergy. Blessing let out an irritated groan and grabbed the guy by his shirt, tossed him in the chair Cami kicked, and rolled him out of the room. She returned quickly with another box. This one was full of water bottles and snacks.

“I’m sorry about Chad. Clearly, he didn’t get the memo on who was going to be here today,” Beth apologized. “I’ll make sure he steers clear, although I don’t think that will be a problem after that interaction—idiot. Anything else you guys need, just send me an IM. The program is on both computers and it’s secure.”

“Thank you, Blessing,” I said with a smile.

twenty-six

Lailah

Jay and Parker made quick work of setting up our information center and getting down to business. Rolling my chair over to Cami, I leaned in and whispered, “What are the rest of us supposed to do who can’t find all the things on the internet?”

“Did you practice your cheer routine?” Cami asked, resulting in getting a smack from me. “What? I think you would look super cute in one of those mascot costumes. What would you be? A teddy bear, bunny, oh I know! An elephant since they’re your favorite animal!”

“Really, this is how you want to act when the end of the world could be right around the corner?” I teased.

“Fine, what do you think would be more productive, Miss Synergy?” Cami shot back.

Before I could answer her, Micah walked up to us and reached out a hand to me. “Come on, Cookie Monster, we’re going to find out if they have a sparring area. I want to make sure your skills aren’t rusty if we’re going into battle.”

Instantly, my memory flashed back to the battle where Parker and I managed to survive before we freed the others. I hadn’t spoken about it with all that had happened between now and then, but I knew for a fact I wasn’t rusty. When I reached out to our Bond though, I could feel that what Micah really needed was some time with me and this was his solution. “Sure, and if they don’t, we can explore the place so I can make sure the council of whoever gets these people what they need.”

“Won’t all this be over once the Dark Lord is defeated, though?” Cami interjected. “I mean, that’s what they said, right? Synergy will appear when needed most to banish evil from the world.”

“I would really love to believe that but I’m not feeling particularly trusting of angels or demons at this point. Better to be safe than sorry, I think,” I responded as Micah pulled me out of my chair and we left the room.

“Do you really think it’s possible that this could all be over when we kill him?” Micah mused. “If we can take out a Prince of Hell, I feel like that would be a pretty big warning to others who might try.”

“Yeah, but what happens when we die? I don’t think we’ll suddenly live forever and protect the world from disaster just because we’re the six people who saved it once,” I said with a snort.

Micah glanced down at me with an odd look on his face. “Lailah, you brought back Parker from the dead—”

“Only because he was cursed! It had nothing to do with him getting stabbed or his head chopped off. If you die in a normal way, I wouldn’t put any hope in the fact I can bring you back.”

He grunted in response, intertwining our fingers together. “I put all my hope in you, Lailah. Hell, I put the fate of the world in your hands because I know it will be safe.”

It was moments like this that reminded me why I loved this cranky asshole so much. They didn’t happen often, but in these rare moments, he could be so utterly vulnerable and sweet.

As we searched the place, we didn’t find anything that looked like a sparring area or even a workout room. Just when we gave up hope, my good buddy, Chad, stepped out of an office and stopped us. He froze like a deer in the headlights, eyes wide and worried.

“Chad, what do you know, we were just looking for someone who might be able to help us,” Micah called out, a wide grin plastered on his face. “This place doesn’t happen to have a workout room or training area does it?”

Chad opened and closed his mouth like a fish a few times before he managed to get words out. “Lower level.”

“Great... how do we get there?” I encouraged when he didn’t expand on that information.

He turned and started to walk away from us then paused and looked over his shoulder, waving for us to follow him. I leaned into Micah and whispered. “You scared that guy into being mute.”

“If only it was that easy with everyone,” Micah muttered. “The world would be a better place if people knew when to keep their mouths shut.”

Chad led us to an elevator, and we discovered that we were on the top floor out of three subterranean floors. It seemed that the second level was the facilities for the staff like a cafeteria, workout space, and other utilities, while the third and lowest level were the apartments. The elevator door opened on the second level. Chad led us out and pointed down the hall to the left. “Take it until it ends and the gym will be past the double doors.”

Micah patted Chad on the back, making him flinch as if he’d been shocked. “Thanks, man, we’ll take it from here.”

“That was mean,” I whispered harshly.

“Asshole, remember,” Micah answered with a wink. “Seems I’ve gone soft if you’ve forgotten that little detail.”