Page 39 of Another Damned Storm

But it was a tale. A whimsical fantasy. Nothing more.

Criton opened the bag, sprinkled a few glittering specs on the back of his hand just above his thumb, and promptly snorted it.

“You do realize the sensation of flying is not the same as actually flying, don’t you?”

He pinched his nose and tipped his head back. “It’s all in how you use it.

“I swear to the stars, Criton. If you are wasting my time…”

He squeezed his eyes shut, and with his head still tilted back, held up an index finger. I was tempted to grab that digit and wrench it backward until he was on his knees in front of me. Instead, I ground my teeth and waited. If that vile dust could help me get to Never, restraining myself would be worth the effort.

A tremor shook his body, and he appeared to go into slight convulsions where he stood.Wonderful.Gods couldn’t die from an overdose, but with a powerful enough drug, it could render them useless for a time. Since Criton was a demigod, it followed that a dose of pixie dust would have an even greater impact on him.

But a moment later, he dropped his hand, rolled his neck languidly from one side to the other, and shot me a look that, for a splinter of a second, flashed turquoise.

That was curious.

“What kind of witch was your father again?” Because he certainly wasn’t a run of the mill elemental witch. Not with that reaction.

His smile was sly as he shook his head. “Do you want to see if this stuff works or not?”

Fine. Let him keep his secrets. I truly didn’t care. “What do you want in exchange?” I asked, though I already knew.

“The rest of the dust.”

As predicted. “Tell me how it works first.”

He did, with a razor-sharp focus that was at odds with how I remembered pixie dust affecting me. Apparently, all one had to do was mix it with enchanted water and drink the resulting elixir. The hard part for most, after getting one’s hands on the elusive dust, was finding enchanted water.

A substance the Nassa had in abundance.

“What then?” I asked skeptically.

“Then you think about where you want to go, but this is the tricky part because for the magic to work, you really have to want it. We’re talking about a sell-your-soul kind of want.”

That wouldn’t be a problem. There was nothing in all the worlds I wanted more than Never Darling. “And you really believe this magic will override my own curse?” It seemed a little too easy.

He shrugged.

How reassuring. “Why have I not heard of this before?” I might have been in the Nassa for what felt like forever, but I’d spent plenty of time out in the worlds before.

Criton’s clever expression fell. “Have you spent a lot of time around addicts, Atlas?”

If drunks counted, then yes, but I had the sense he was talking about addictions that consumed lifetimes. I shook my head.

“It’s a fringe theory. I’ve heard of it being done, but I’ve never needed to use it that way,” he offered.

I was tempted to ask the man himself to help me transport to the human realm to find Never, but he’d already earned his keep. Also, if Thrain was keeping an eye on her, the smart move would be to draw as little attention as possible, and nothing about Criton struck me as particularly subtle.

“Very well.” I stalked back to my room and gathered the three remaining pouches of pixie dust.

On deck, he was leaning with his elbows on the banister, looking down at the water below. I held up the satchels. “How much should I mix with the water?”

When his gaze met mine, it carried a faint green glow. Was that his innate magic or the power of the dust inside him? “Your guess is as good as mine.” He shrugged. “Maybe start with a little and work your way up?”

“What about side effects?”

He huffed out a laugh. “From drinking it? Hell if I know.”