Page 23 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)

Neith

“D o you think that Sully will be able to tell you more now that we know who your parents are?” Ransom asks curiously.

“I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to. Unless there are even more things that we don’t know about,” Raiden replies, frowning slightly at the thought.

I frown, “I really hope that he can. I want to talk to him about it all before I go to find Pete.”

Doc nods, “That makes sense actually. Sully has been there for you for a long time, and although you know Pete, he hasn’t been honest with you.”

I nod, “Sully hasn’t been honest with me either, but he has tried to be, and at the end of the day, I trust Sully.

He’s saved my life, he’s been there and helped me as much as he has been able to, and although Pete has been there as well, he’s still been quite stand-offish, and only said the odd word here and there to me.

Which I know he may not have had much choice in, but urgh, it’s really difficult to explain. ”

River squeezes my hand, “It’s okay, you don’t need to explain it to us. We’ll follow your lead.”

“Absolutely,” Coen replies, having been filled in on that situation last night. “However you want to handle it, that’s what we will do.”

“You guys are awesome,” I reply.

“We know,” Reed teases.

Lunch took longer than we had intended because we had to find something to eat that hadn't gone off, after we collectively decided that we ate too much takeout. However, it took looking through the empty fridge to realize that maybe we would have to turn over that new leaf once we had gotten some groceries, so we ordered takeout instead, and the guys told Coen about the town nearby. Something that we had forgotten last night, amongst other things that I’m sure we have forgotten.

Coen was surprised that we didn’t live that far away from headquarters.

Now, I’m up in my room with River and Raiden, who decided to come with me to find my phone and put it on charge before we leave to see Sully. I’m not really sure why, and I don’t think they know. I think they just followed me when I left, and here we are.

I don’t mind at all.

“Are you going to look in the bag or just stare at it?” Raiden asks, sounding amused.

I glance over my shoulder, smiling at the two of them lounging on my bed and watching me.

“I’m gathering the courage,” I reply dramatically.

River frowns, “Why do you need courage?”

I sigh, “Because I didn’t exactly neatly pack everything, I just threw everything in the bags, and it’s going to be a mess. I was too excited to be going home.”

Raiden grins, “You’ve got this.”

I laugh, “Thanks. I appreciate the support.”

“Anytime, Beautiful,” River retorts, for both of them and I laugh again.

“What’s taking you guys so long?” Ransom asks as he walks through my open bedroom door.

Raiden grins, “She’s trying to gather her courage to open the bag.”

Ransom’s eyebrows rise slightly as his expression becomes amused, he heads over to the bed and takes a seat with the others.

“Well, in that case, I'd best stay for moral support. You might need me,” he suggests with a smile.

I shake my head as I laugh, “You’re about as helpful as the others.”

“Yep,” he replies, popping the ‘P’ and grinning cheekily at me.

It’s when I bend down to grab the bag and get catcalls from the guys on the bed that I realize that there was an alternative motive, and I burst out laughing as I give my ass an over dramatic shake that makes the guys groan, and then stand back up with the bag and head over to the bed.

“Worth it,” Ransom grins, making me smile.

They move out of the way so that I can put the bag on the bed, all of them watching curiously, even though it’s a really boring thing that I’m doing.

Pulling out a pile of scrunched-up clothes, I shake them out before deciding my phone isn’t in there.

“Why the hell is there a stiletto in here?” Ransom asks.

River peers into the bag, “Is there another one?”

“Nope,” I reply.

They all look at me really confused, and Raiden says, “You’re going to have to help us out a bit and tell us why you have only one stiletto in your bag?”

“I didn’t know if we were going to have a trial where we couldn’t bring weapons, and obviously the only thing that I had going in my favor was that I’m pretty good with weapons,” I start to explain.

“Right,” Ransom says, still looking confused.

I point at the stiletto, “Well, a stiletto isn’t technically a weapon, but it is a really good one if you stab it in someone’s eye or temple. There was no point taking up valuable space with the other one, so I only brought one.”

They all stare at me in shock for a moment.

“It is so fucking hot how your mind works,” River mumbles, still watching me closely with a smirk playing around the edge of his lips.

I grin as I take more things out, “Thanks, most people would have said that I was crazy.”

“Crazy, in the wrong company maybe,” Ransom replies with a smile. His smile turns curious as he asks, “Why do you have so many pens?”

I pull a face. Yeah, I probably didn’t need to pack that many in retrospect.

Replying in a way that makes it sound more like a question than an answer, I say, “You never know when you’re going to need pens?”

The guys just chuckle and don’t ask any more questions about the slightly questionable contents of my bag. Thankfully, it doesn’t take me much longer to find my phone.

Holding it up triumphantly, I grin, “Aha, found it. Just let me put it on charge, and then we can go.”

“You got it,” River replies. “I’ll text the guys to get in the van. Doc’s going to transport us.”

“Oh wait,” I say as I plug the phone in and turn back to face the others, “could we stop off in town first, I need to get some of that supe contraceptive.”

“There’s no need. I make it. Give me a second, and I will grab you some from my workroom,” Ransom says as he stands up.

He pauses and adds, “If you would rather get it from the apothecary in town, I completely understand, and I won’t be offended or anything like that.

I’m good with whatever you’re comfortable with. ”

“You have a workroom in the house?” I ask.

“How is it that I still haven’t been given a proper tour of this place?

” I add and then don’t wait for any of them to answer me as I add, “Wait, that wasn’t the point of the conversation.

To answer your question, I would much rather get it from you.

I know how good you are, and I trust you infinitely more than I trust some random guy in an apothecary store, especially one that looked at Raiden like he was going to eat him.

” I glance at Raiden, “You totally should have pretended you were going to, oh or I can get Coen to pretend to, that’s always hilarious. ”

“Oh, I want to hear that story,” River grins as Raiden bursts out laughing at my suggestion.

“Maybe later,” Ransom interrupts before the conversation can derail any more.

He walks over to me, and kisses me once, “I’ll go and grab it for you now.

I’ve tweaked my one, and you only have to take it every five years.

If during that time you decide that you want to start trying for a baby, then there’s another potion that I have made that immediately stops the effects of the contraceptive potion, so you can start trying straight away. ”

“Huh, that’s really cool,” I reply, impressed. “Not having to think about it for five years is a big improvement. Why haven’t you marketed it?”

“Time mostly. It would take a long time to figure out a way to do it and a way to produce it on such a big scale,” Ransom explains. He kisses me once more, “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

I nod, and as he leaves, I add, “Coen needs the guy version.”

“No problem,” Ransom replies.

River grabs my hand and starts to pull me from the room, “Come on, let’s go. I want to see if Sully can give us any new information now.”

“Yeah, it will be interesting to see what he can say now, and if there are still things that he can’t,” Raiden agrees. He grabs my other hand, “And we will give both you and Coen a tour of the house when we get back. I’m sorry that we haven’t given you one yet.”

I grin, “I would really like that, and it’s okay, we’ve had a lot going on. I know where the important things are, like the kitchen, the library, and the gym.”

“Is that the order of importance?” River asks as we wait by the door for Ransom.

I grin and then seriously consider his question, “Well, actually, I think that the library and kitchen switch quite a lot, but the gym is never at the top of the list.”

“I definitely agree with that order,” Raiden replies.

River looks contemplative, “See for me it’s kitchen, then the woods, then my bed.”

“Here you go,” Ransom says as he jogs into the foyer. He hands me a small vial. When he sees the look on my face, he chuckles and adds, “Don’t worry, it tastes nice.”

I grin, unscrew the top, and down it in one. “Oh, it tastes like strawberries, I like that. Thank you.”

Ransom smiles proudly, “You’re welcome, come on, let’s go.”

We all head out of the door to where the van is waiting outside, and Ransom hands Coen his own vial while Doc does his thing, and within moments we’re parked in the alleyway that we normally park in near Sully’s bar, and are all climbing out.

Although I took longer than I was supposed to charging my phone, we’re still early enough that there is no one here yet, which means that there are no bouncers guarding the doors, so we walk straight in.

“We’re fucking closed,” Sully’s voice booms from behind the bar, his back to us.

“I’ll come back later then,” I reply with a grin as we carry on walking into the bar.

Sully whips around, a huge and relieved smile on his face, as he vaults the bar like it’s nothing and comes barreling toward me. I chuckle as the guys all take a huge step away from me, so they don’t get knocked down.