Page 56 of How To Take Down A Cult At The End Of The World

“Crustaceans? You mean crabs? You-I mean, you’re saying crabs are evil?”

“This is known, Meadow.” Jaak turns and looks in the direction Eleanor crab-walked. “I’m going after her. This ends now. We will return victorious to your friends before nightfall.” He’s off and moving before I can snatch the spikey metal thing out of his hands.

“Jaak, wait, really, just hold on.” I rush after him but there’s no getting the demon to stop, so I do the only thing I can think of.

I yank on the bond as hard as I can. Jaak stops the second I pull and I let out a relieved breath.

Jaak looks back at me. “Yes?”

“What are you doing?”

“Vanquishing the head mage, of course.”

I point at the spiky metal object he has in his hand. “By doing what? Turning her into a pin cushion?”

“Of course not. I see the confusion now,” Jaak says and holds up his hands like he’s soothing a startled animal, “I’m not going to stab her with this. Rest assured.”

I slump against a display table with a relieved laugh. “Oh, thank the gods. I thought you were going to stab her with that thing. By the way, what even is that?”

“Stabbing her with this wouldn’t stop a head mage. Everyone knows to stop magic like that you have to behead them.”

My mouth drops open. “What?” I point at the metal spike mystery item. “With that?”

He shrugs and looks down at it thoughtfully. “I’ll have to be creative but I can manage it. My power is returning at a decent rate. I should be strong enough to figure it out.”

I lunge for him. “No, no figuring it out. You can’t just-”

“Hi, I’m Jen, can I help the two of you?” It’s not Eleanor surprising us this time but a perky sales associate with a bright smile.

I shake my head. “No, we were um, we were just leaving,” I say, abandoning the plan to question the business owner. There’s no way we’re going to get around to that with the way Jaak wants to attack Eleanor. “Weren’t we, darling?” I say as I grab Jaak’s arm to drag him back to the front. I’m relieved when he comes with me willingly. For all his talk about going after Eleanor, he lets me lead him towards the door with no resistance.

“Oh, okay, I hope you-oh, you found it!” she exclaims and holds out her hands to us.

I blink in confusion. “Found what?”

“My flower frog, of course.”

I look around for a frog but don’t see anything. “Your what?”

“My flower frog, my kenzan,” she says and then points at the thing Jaak has been plotting to commit homicide with, “the metal spikey thing.”

Jaak and I look down at the metal spikey thing together. “Ohhhhh,” we say in unison.

“Yeah, I thought I had it with me but I guess I set it up here somewhere. Thanks for finding it.”

Jaak hands it to her with a dip of his chin. “I apologize. I was not aware it had an owner or I would have never taken it to use.”

She tilts her head and gives him a funny look. “Use for what?” she asks.

“For you know, flower stuff,” I say, gesturing around the shop we’re in. “Obviously.”

Jen nods. “Yeah, that makes sense. Well, thanks for finding it. Is there anything you’re looking for other than this? We sell a few of them sometimes up front. I can check and see if we have any extras.”

“No, no, we’re okay,” I say before Jaak can place an order for twelve. “But I have a question about the lady that was helping us earlier. She was older and…chatty.”

“There’s no one working but me today.”

“What? No, there was a woman that worked here. Eleanor is what she said her name was,” I tell her and look around the shop but the older woman is well and truly gone.