Page 11

Neith

M y eyes widen, “Yeah, I am not made to be indebted to someone. To be honest, I would probably make such a nuisance of myself that they would give me back. If they take you places then,” I start a thought and then immediately change it halfway through when another thought occurs to me, “Oh my god, would they take me to the Fae realm? That would be pretty cool, actually scratch that, no, it wouldn’t. I don’t want to be taken to another realm without knowing that I’m going and actually wanting to go in the first place.”

Ransom’s eyebrows rise slightly as he smiles at me in amusement, “It’s okay, no one is going to take you anywhere. Just don’t touch the box. I’m getting Raiden to come down here and check it out.”

“So he really is your go-to person with questions,” I say.

Ransom nods and smiles proudly. “Yeah. He is a literal genius, I don’t mean that he’s just really clever, I mean his IQ is well into the genius levels. He also has an eidetic memory, so he can recall information that he’s only read or seen once. It’s pretty amazing.”

“That is amazing. The only thing I can do that with is the mental maps when my gift kicks in,” I reply.

“I can’t do it at all,” Ransom grins.

“What’s up, guys? Do you need help carrying the snacks?” Raiden asks as he comes around the corner. He frowns when he sees us standing by the open front door.

“There was a knock at the door, and then we found this,” I explain as I move to the side so that he can see what I am talking about.

“We didn’t see who left it, and I didn’t want to touch it or examine it with magic without knowing who it was from and if it was likely to be from one of the Fae that likes to gift things to people in return for favors,” Ransom explains.

Raiden nods as he crouches down next to it but doesn’t touch it, “You’re right not to touch it, but I have no idea who it could be from.”

We are silent for a moment as we stare at this weird parcel that’s been left on the front step.

“What about River? Will he be able to smell who it may be from?” I ask. “In theory, the only people it could be from are the ones that live on this land, so he should recognize the scent, and if he doesn’t, then we know that we need to get rid of it. How do we get rid of it, by the way, if no one can touch it? Oh, can we blow it up?”

Raiden and Ransom share a look that I’m not quite sure how to decipher.

“Should we be concerned about how excited you are to blow something up?” Raiden asks.

I shrug, “Honestly? Yeah, you probably should.”

They both burst into surprised laughter.

“Right, well, let’s get River here to see what he can scent first, and then we can discuss how we’re going to get rid of it. If it comes to that,” Ransom suggests.

“Fine,” I reply jokingly.

Ransom sends another text, and I grin as River comes running around the corner with a giant smile on his face only moments later.

“What’s up?” he asks as he skids to a halt.

“We’re going to blow stuff up!” I exclaim excitedly.

River’s eyes widen, and he starts bouncing on his toes with excitement. “We are? What are we blowing up? I’ve got some stuff that we can blow up. Oh, I always wanted to see what actually happens if you put metal in a microwave. Can we do that, too?”

Raiden stares at River with wide eyes before he shakes his head and says, “Of course you did. We aren’t blowing anything up.”

“Awww,” River says with an adorable pout.

I feel bad so I pat his arm and say, “They aren’t blowing anything up, you and I can blow stuff up later. I’m sure you guys have got the stuff lying around, I can knock something up.”

Now, all of the wide and shocked eyes are on me.

“You know how to make explosives?” River asks.

“Of course I do,” I reply. “Honestly, I think everyone should know how to make explosives. You never know when you’re going to need to blow something up.”

“You realize that most people don’t need to blow shit up that regularly, right?” Ransom asks.

I shrug, “What boring lives they must lead then. A good explosion makes everything better.”

“What’s going on?” Van asks as he comes around the corner with Griff and Reed, “You all kept disappearing, and it doesn’t take this long to get snacks, so we thought we would come and investigate.”

“Neith knows how to make bombs,” River announces.

Griff’s gaze snaps to me, “You do?”

I nod, “You don’t?”

“Of course I do. I just didn’t realize that HID taught you that,” Griff replies.

I smirk, “HID didn’t teach me.”

“Of course, they didn’t,” Reed mutters, shaking his head.

“I don’t know whether to be offended or pleased at your lack of surprise,” I say to Reed.

He smiles, “If in doubt, always go with pleased.”

Evander clears his throat, “How did this conversation even come about?”

“And why is the front door open?” Griff asks. He looks slightly alarmed as he adds, “Something isn’t about to blow up, is it?”

I laugh, “No. Someone knocked on the door, we don’t know who. They left a present. At least it looks like a present, but it may not be.”

The guys just stare at me, and I admit that I could probably have added more details to the explanation.

Ransom takes over and explains the situation properly. Once he’s done, Evander, Griff, and Reed are frowning.

“How did blowing stuff up come into it then?” River asks.

Ransom and Raiden point at me and say together, “Neith.”

“Got it,” Van says as the confusion clears and honestly, it’s so funny to me that I’m not even mad that they already expect me to derail conversations regularly.

“Let me take a sniff then,” River says as we move out of the way so that he can get past. “I’m not going to lie. I kind of hope that it’s something that we get to blow up now.”

“We can still blow stuff up,” I reply.

“I really don’t think that we should just start blowing things up,” Reed says.

I pout, “You’re no fun.”

He just shakes his head and chuckles. “What’s the verdict, River?”

“It smells like the imps,” he replies with a shrug, “I don’t smell any magic on it or anything that we should be concerned about, and it specifically smells like the imps that we have on the property, so I think it’s safe to assume that it's from one of them.”

“Is it safe to check with magic?” Ransom asks.

River nods, “Yeah, I don’t see why not.” He turns to look at me, “Sorry Neith, no blowing stuff up today.”

“Well, no blowing the parcel up,” I grin.

Evander chuckles, “Neith, I can’t believe that I am having to ask you this right now, but can you please not blow anything up today? We have the trip to the training academy tomorrow, and I don’t want to have to call Ty and tell him that we can’t go because you blew something up, and now, we have shit to fix.”

I smile, “Fine, I suppose I won't blow anything up with River today.”

“It concerns me that she clarified the today part of that sentence,” Griff mutters, looking highly amused.

“Me too, but I think that’s the best that we’re going to get,” Van replies with a smile. He shakes his head and adds affectionately, “Trouble.”

“Obviously,” I reply.

Ransom bends down and picks the parcel up, which distracts me from anything else that I was going to say.

“Well, I’ve scanned it, and nothing concerning has flagged up, so it should be safe,” Ransom says as he closes the door behind him.

We all follow him into the kitchen, and he puts it on the table.

“There’s a gift tag,” Griff says as he points to it.

Ransom leans closer, “It’s not in a language that I recognize. Neith, you could understand the imp’s language, maybe you can read it as well?”

I move so that I can see the gift tag and then sigh, rolling my eyes, “Apparently, it’s for me, and it’s an apology from Flin for sending me off to another realm. He assures me that it was imperative that they sent me, but yet again, he doesn’t explain why he sent me.”

“Of course he doesn’t,” River replies. “I can see why you find him so infuriating.”

“Yep. I swear next time he is in the same vicinity as me, I am going to grab hold of him and keep him by any means necessary until he tells me why he sent me there,” I growl.

“I can also see why he dropped it off and didn’t wait until someone answered the door,” Van says into the silence after my little rant.

I shrug, “If this isn’t a long letter explaining exactly why he sent me to another freaking realm, then my statement still stands.”

“Fair enough,” Reed replies.

“I’ll help,” Raiden offers.

I grin, “Deal.”

After a moment, when I make no move to do anything about the package on the table, Griff raises his eyebrow at me in question.

“Are you going to open it?” he asks.

I pull a face, “What if it’s a trick, and I get sucked into another realm?”

Ransom is shaking his head before I have even finished speaking. “I’ve scanned it very thoroughly. After what happened with the ward, I didn’t want to do just a quick scan and risk there being something dangerous in there. There is absolutely no magical signature whatsoever.”

“It’s safe to open?” I clarify.

Ransom nods, “Yeah. I understand your hesitation though, would you like me to open it.”

I sigh, “No, I’ve got it. On the off chance that they have somehow managed to conceal the magic that will take me to the same realm that they sent me to last time, it’s probably best that I go since the air is supposed to be toxic.”

“What!” Reed exclaims, very loudly. He’s not quite shouting but it's close.

“Neith, what do you mean toxic?” River asks.

“Winston told me that I shouldn’t have been able to breathe there,” I reply. “But I’m fine. There are no bad effects, and I’m all good.”

“Doc is going to have a coronary,” Evander mutters.

“I think we all are at some point,” River adds.

I pull a face, wrinkling my nose, “You’re welcome.”

While they are all finding me very amusing, I decide that I had better just get it over with and open the present. Asael hasn’t turned up. He always turns up when I’m in danger, and usually before I realize that I am actually in danger, so I’m going to assume that the fact that he hasn’t turned up now means that I am not about to be sucked into a dangerous situation.

I have to admit that it is very beautifully wrapped, and I carefully unwrap it, pulling off the lid on a homemade box as gently as I can. Nestled inside on the moss is a wooden carving of a wolf, the details are absolutely stunning and the longer that I study it the more certain I am that it’s a carving of the creature that bit me just before a went through the door—my shoulder tingles in remembrance of the bite.

I could take the fact that they gave me a carving of something that tried to eat me as a threat, but just like I did when I was actually in Luesidious, I don’t feel like it’s meant as a threat and I’m just intrigued by the little carved creature instead.

“What is it?” Raiden asks curiously.

“It’s a carving of the creature that bit me,” I say and then because the guys all tense, I add, “it’s not meant as a threat.”

“Are you sure?” Reed asks.

“It seems pretty threatening to me,” Griff comments, looking unimpressed.

I frown but nod, “Yeah, I’m sure. I can’t explain it, but when I was there, I tried my hardest not to hurt the creature even though it had its teeth in my shoulder.”

Raiden frowns, “That is a strange reaction to have. We know that you have some pretty amazing instincts though so if that’s what your instincts were telling you then it must have been for a reason.”

I nod, “I agree with you. We’re just unlikely to know what that reason is since I have no plans to go back there.”

The supernatural that I saw just as I launched myself through the door, the one that I winked at, flashes through my mind, and I find myself more disappointed than I probably should be, and I’m not going to see him again. Which is ridiculous on so many levels, including how the fuck would I find him again anyway? I only have a brief image in my mind, and quite frankly, sexy as fuck is a reasonably subjective descriptor and not one that’s likely to find him for me if I ever do end up there again.

“It’s incredibly well-detailed,” Evander says as he takes it from me.

I frown, “The question is, why have they given it to me?”

“Well, the note said that it was to say sorry, didn’t it?” River asks me.

I nod, “Yeah, but after our first encounter, I’m not inclined to trust them.”

“Fair enough,” he replies. “Maybe they saw your massive power boom when you fell into the ward, and now, they know that you are super strong; they are really worried about you coming for them for sending you to another realm?”

Ransom nods, “I bet that’s it actually. They’re just trying to get in your good books, so you don’t smite them.”

“I can’t smite them, even if I wanted to. My magic is still taking its damn time to reveal itself fully.”

“True,” Griff replies. “But they now know how strong you will be, and they know that you are mad at them already.”

“Well, if that is true, there’s one really quick way that they can get back in my good books and that’s by telling me why,” I say and then sigh as I continue, “Although, I’m getting the feeling that won’t be happening any time soon.”

“Probably not,” Van agrees. “Shall we go back to the library and see if we can find anything?”

I nod, “Sure. I’m going to look up my sword, I think. I want to see if there is any information on it.”

“Good idea,” Evander replies.

∞∞∞

We have been back in the library for a while now. The guys are mostly researching the language in the book and trying to see what it is so that we can read it. Griff has gone back to looking into the kelpies and how we can bond with them, he keeps telling us random facts about them and it’s really interesting.

He hasn’t found out too much about what happens when they bond with a supernatural, but it’s not because the information is hidden from us. It’s just because it’s so rare that they do. Apparently, the stronger the bond, the more likely you are to get the bridle and even a saddle, which I thought was really cool. He also told us that there were more whistles that we could use to call them other than the one that Sully told us about and that they mean different things and give the kelpie a heads up to what they are walking into. Things like, take your time or, hurry the fuck up and a few others as well. He said that because they are bonded to us, they will be able to spend longer on land than normal kelpies because they will get their strength from us, which I thought was pretty cool.

It's slow going with the research on the enchanted objects just because there is so much to go through. It may be rare to receive an enchanted object, but they aren’t a rare thing. There are actually thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of enchanted objects of all kinds that exist, they are just really choosy about who they allow to use them—the objects, not some governing body. The objects come and go as they please, and from what I have read, no one can tell why or what makes them choose a particular person.

I’m slowly making my way through the book when I finally find Asael. I can’t fucking believe it, I’ve actually found answers.

“Guys, I’ve found Asael,” I say excitedly.

“Wait, seriously?” River questions, sounding as incredulous as I feel.

I nod, my eyes scanning the page.

“What does it say?” Griff asks curiously.

Everyone stops what they are doing and waits.

“Okay, so not much. None of the enchanted things have much on them, actually. It says that he’s notoriously difficult to work with,” I grin as Asael’s magic fills the air, and he seems somewhat indignant about that description. “It says that he is tied to warriors and that his last supe was a commander of some sort. It doesn’t say when, and I am just assuming that it was his last supe; I could be wrong. This book was written a while ago.”

“That’s true. I think that one is a copy of one that was brought over from Trieneliea, so it’s possible that it is outdated,” Raiden replies.