Page 134 of Wicked Hungry

“No, they don’t have a choice. It’s the blue pill for all of them.”

“So, Eleanor is well?” I ask.

“She’s recovered. She’s left us and taken back her throne. But she wants you to know that she owes you a favor.”

He stares at me, waiting for me to ask a question. But right now, I don’t feel ready to ask it.

He tells me anyway. “You didn’t kill Zach, Stanley. It would have been a lot simpler if you had... But you’re not a murderer, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“He’s alive?” I ask.

My mind flashes back to Zach on the floor, lying in a pool of his own blood, his face reduced to little more than a hunk of raw meat. How can he have survived?

He nods. “Their kind is very hard to kill.”

“Will Zach be... turned?”

He shakes his head. “His face will be scarred, but I don’t think he’ll carry the curse.”

“You don’t know?”

“He’s fae, which should make him immune. But he’s also a halfling. If he has some human blood in him, who knows? There may be a... connection between you.”

“I’m going to kill them both. Zach and Gilroy.”

“I’m sorry about your loss, Stanley, you know that.”

“Well,” I say, “thanks for coming by.”

“Look,” he says, “I came here with an offer for you.”

“I don’t want to join your clan.”

He shakes his head. “It’s not about that. It’s about a little key, the key you have in your pocket right now, I think.”

And it’s true. I can feel its heat, its small, golden warmth in my jeans pocket.

“You want the key?” I pull it out. “Take it.”

He shakes his head. “It can’t just be given like that, even if you want to. It’s too powerful.”

“What do you want, then?” I ask, putting it back in my pocket.

“I want you to be my assistant. Assistant gatekeeper. Assistant shopkeeper. Help me open the store in the mall.”

“Yeah, great,” I say. “I can help you open the store, and then what? Help you get some more people killed?”

“No,” he says. “Help me keep people safe.”

“How are we going to help keep people safe?”

“Walk with me for a moment and I’ll try to answer your questions,” he says.

I look at Enrique, who shrugs.

“Walk with me, both of you,” Blaine says.

We walk with him.