“I’m coming with him?—”
Salem’s words are cut off by the sharp rebuke. “No. You will each walk your own paths, shining warriors. This one will negotiate with me and you will do the same with your prophet. Our order may only deal with individualdemons and their desires—not entire groups. That is our way and has been since long before the Deceiver fell.”
My caliphate is looking at me in consternation and fear as the weird guy leads me into his tent, but I can’t worry about them right now. I got myself into this mess and now I have to be strong, so it’s not in vain. If I can’t handle a simple deal involving a Tarot reading—or whatever—I have much bigger problems on the horizon.
That might actually be what Evil Friar Tuck is getting ready to tell me.
Get Out of Here
Oriel
“Idon’t like this,” I grumble as we watch KK follow the odd little twerp into his tent.
Jasper gives me a knowing look, but replies, “O, you never like seers or soothsayers or prophets or?—”
“Because they’re either fake, which means their goal is tostealfrom us, or they’re real, which means they are messing with the future,” I shoot back as I cross my arms over my chest. “My line is greedy, but there’s a limit to what acquisitions are not worth the risk.”
Zav coughs. “Not for some of them.”
Well, isn’t he feeling his tails today.
“I know that many well-known cautionary tales used by humans and supes alike were actually demons from Greed, Zav. However, as time has passed,allof our family heritage has gotten smarter about limitations. Or, at least since our folks grabbed the throne.”
Slash arches a brow at me. “You’re sayingourparents have tempered the extreme ends of their family lineage? I doubt that.”
A small, thin acolyte in a billowy robe of red stops the conversation. I can’t see his face, only a hooked nose, so I assume he must be a hybrid Fae—they have a lot of gnarly little idgits in their less conventionally attractive species. The being interrupts with a scoff before I can reply and that alone makes me want to throttle him. “The soldier is right—naught has changed but the setting, young Duke. However, Rakshasa will take him to read, then construct our bargain.”
Jasper opens his mouth to protest, but like our favorite unemerged demon, Slash shakes his head. He looks down at the smaller acolyte with a toothy smirk. “I will join you, seer, but know that any shenanigans will lead to consumption.”
“Y-yes,” the now shaky hybrid says as his hood trembles. “Join me in the larger tent.”
I watch them walk away, the growing sense of distrust in my gut making me huff. My crow is not fond of things I cannot swipe and no one can actually steal knowledge from a species with crystal ball powers. It’s probably why I dislike them, but I’m sure there’s some natural distrust of those I deem as fellow thieves who are too crooked to admit their gambits. It’s complicated, but I don’t have to explain it to anyone.
“Oriel, you’re fluffing up,” Salem says as he grins at me. “You’ve got feathers flying from your hair, man.”
Shit, my bird is really pissed at this.
“Sorry,” I mumble as I pat down my head. “I’ll get it under control.”
Xerxes looks at me pointedly as they click their tongue. “Everyone has buttons, Oriel. Obviously, this is one of yours, and well… no one is excited about KK being in that tent with the bald guy.”
That makes Jasper growl with a hint of his dragon and we all turn to look at the Prince. His face is like a storm cloud, and I decidenotto poke that beast as originally planned. He huffs a few smoke rings as he looks between the two tents our friends are in, then goes back to gnashing his teeth.
“Danger zone,” Anton whispers as he moves closer to me. “Jas isnothappy about those two being ensconced with acolytes outside of his control.”
“Hello, young demons,” a voice interrupts. “Batar is here to read the fiery fox. Please follow her to her abode.”
Zavida looks worried until he sees the very short, rotund demon in a pink robe with fuzzy looking gray hair. This acolyte seems like an imp’s grandma, and though I’m sure she’s powerful, her visage doesn’t make our Kitsuné lose his shit. “Um, okay. Where is it?”
My inclination to snort is tempered by the puff of pink smoke that reveals a flowered tent next to the one Kit Kat went into. It wasn’t therebefore… unless she was cloaking it. I could see that, especially because this Batar chick seems like she’d be a Hello Kitty fan with what we can see of her tastes. That’s not very intimidating for the entire group, so it fits that her ‘abode’ would be cloaked.
“Come with me, gentle one.”
Now our prince looks like he’s going to go flying off the ledge, and I walk over to him. “Jasper, you gotta get a grip, man. This is probably on purpose. If they’re the real deal—which is doubtful—then they know enough to pick and choose how they run this little con game. Your hot buttons are a good place to start.”
“The shrimp stepped forward on his own.”
“Uh, of course he did. Do you think grifters can’t read body language and vibes and shit?” I sigh, shaking my head. “I know you and Slash deal with more… outwardly aggressive bad guys, butmyduties often require finesse and subterfuge. Iknowthose kinds of demons, man.”
