“Oh, hello,” she trills. “I found this young lady in the back of my store eating as much as she could, just like a little rat. I thought to give her a good scare.”
“She wanted to cook me in the oven!”
“Of course she didn’t,” Krall says. “The oven isn’t even preheated. If she tried to cook you in that, you’d be very tough and stringy.”
He plays along with the situation perfectly.
“My apologies,” he says. “Please, take this as compensation.”
He takes a thick purse of gold coin and puts it down on the top of the oven. It makes a heavythunksound that I am sure will ensure she is happy with her compensation.
“I’m going to take her out of here now,” he says. “She needs to be punished and put to bed.”
“You make sure you don’t spare the rod with that one. She’s got mischief in her, and a taste for the sweetness.”
“Oh, I won’t,” he says, turning and steering me out of the candy store. When we leave, I realize that he was not alone. Skor was waiting out back, and Thorn is around the front. They were prepared to come bursting in if they could not easily free me.
“Hey,” I say to them, trying to sound casual and not entirely guilty.
“We could have just got candy in the morning,” Thorn says. “I know it’s good, but it’s not that good.”
“She almost got herself shot,” Krall says reproachfully as he emerges from behind me. “That woman was prepared to take her out.”
“Over some candy?” Thorn sounds incredulous.
“Over her livelihood being broken into and consumed, I imagine,” Krall replies. “You can’t steal just because it’s candy.”
“Can’t shoot people over it, either,” Thorn replies, casting a stormy look back at the shop.
“How did you get in?” Skor asks the question with a dangerous level of curiosity.
“What do you mean?” I play dumb.
“I mean the doors are locked. How did you get inside?”
“Oh. I went around the back,” I say cheerfully, as if that’s the answer, entirely and completely.
“And then?”
“And then I went inside.”
“So the door was open?”
“It was when I went through it.”
“More evasive than a politician,” Skor comments. “Did you use magic to open the door?”
“I’m not allowed to use magic,” I respond, avoiding the question again. He can’t get me. He won’t get me.
“Yes, but did you use it?”
“Alright, we need to get back to bed,” Krall says, interrupting the interrogation. I try not to smirk, and fail. Skor’s trying to work out what kind of magic I can do, and I am aware that it is best he has no idea. Krall leads his little pack as if they are all against magic, but it is obvious to me that Skor is a practitioner of somekind. Thorn is not interested at all, it doesn’t really register to him as far as I can tell.
I have better things to worry about, as it turns out. I am carried back to the stinky hotel room, where Krall sits down, scoops me up, and puts me over his lap. My attempt to escape is futile of course. Krall’s big hands and muscly arms easily overpower me, and my skirt is thrown up to bare my cheeks and thighs. Both are spanked soundly and swiftly. It’s not as hard as it has been before, though. Almost like he’s not trying to make an impression with pain as much as with presence. He feels different, and he makes me feel different too. Smaller, somehow. Less of a witch of the long dark night, and more…
“A naughty little girl sneaking out to steal candy will not be tolerated,” he growls.
“Ow!” I respond. “Isn’t it at least good I wasn’t trying to run away?”
