Page 66 of Another Man’s Treasure

Oz

I nearly choke as I watch Wild and Kohdiy stare at one another in shock. Maybe if Kohdiy coils his entire body up beneath the table, this will be possible. A minotaur waitress shows up then and smiles up at him. “Hey there, hon. We’re gonna need to make a little more space for you; can you give me a second?”

Kohdiy frowns but shifts backward with a quick nod.

It’s hard for me to focus around the plug still buried in my ass, slowly nudging against my prostate. It doesn’t vibrate but it’s the slow tease that’s driving me crazy. I resist the urge to close my eyes and moan.

The minotaur rubs the tabletop affectionately, looking up at the ceiling. “My sweet, you mind making us a little more space for this gentleman? He needs a spot to coil up his tail, if you will. I know it’s been a while.”

I’ve never seen a waitress ask any of the bars or restaurants in town to do something like this. Much less mention that it’s been done before? Where has this information been for the eight or so months I’ve lived here?!

The table shifts and lifts on its base until it hovers above our head. Beneath our feet, the floorboards flip and move just like they did at the Keeper’s house. A spot deepens, down down down, probably ten or so feet, a wood curlicue running down into the darkness.

Once it’s done shifting, the waitress pats Kohdiy on the shoulder. “There you go, love; just slot yourself into our special-made seat, and I’ll grab you a drink. Water? Mead?”

I look around the table, but everyone else looks as shell-shocked as I am, staring between the big ophiotaurii and the waitress.

“Did that just happen?” I mutter to myself.

“Water,” he says brusquely as the tabletop descends into place once again, this time slightly higher. He curls his tail down into the seat below him until he’s sitting there next to Wilder. He still towers over Wild, but at least this way he’s probably comfy.

We each order a drink, and the waitress disappears toward the bar with a sashay of her thick hips.

Next to me, Willa watches the whole exchange with a knowing smile. Kohdiy shifts in the chair, eventually placing both his big hands on the table. He’s utterly silent, sitting there as awkwardly as Wilder and me. I still don’t know what to say to the big ophiotaurii.

Hey, how come your club likes to raid the train?

What are you doing with the supplies you take?

Why don’t you ever come into town?

Why Willa?

Honestly, I’m not sure I’d get an answer even if I asked him. He’s even quieter than Wild, and that’s really saying something.

Willa slaps one of Sipan’s journals onto the tabletop with a maniacal look in her brilliant green eyes. “I’ve been through every one of these journals over the last twenty-four hours. Sipan was a genius, I mean like, elite-level genius. He loved this place so much, and it loved him—we obviously knew that part. He knew that once he was gone, that connection would be hard to replace, but he wanted someone to eventually love PG the way he did. So he left these little clues like the one we found.”

“We didn’t find it, though,” I murmur as I reach for the journal. “The bar gave it to us.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that,” Willa says quietly as I take the book.

I stare at the open journal, but it’s a mass of scribbles from one side to the other. It’s impossible to make sense of it, and I look up at her. “How did you decipher this, Willa?”

She points at Kohdiy. “With a lot of help. Turns out green magic is needed to fully read Sipan’s journals. Thankfully, Kohdiy was willing to help me since I obviously don’t possess that.” She chuckles. “Actually, when he reads these spells, plants shoot out of the notebooks and intertwine to tell a sort of story. It’s incredibly advanced magic, like, Sipan would have had to plant seeds within these literal pages.” She shakes her head. “I can’t fathom the talent needed to make this happen.”

“Near depthless talent,” Kohdiy offers. “I know no one who could do this within my clan or anywhere else.”

She launches into a long explanation about her theories around the words growing up out of the book, but it’s magically technical, and I don’t follow. All I know is that even Wilder looks concerned. So perhaps this isn’t standard Willa behavior anymore.

“So…” I glance at the silent ophiotaurii next to Wild, but Kohdiy’s glittering golden eyes are focused on Willa.

The waitress returns with our drinks and sets them down with a tentative smile at Kohdiy. It fascinates me when he lifts the glass of water and pokes a forked snakelike tongue into the cup, drinking deeply.

Willa thrums her fingers over the notebook’s pages. “Apparently, what you can see of Pine Gulch isn’t all of Pine Gulch—the downtown, I mean.”

I nod. “Right, we’ve got the hidden boating tunnels below, but that’s not exactly a secret.”

One of Wilder’s brows lifts. “I’ve heard about those but haven’t had a chance to see them.”