Page 81 of Death Dance

My husband sighed. “If you cannot handle providing lizards or frogs for her, I can. She would not be the first animal with a unique diet I’ve had to feed.”

I pointed at myself. “You mean me?”

“I absolutely do.”

Laughing, I shrugged. “She stayed even after the rest of them bailed, so obviously, there’s something amiss.” I took the snake from the man and cajoled her into wrapping around my wrist. “I’ll have the necromancer and the priestess check on her before we leave.”

“We would ask for vetting records and captivity compatibility evaluations for her; this species is not usually kept as pets, as many countries in this region have strict rules about their removal from the wild. This is a special circumstance.”

“When my father calls all the reptiles away so we can make it off the island intact, and this one somehow ignores him, it becomes my problem?” I guessed.

“Precisely,” he confirmed.

“What is your name? Call me Pepper, please.”

“Mateo. I apologize for not introducing myself sooner.”

“We were a little busy, and I didn’t want to see what would happen if we left those corpses waiting for longer than necessary,” I confessed. “I’m woman enough to admit that was scary.”

Emerick snickered. “If you think dealing with the corpses was scary, every reptile on the island wanted to be friends with your father, and that was terrifying, because they were happy to settle with the rest of us. Within twenty minutes of you leaving, we realized you were the only smart one in our group.”

I grinned at that.

My father’s uncles returned, and Alheen carried my father on his back. Had he been conscious, it would have been amusing witnessing an adult hitch a piggyback ride on another adult. As he wasn’t, the absurdity of the situation reduced me to giggling. “Please tell me someone took pictures.”

My father’s uncles grinned, and the entire lot of them held up their phones, excepting Alheen, who headed for the nearest helicopter and rather unceremoniously dumped him inside. The waiting soldiers dragged him onto a seat and strapped him in.

“He’ll be fine, it just took a great deal of magic to handle that mess,” Alheen reported, and he climbed inside, sat, and handled his own harness. “Why do you have a snake, Pepper?”

“She’s coming home with me because she wanted me badly enough to disobey my father. At that point, I don’t think I can tell her no, and for a snake, she’s ridiculously cute. It’s her eyes. And her head. And her teeny tiny little body.” I took her over to the reformed necromancer and held her out. “Is there anything wrong with her?”

Reaching out, he touched a finger to her body, and after a moment, he shook her head. “She is young, independent, and stubborn, and she has taken a liking to you. She likely isn’t a skilled huntress and is failing to compete with the other snakes for food.”

“What’s one more difficult creature to feed in Emerick’s life?” I asked before heading to the helicopter with my father and climbing inside. “If you snooze, you might have to ride in a different bird.”

My husband wasted no time joining me, and while I accepted help from the soldiers to get properly harnessed in, he handled his and double checked his work. “At this stage, as long as I don’t have to go on that ship, I’m happy. I think I’ve had my fill of necromancy and death for today. I’m ready to go home.”

“Me, too. The next time I complain about the work, just remind me it could be a lot worse. The rainforest is beautiful, this island is beautiful, but I am in no hurry to come back.” I regarded Emerick with wide eyes. “Is it bad that I am looking forward to that stupid ball now?”

He laughed at me. “It helps we won’t have much to plan and can just show up. I’ll even be generous and remind you of this moment when your family does their best to embarrass you with the dowry. What I can promise you is that things will be much better from here on out.”

Yes, they would be. “Just don’t tell me what you feed my new snake, okay?”