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He smirks. “I thought that was diamonds.”
“Close but no cigar.”
“Well, I thought it was dick,” Azarius says, wiping his hand clean on my pants. “I was way off.”
After a few more minutes, my nose acclimates to the stench, and I finally let go of my shirt. Normally, I’m sad when I can’t smell my perfume anymore.
Not this time.
“What else do we need to do, boss?” Azarius glances at Elio, who stands up to join us.
“Don’t let Rafe hear you say that,” he warns. “You know he’ll have our heads.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Azarius waves his purple-stained hand. “I’m not stupid enough to say it when he’s here.”
Elio crosses the room to a darkly-stained armoire and tugs the two doors open to reveal a row of clothes on hangers. He reaches for the shelf below them and withdraws a ball of black fabric, which unfolds into a floor-length, hooded cloak.
“Once we get to the city, it will be best to cover as much of you as possible,” he says, meeting my gaze. “The less they see, the less attention you’ll draw.”
I nod, thankful for how much thought Elio has put into this operation. He obviously cares about my safety more than I gave him credit for. That, or he really likes doing a thorough job.
I’ll humor myself and believe the first.
“Can we run through everything one more time?” I ask, even though I’ve heard the plan countless times. My nerves are getting to me, and I can feel the prickle of anxiety clinging to my spine.
Elio nods once. “Azarius will make the trip on foot. He’s incredibly fast when he wants to be.” Az scoffs and rolls his eyes in annoyance but doesn’t interrupt otherwise. “You and I will still give him a head start though, because we’ll make better time in the air.”
“And we’ll meet up right outside the city.” This part makes me the most nervous. I wish we could just land in front of Ignatius’s front door to avoid tromping through the city, but Azarius doesn’t know where he’s going, and two bodyguards are better than one.
Elio nods again. “It’s not a far walk. There shouldn’t be many monsters out either because it’s daytime—most of them move primarily at night—and we’ve taken every precaution I can think of to avoid drawing attention.”
“And what if we run into Rafe while we’re there?” Azarius pipes up.
Elio narrows his eyes at his best friend. “Then I’m blaming you for jinxing us.”
Az throws his hands up. “I’m being serious. How are we possibly going to talk our way out of that one?”
For a moment, Elio is silent, and he runs his fingers over his chin. “We’ll tell him that we were summoned for a meeting and didn’t trust Devyn alone at the mansion.”
My jaw drops. I can’t believe he would throw me under the bus like that, but I can’t blame him either. It’s a better excuse than anything I could come up with on the fly.
“Thanks.” I stick my tongue out at him, which only makes him smile, and a warm flutter teases my stomach.
I quickly look away.
“Okay, we’re burning daylight.” Azarius grabs a black backpack off the floor, along with the nesda concoction, and heads toward the door. “We need to get a move on.”
“Yes, we do,” Elio agrees, grabbing a red cross-body bag off the bedside table and throwing the strap across his body.
He gestures for me to follow Azarius, which I do, and he falls in line behind me as we step into the hallway.
Monsters carrying backpacks is one of the oddest things I’ve seen in the realm so far—and I’ve seen some crazy shit—but it makes perfect sense as to why they carry them. Azarius doesn’t want to run for miles in his good clothes, so he’s already dressed in the pair of shorts he’ll be wearing. He’ll change when we get to the city. While Elio can wear pants, his wings don’t allow for a shirt, so he has to take that with him too since we’ll be flying.
If they were like other monsters, they could just go naked everywhere, but they aren’t. They’re businessmen through and through.
I also suspect it’s out of respect for me too, but I haven’t asked.
We head downstairs to the back door, which is all but hidden by vines on the outside, and step out into the lime daylight. The twin suns hang far to our left in the sky, signifying that it’s early.
