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I kept my features neutral. Could it really be that easy? I hadn’t shifted forms yet since being back. What were another three days?
“Deal,” I said quickly before Hia could change her mind. “Where are the seeds?”
She gave a careless swipe from a shelf and produced a pouch. She held it over my outstretched hand and then snapped it back when I reached for it.
“The price will come once they are planted. Understood?”
I nodded, and she finally handed the pouch over. Unable to resist a peek, I undid the drawstring and spilled the contents into my palm.
“Teeth? I came for seeds.”
“You came for what Phaidros wanted you to plant,” Hia corrected.
The teeth were large, about three inches wide at the top and five inches long. Whatever they had belonged to had been big.
“Plant them no less than a foot deep and four feet apart,” Hia instructed.
“Full sun or partial?”
“There is no sun in Hell.”
My career as a comedian was over before it had a chance to begin.
I left the tent without the mystical fabric obstructing me and found Daphne waiting outside, not looking half as worried as I expected. I held up the pouch in triumph, though a thread of unease worked through my stomach.
“Wow, that was fast. What, did they just hand you the seeds when you walked in?”
I frowned. “I was in there for a while.”
Daphne shook her head. “It was barely five seconds, Avery.”
Clearly, whatever happened in that tent took place on a different time scale. It didn’t perturb me half as much as it should have. I was growing increasingly used to the unusual magics of the realm.
“Let’s get this over with.”
We followed Phaidros’s instructions and made our way out of the city.
It was my first time outside the walls since I’d first come to the city. We walked until I was confident we’d hit almost a mile from the gates. The area was more sparsely populated compared to the city, but there were small settlements stretching out.
“Too bad we don’t have a shovel.” Daphne began to roll up her sleeves, but I shook my head.
I flashed a grin at her. “Watch this.”
I placed my hands down on the ground, feeling the texture slide against my palms. I shut my eyes. Took a breath.
And then I summoned my magic.
It wasn’t an uncontrolled burst, not like what I’d produced before. Here, my magic was a scalpel. The dirt was hard-packed, but when I opened my eyes, there were three perfect holes, matching Hia’s specifications exactly.
“Well, that was handy.”
It was no teleportation, but I’d take what I could get. I pulled the pouch out of my pocket and extracted the three teeth for the holes. Once again, I drew on my magic and recovered the holes.
Before I fully closed them, I hesitated. There was something there. Something that reminded me of the petrified tree Hecate had sent me against. Dead, yes… but still there. Deep. My magic wanted to do more, but I couldn’t figure out whatmorewas.
The second I lifted my hands from the ground, my body twitched.
No.
