Page 47 of Monster Married
Inkiri clicked, but stopped to pull me against his side. “That wasn’t all of them, and we still haven’t found Lissir and Nokim.”
“Well, shit.” Vergis looked at me. “I have an idea. Princess, come over here.”
“Whenever you say you have an idea, I end up not liking it,” I said, and Inkiri clicked at me some more. It was soothing.
Vergis rolled his eyes. “I have an idea to help us find Lissir and Nokim.”
My jaw tensed, but I walked right over to Vergis. Back into his magic circle of slaughter.
He pulled out his knife, but instead of doing magic with it, he went to the lower wall and reached for a branch from one of the flowering bushes. He sliced it clean off.
“Hold this.” He handed me the branch with the purple flowers on it. “Stand here.” He moved me, not into the circle, but to one of the seven points on its perimeter.
He held out his hand and made a grabby motion, so I put my hand in his.
I felt the heat and tingling I was beginning to recognize as magic, and from where our hands touched, a red orb emerged; just a floaty light, like a will-o’-the-wisp.
Inkiri gasped. “That can’t be.”
Fellisse inhaled sharply. “So you saw that too. I was thinking it might’ve been the lack of café au lait.”
I followed their wide-eyed stares and looked to the branch in my hand. The purple blossoms had mostly faded to ash and gone on the wind. When I opened my hand, the rest of it scattered like the flowers had never been.
Vergis nodded. “Thought so.” He pointed. “We follow the red orb.” He headed back to the bush and quickly cut off more branches, then hopped back up and shoved them at me. “And you, princess, carry these.” He headed for the stairs.
Baffled, I looked at the cuttings in my arms. “What did I just do?”
Vergis didn’t respond, instead saying something to the other bagua, the other Raikengana who’d been fighting alongside Inkiri and Fellisse.
Inkiri put a hand on the small of my back in a brief caress before he took my wrist again. “You used the branch as a sacrifice.”
“I’m guessing that’s unusual.” I wanted to ask about that, but the red orb moved. Finding Lissir and Nokim was more important than my weird magic. I clutched the branches like the lead actress might a bouquet of flowers given to her by the fans. “Come on.”
It was just following a glowy red ball that floated ahead of us—something I could actually do, for once—so I led Inkiri this time around. Not for long though, because he stepped ahead of me and made sure to keep me behind him.
But even the brief moment had given me a taste of running into possible danger. It was probably unwise and unhealthy. I was going to blame the adrenaline for making me do it in the first place. Also Vergis’s stupid bear. That bagu was going to make me pee sooner or later, I just knew it.
Chapter 14
Esaka was in a state of panic. There were a lot of Raikengana around, running this way and that or giving directions. Some wore gray with a black sash and carried weapons, some wore Nokim’s taupe, and others still were protectors in all black.
The orb led us through narrow streets winding past stone buildings that sat close to one another. It had to be the older part of Esaka, then. We followed the orb down some stairs to a small river, crossed it, and went back up another set of stairs.
“Oh, fuck,” Vergis said. The bagua around us sounded equally bleak.
“What?”
“Smoke on the air.” Inkiri pointed. “Ahead of us.”
I sniffed. “Are you sure? I don’t smell anything.”
Vergis snorted. “Humans can’t pick up scents for shit. Weak human eyes, a weak human nose, soft all over. And bigoted when they encounter something strange.”
Inkiri hissed, but I could tell he was too distracted to really defend my species’ honor. Which would have been difficult, seeing as how I sort of had to agree with Vergis. I knew all too well how lucky I was to have entered the patriarchy as a guy, and gay theater major or not, I had parents who were happy to ignore me, no matter if I was gay or straight. Maybe if I’d been cast as something more promising than a tree, they might’ve even used me to show off to their friends or work colleagues. For them, I was a failure because I wasn’t a success in any of the ways they measured success, and none of it had to do with who I loved. Lots of people weren’t that lucky.
I looked up at Inkiri. His eyebrows were furrowed and his jaw set. He looked like some fierce warrior prince.
“I’m so glad I’m free to love you, oh husband mine.”
