Witches for Hire (Odd Jobs #1)(35)
Edarra pumped her fist in the air and then hurried to the side with her extended baton raised.
Clive silently counted down on his fingers. After the last digit lowered, he quickly opened the door. Edarra rushed inside, and then Clive followed her. When he closed the door behind him, what little daylight remained lit up a small living room bare of furnishings except for a small coffee table and a microwave plugged into the wall behind it. A dirty mug’s remnants attracted a line of black ants. Clive and Edarra crept along opposite sides of the room. He stopped at the entrance to the kitchen while Edarra continued down the hall. When she was out of sight, he plastered himself against the wall and kept walking. No sounds came out of the kitchen, and he saw no movement. Clive breathed slower and stalked closer to the small room bearing no cooking appliances but a few spell bowls and pots. He couldn’t shake the feeling that there was someone on the other side of the wall. Near the edge, he widened his legs into a proper sword stance. Closing his eyes, Clive concentrated on where the unseen presence felt the most saturated and swung his sword in that direction.
Two swords met in a loud clang. It wasn’t Goldie’s sharp tone striking against the echoing wind chimes Clive had grown used to during congenial matches, but it brought a smile to his face to cross swords with Mia. Mia rounded the corner so they were in direct view of each other. They slowly lowered their weapons. “Who hired you?” he asked.
“I was here first. Who hired you?”
A lamp crashed in the back of the apartment. “Edarra!” Clive shouted.
The sound of damage ceased. “Boss?” Edarra called out.
“They’re not our enemies! Raj, she’s an Amazon, so you might as well quit.”
Mia put her hand on her hip. “Still bragging about that.”
Clive hoped he always could. “No poaching. It’s not like I could help that she was always reassigned by the time you asked for any warriors. How’s your knee?” It had been years since he used that code phrase, but Mia’s foot turned slightly so she could pivot without giving away her intention. No knight of their caliber would enter a building with emotions strong enough for enemies to sense them. The threat Clive had felt was close, and if they hadn’t run into him or her yet, then the real culprit probably waited with a glamour about their person. The presence grew stronger with fear the longer they stood there. Ah yes, they’re definitely against the wall.
Edarra and Raj walked into the hallway, two feet apart but never closing that distance.
“Edarra, you’ve met Mia, and this is her husband, Raj.” At the same time, Clive and Mia trained their swords on the wall. “Remove the illusion or die.”
White paint distorted around the outline of a human body. Blinking eyes peered at them until a dark-haired Gulley separated from the wall, clothes clinging to him in sweaty patches.
Clive raised his sword higher. “If I feel a breeze on my skin, I’ll assume you’re draining me and cut your throat.”
Despite nervous glances in search of an exit, Gulley smirked. “You can’t threaten me. Knights don’t murder people.”
The annoying confidence of scum never ceased to amaze Clive. “You’re right, but that makes us more creative.”
Edarra cracked her knuckles. “May I please break him?”
“The Council will know that you tortured me!”
Mia’s brow wrinkled in thought. “I’ve heard the Council’s law of invading minds doesn’t apply to them.” Her fingers squeezed the air like squishing an imaginary grape. “Who knows what will be left of you.”
Clive looked at Mia while Gulley’s throat trembled from trying not to swallow hard enough for Clive’s sword to pierce it. “How many healings are you up for? I can do organs, but bone mending has always been my weakness.”
Mia rolled her eyes. “That’s because your knight’s order was lazy. If your Amazon sticks to simple breaks and not compound fractures, I can heal him until morning.”
Edarra nodded. “Snapping, no crushing.”
The edge of Gulley’s mouth curled up further. “You won’t do it.”
So sure of himself that we won’t go beyond our old world’s limitations. Well, this should free him of those ideas. Tightening his throat and picturing the words in his mind so he wouldn’t mispronounce one syllable, Clive uttered a guttural language that heated the room uncomfortably as he spoke. The lights flickered, and the tip of Clive’s sword smoked. “I sat on the porch the other night and enjoyed the beautiful colors of the falling leaves,” he said, knowing Gulley wouldn’t understand a word he was saying.
“Wait until you have to rake them,” Mia responded in the same harsh language. One of the lights in the ceiling fan exploded. A domed barrier sparkled as glass hit and harmlessly fell on the floor.
“What are you doing?” Gulley’s eyes darted in every direction.
Heat pooled from Clive’s mouth the longer he spoke, charring the wall near Gulley’s ear. “Since you know me so well, why don’t you tell me,” he suggested in English, casually speaking of the Council’s laws, and then breaking them by speaking in Dragon Tongue. I have grown foolish since moving to the Earth Realm.
“Make him stop!” Gulley shouted as best he could at Mia with his jaw restrained by the blades.