Page 51 of XOXO

“We don’t,” she laments. “But we will soon. Protect your land. Fulfill your commitments. There is time when all is safe. Gather what we need to retrieve the amethyst and let’s move on.”

I stick out my tongue at her, but it only makes her wink.

Sighing, I stand and leave her to wait in the living room. My duffel is under the bed, and I’ll need the lock pick set I’m shit at using and some pepper spray . . . clean linen strips and a velvet bag to protect the rock . . . a few random charm vials . . . rope in case we have to scale a wall.

Who am I kidding? I can’t scale a wall. I only have the rope to use for luck binding rituals that never seem to work.

And I’m no good at organization. There’s a reason my BFF packs for us both before vacations.

As I hurry around the apartment, I have this niggling sensation that I’m missing something. I’m sure I am. Whatever it is, though, it’s not important enough for me to remember in the moment so it can’t be mission vital.

Brynn waits patiently in the living room, rooted to the spot I’d left her in.

Annoyance at her rejection simmers in my thoughts. With my B&E duffel over my shoulder, I walk straight past her and force her to chase after me for once.

By the time we make it to the docks, the moon’s already swung upward to crest the night sky.

The gnomes own the entire shipping area so we’ll have to find a discrete way to approach the warren of warehouses on the east side of Tavers. They also run the city’s imports and exports trade, right down to “employing” every customs inspector. It’s not like I can just dial up an informant.

No witch I know has been inside a vestibule granting access to gnomeland, let alone into the maze of corridors that chase between several different abandoned-looking warehouses.

There’s a distinctively mafia-esque feel to the compound. Beefy guys in dark suits with jacket bulges patrol the area. We don’t chance driving directly in, so Brynn parks at a tourists’ recreational boating parking lot and we approach on foot.

I’d like to say we scaled a roof and peered over the side with binoculars like sophisticated thieves.

But, well, we aren’t.

I’ve never broken into a gnome facility before. Few people have seen actual gnomes in person. They use hired guards. All I know is that they keep their most important stuff hidden away, probably behind an uncrackable vault.

We crouch on the pitted road behind a dumpster across from a building being patrolled by a pair of goons. I do my best to pretend that the reek of rotting fish, banana peels, and an unidentified sickly sweet odor doesn’t make me want to retch.

“So, how do we get in?” Brynn asks.

“Hell if I know. Any ideas?”

She harrumphs. “This is your city. You don’t know it’s denizens?”

“First, no one says denizens. Second, the gnomes are incredibly private. They don’t allow outsiders.”

“Oh no?” she replies and nods to the door.

There, a bulky guy in a dark suit and white button-down approaches an entryway with a woman under his arm. When the door cracks open, there’s a thick velvet curtain on the other side, and it’s manned by a mean-looking brute with a black eye and a nose with five different angles on the ridge. The pair disappear inside.

“We are absolutely not seducing a guard to get inside,” I say.

“You’ve tried to seduce me several times.”

“Once is not several times.”

“You’ve been throwing off pheromones since I met you, Vi.”

“I have not!” I shriek, and she shushes me.

“I’m vetoing seduction,” I say and give a final slice of my hand. “The only men I like are lanky nerds with good hands and better tongues.”

“I’m not suggesting we actually sleep with him. It’s a means to gain entry.”

“They hate witches,” I note.

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