Page 56 of XOXO

“I dislike you.”

That makes him throw his head back and bellow a laugh.

“You need me, little changer. Don’t gut me yet.”

“Will you make a trade?” I ask.

He studies me for a moment. His eyes skitter over my hair, likely wild and pulled from the braid, and then examines me from head to toe before coming to rest on the bare skin at my waist.

Brynn growls at his perusal, and her jealousy gives me a sudden spike of pleasure.

“Aye, I’ll trade with you, witch. What I ask from you will be much more costly than an amethyst.”

Brynn moves only a fraction of an inch, but he’s there to snatch her wrist and thrust it away. She hangs in the air for a moment, still trapped in his hold. The chain with its talisman dangles freely from her neck.

They murmur between themselves, but I can’t hear it from so far away. Whatever he says to her leaves her resigned, though, and she relents.

He lets her fall to the ground with a thump.

Brynn massages her wrist but remains tight-lipped.

“Now,” Edo restarts. “I will trade you. Are you willing to pay the price?”

“Depends on the price.”

“I want a favor.”

“No.”

The word spills from my lips without thought. I can’t make that kind of promise to a gnome. They hate witches. He could ask for anything.

“No? You’re the one breaking in, woman. I hold the cards here. I could fire off a shot and a dozen brothers would rush the room. How do you think they’d react?”

“But you haven’t,” I note. “If you were going to do that, you’d have done it by now.”

“Still an option for me, love. That leaves you far worse off with no chance at your prize at all.”

I cross my arms and pout my frustration.

“You gonna kick yer feet too?” he says with a chuckle.

“Come closer and we’ll see how hard I kick.”

“Oooh, feisty.” He looks down to Brynn. “I see why ya’ like her.”

“Can we move this along?” Brynn asks. “Not that stabby flirting isn’t fun, but we are on a timetable.”

They both turn to me.

“I’m not giving you an unconditional favor,” I inform him. “I’ll offer a favor that cannot require me to physically or mentally harm myself or others and which cannot require me to work against my coven.”

“Wait—” is all Brynn gets out.

“Done,” Edo proclaims. “Come along, ladies. We have a stone to collect.”

* **

“This was a shit idea the first time and it’s shit now,” I bemoan.

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