Page 63 of Bound and Tide

“That asshole who’s always sniffing around here? No he bloody won’t—I’ll kill him first.” Xander strolled through the empty front room, fists clenched. “And we’ll replace everything.”

“If only it were that easy.”

“It is though. I’ve got more than enough coin tucked away somewhere, and I’ll fly or translocate to where the ingredients you need are in season. Abyss, we can collect you all sorts of new things on the way—the shop will be even better for it in the end. And these two—they can do the grunt work.”

“Grunt work?” Maia set her fists on her hips.

“Yes, which I’m sure you’ll just pass on to the imps, won’t you?”

Maia looked pleased at that, but Evangeline just threw her head back. “It’s not about the ingredients or the potions or coin. It’s the exchequer.”

Xander sauntered over far too casually. “Forgive me, darling, but that sounds an awful lot like coin to me.”

“We just got a new one, and despite that everyone I know voted for Bernard, somehow Walter Bigley’s been elected, and he’s in the Terrins’ back pocket. I suspect some kind of fraud, but what can we do?” She heaved the only accounting book left onto the counter and opened it, the pages blank. “When I go to him with empty fucking ledgers and no way to explain my coin, I’ll be lucky if I stay out of prison.”

Xander straightened, eyes narrowing. “You’ll go to that place over my dead body.” The chivalry was appreciated, and she was sure he meant it, but overpowering an entire high harbor family seemed impossible.

“Uh, did you say the Terrins?” asked Costa.

“Yes, it could only be them—who ransacks a shop and leaves all the gold behind unless their motive isn’t really stealing? Horace has wanted this place for years because he thinks if he owns it, the rest of the street will belong to his family again soon after. It’s a ridiculous plan, but it’s working.” She slapped the empty book. “I’m just shocked they got through the el’erium’s defenses. There was only one elf in town I thought capable, and he was arrested moons ago.”

“An arrested elf, you say?” Xander’s white brows shot up, and he stared daggers at the other two.

A few moments of tense silence passed between them in which even the imps craned their little necks to try to piece together what wasn’t being said.

Then Costa held out empty hands and gasped. “How were we supposed to know?”

“You didn’t ask what they wanted him for?” Xander was positively incensed.

“We never ask questions, we just do what we’re told because of Stavros’s debts.” Maia grabbed her brother’s arm and shook him. “I told you that box looked funny! Did we rig an entire election by switching it out?”

Xander looked like he might explode. “You did what?”

“You’re the one who gave us that veil so we could do it!” Maia shouted back. “I didn’t know it was going to screw over your girlfriend.”

Evangeline felt her innards sinking, but it wasn’t from anger. Whatever it was they’d done—whatever anyone had done—it didn’t matter because things were as they were and she could either give up or she could make a last ditch effort to fix them.

As the others continued to snipe at one another, she pulled out a reed and inkwell and got to work, writing the name of the first moon at the head of the page and numbering out the days. Her memory wasn’t perfect, but at the very least she could remember the order Madam Orr bought every new moon, so she started there.

“All right, pack your things,” Xander said with a finality.

She looked up from where she was scratching in imagined purchases but didn’t move. “What?”

“Whatever you can’t bear to leave behind, but do keep in mind the griffin’s weight capacity—the equivalent of about an elf is probably his limit with the rest of us on it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Leaving,” he said, gesturing about. “If the penalty for being robbed is prison, you’re certainly not staying here, and now that I’ve got my powers back, rebuilding the tower should be a snap. The Accursed Wastes are a bit of a drag compared to this place, but we can live in luxury and splendor there. And don’t worry, we’ll take them too.” He jerked his thumb toward the others.

“Xander, I can’t leave this place.”

“Yes, you can.” He looked utterly bewildered. “I’ve got a griffin.”

“But the el’erium’s roots are bound to the apothecary.”

“Well, pop out a seed or something. That surely won’t weigh all that much.”

“You’re not listening to me,” she said, softer though she meant it all the more. “I can’t flee in the night and leave everyone else behind. The Terrins will take everything on this street after they get my shop—my mother’s shop.”

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