Page 54 of Mayhem and Ember

I’d like to say shock and pain kept me from protesting, and they did play a role in my temporary submission. But the effortless way he lifted me and held me close to his chest gave me the warm fuzzies in more places than one.

I held onto his neck, bracing myself for the pain when my leg knocked against the wall on our ascent. But he angled me just right, taking the steps sideways and making it all the way to the living room without jostling me in the slightest.

He laid me on the couch, sinking to his knees next to me, his stoic expression still unreadable. Was he angry at me? At the gnome? Or was he indifferent? Perturbed? Who knew?

Brushing my hair off my face, he leaned toward me, and for half a second, I thought he might kiss my forehead. “I will eradicate the entire species for what that one did to you.”

Angry at the gnome. Got it. “There’s no need to commit genocide. Ash will have me good as new in a few minutes.”

“You should have called for me. I would never have let it hurt you.” The intensity in his eyes said he meant it. Yikes.

I laughed and winced, the movement ramping up the electricity in the icepicks. “First of all, I didn’t need help. I’ve battled way bigger beasties than that. And second—yes, there is a second this time—you had no problem letting the fae soldier knock me around…and you nearly snapped my neck…so I’m not buying what you’re selling.”

“Hmpf.” He rose and tugged my boot off before grabbing the hem of my pants and ripping them open from my ankle to the top of my thigh.

“I guess I won’t be salvaging those.” I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. With the pressure on my leg gone, the icepicks relented a little, but the swollen, dark purple sausage it had become made my stomach turn.

“You want to keep them as a reminder of the time you were bested by a two-foot ball of fur?”

I lifted one lid to see his teasing smile. There was the Mayhem I knew.

“Here we go.” Ash padded into the room, carrying a glass of bright yellow liquid. Chaos followed, a copper bowl in one hand, a rag in the other.

She handed me the glass. “Drink up. This one requires two parts.”

I did as instructed and drank the potion. It tasted like lemongrass and relief, cooling my insides and taming the electrical current running through my leg. Chaos set the bowl on the coffee table, and Ash dipped in the rag before rubbing the concoction, which had the consistency of pudding, over the bite and up my leg.

As the magic did its thing, drawing out the venom and easing the pain, I let out a long sigh. Mayhem watched intently from a chair, and Chaos cleaned—yes, cleaned—the mess Ash had made in the kitchen.

“From now on, I’m not leaving the house without sigils. Thicker skin, resistance to venom. Those are easy ones, right?”

Ash dropped the rag into the bowl and rose. “I can do them with my eyes closed.”

“That’s our next step then.” I pushed to sitting, the swelling already subsiding. “Sigils for me, you, Shade, and Miles. We’ll only activate them when we need them.”

“I can do that.” She carried the bowl to the kitchen and washed the dishes before bringing me a beer. “You look like you could use it.”

I laughed and accepted the bottle. “We all could.”

My leg returned to its normal size and color, and I rotated my ankle, bending my knee to work out the rest of the stiffness before sitting up fully and resting my feet on the floor. “Okay, guys. What else do you know about Ignacus the Ignorant?”

19

EMBER

“He sees his chance to build a kingdom, and he’s taking it.” Mayhem shrugged as if invading our realm and slaughtering us all was a completely normal thing to do. “It’s not uncommon for those with power to prey on the weaker species.”

“Weaker?” I shot to my feet and wobbled on my bare leg. My skin had absorbed all the magical pudding Ash had smeared on it, but it seemed my muscles hadn’t fully recovered. I fell backward onto the couch, straightening my spine the moment my butt made contact with the cushion and scooting forward to the edge. “We are not weaker than a bunch of overgrown bugs.”

He arched a brow. “Their exoskeletons are nearly impenetrable, their soldiers are invisible, and their saliva is venomous.” He leaned toward me, resting his elbows on his knees. “You thought the gnome venom was bad? If a fae bites you, you’ll be dead in minutes.”

I scooted down the couch, closer to my verbal sparring partner. “Been there, done that, and I’m still around to show off the t-shirt. They’re hard to kill, not impossible.”

“Hard for you and Ash. For the others?” He gestured toward the door. “A millimeter shy of impossible.”

“Don’t underestimate the witches of Salem,” Chaos said. “When they work as a team, they are a force to be reckoned with.”

“And we won’t allow the bugs to wipe out humanity.” I straightened my spine. “This is our realm.”

---