Page 33 of I Destroyed the Elf Prince's Harem

I entered the dimly lit building, and the thick scent of old incense assaulted my nose. A soft twinkling chime echoed through the room, winding between the tall, overflowing bookshelves and the various herbs hanging from the ceilings. There were all kinds of raw crystals and minerals on low tables, reflecting the dancing candlelight. In a lot of ways, the store reminded me of Mother Thistle’s rickety house in Misty Pass, with its general sense of chaos.

“Halloooo!” a man from the rear of the room called out. “Welcome to The Celestial Spell.”

Weaving between the tables and shelves, I followed the voice to a man in robes that reminded me of Jasper’s, except they were newer and covered in stars and crescent moons. He had the prerequisite long white beard, bushy eyebrows, and wrinkled face behind tiny wire-rimmed spectacles. He looked the part of a wizard.

The wizard put his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes. “Let me see…you’re here for a love spell.”

“No, I?—”

The man’s brow scrunched up farther and beads of sweat popped out to sparkle in the low light. “A curse. Someone in your family is trying to steal your inheritance, and you need a curse to stop them.”

“No. What I need?—”

“You need me to gaze into your future, and tell you what dangers lie in your path.”

I sighed. “No.”

The man dropped his hand and huffed, glaring at me through his glasses. “Really, boy. I’m getting nothing from you. You’re going to need to help me out here.”

I placed all of my packages on the cluttered counter that separated us and dug into my coin pouch for the infamous coin. “This. I need you to look at this coin and tell me about it. I found it over a week ago, and…well…” I hesitated, the words dying on my tongue. Did I need to tell him I was from another world? “Can you just look at it?”

The coin resting in the center of my palm, I held it out to the man, the candlelight sliding over the shiny gold to illuminate the raven with its wings spread wide. It appeared exactly the same as the day I’d found it.

The wizard stared at it for a second and extended one hand to pick it up, but his withered fingers never even scraped the surface. He jerked his hand away on a noisy gasp and jumped from me. The man was practically climbing the giant shelf behind him to get away from me. Or rather, he was trying to escape the coin.

“Out! Out of here right now!” the wizard screeched, pointing a trembling finger at the door.

His terror ripped the air from my lungs. His already pale face had taken on a waxy texture and was now covered in sweat. I didn’t want to give the man a heart attack, but he knew something. “But do you know what this is? Where it came from?”

“No! And I don’t want to know! You-you-you get that thing out of here and never come back!”

“But—”

“It’s evil. It was made from evil. Get rid of it. But get out of here first!”

“This thing stole me from my home and brought me here. How do I get home?” I demanded, as I slipped the coin into my pouch.

Only when it was out of sight did the wizard move away from the shelves. He rushed to the counter and shoved all of my packages into my arms. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. Never return here. You and that coin are bad luck.”

I opened my mouth to argue with him, but I didn’t get the chance. A large puff of bright-purple smoke covered him. As soon as the smoke cleared and I stopped choking, the wizard was gone.

Fuck.

That had not progressed how I’d expected at all.

Frustrated as hell, I stomped out of the shop and stopped as a blur caught my attention. I ran after it, but the person disappeared down another alley before I could get a good look at them. Tightening my fingers on my bundles, I peered into the darkness, trying to decide whether I was pissed enough to try it.

“Searching for someone?”

I yelped. It wasn’t a manly sound, but there was no stopping it. Nylian had whispered the question right in my ear, and I hadn’t even heard him approach over the pounding of my heart.

“Asshole!” I shouted in his face, which made him smile even wider at me. I paused, glaring at the alley and then at him. “Have…have you been following me?”

“I have,” Nylian admitted without an ounce of remorse.

“But…” My words drifted off. That feeling of being watched had been true, but I had been sure the shadow I saw was too small for Nylian.

“But I’m not the only one following you,” Nylian admitted. He plucked the largest package out of my arms and lifted it to his nose, giving it a sniff. “That’s nice. Not too overwhelming. Soothing.”

---