Page 80 of Don't Fae With Dragons

I gaze into her eyes, feeling Max and Port’s silence horribly, and tell her, “We’ll go to Chrysthinia’s.”

“I can’t fly,” she hisses.

“Cory can carry you,” Port offers.

Max interjects with a raised eyebrow as usual, “We could walk, too.”

All the while, Mili and I stare at each other, a sort of heartbroken understanding passing between us. Port and Max pick it up through the bond, too, and quickly fall silent.

“We’ll find a way, Mili,” I say. After a few moments, she nods. I nod back at her, then glance up at the two shifters. “Let’s go.”

–––

Chrysthinia sits in a corner, silent fury radiating off their small frame, while Mili recounts her interaction with Kar. Mili avoids eye contact with them, evidently sensing the extent of their wrath, and elects to face Max and Port instead.

I stand in the corner, keeping watch by the window. I suspect it will be a while yet until I can be around my pack and Mili without paranoia commanding my every action.

Port and Max each rest a hand on the other’s thigh, quiet companionship evident in their body language. Mili sits beside them. She’s not terrified anymore, I notice. She just looks ... exhausted.

“What was the exact chant?” says Chrysthinia.

Port looks up anxiously. “It can’t be safe to repeat it, can it?”

Chrysthinia scowls ferociously at him. “Spells requireintention, young shifter. Mili doesn’t have the Chasm Ritual anyway –even if, Realm’s Mother forbid, she wanted to steal one of our minds it wouldn’t work.”

“Duh,” Max whispers, nudging Port.

Chrysthinia catches the teasing gesture and arches an eyebrow accusingly at Max. He furrows his brows and mutters a quiet apology, apparently easily scorned by the wizard. I take a mental note:if Max is being ridiculous, consult Chrysthinia.

The wizard turns again to Mili with a loud huff. “Well? Go on, then.”

Mili breathes shakily and chants the vile words quietly.

By the end of it, all my hairs on my body have raised in repulsion. The evil nature of the words coat Mili’s tongue, and she winces as she fakes the chant. Port fidgets uncomfortably, and Max actually grimaces as they ring out through the cottage.

Chrysthinia seems to be the only one unaffected, though I do catch their lip twitching with disgust near the end of the words. “Well, that’s fantastic,” they guffaw, rolling their eyes.

I raise an eyebrow and cross my arms, turning to face them directly. “Call me crazy, but when I hear that foul chant I don’t think it sounds ‘fantastic.’”

A low hiss comes from Chrysthinia, and I recoil slightly –I didn’t know they could make that sound.

“I am not pleased with this turn of events. Mili has been the subject of a sort of ‘claiming’ spell, as you may all have guessed. The sort of dark magick wielded by Kar as the White Warlock is, frankly, unheard of, so I may have to research a bit to find a suitable reversal spell.”

“Do we have time for that?” Max scoffs. “The spell is final at nightfall.”

Chrysthinia tuts and waves again at the air, dismissing his words. “I will consult the archive. Return in one hour’s time.”

Then, despite our arguments against it, Chrysthinia has pushed us all out the front door of their cottage. Mili sighs and runs her hands over her face, the very picture of hopelessness.

Port holds an arm out to her, and she crawls to stand under it, pressed against him. Then, to my surprise, he swings Max around from his other hand to Mili’s side, positioning her between the two of them. Max tenses as he first wraps an arm around Mili, but she smiles up so sweetly at him that he quickly relents to the embrace.

Mili sighs. “Let’s go home.”

So we do. We return to the cottage and rest, the four of us piled awkwardly on Milica’s bed, until an hour has passed. Then we return to Chrysthinia, anticipating the worst.

Instead, the wizard says simply, “Well, I found something.”

“Well, what is it?” Port blurts out. He curls in on himself when Chrysthinia fixes him with a cold stare.

---