Page 40 of Obsidian Prince

Grown Liliana smiled to see that expression on her father’s face in her fourth vision. She couldn’t see the glow of his aura anymore, but she remembered how bright it had been that day.

I am a dome champion, now, Pater. I am the champion of the new pride-king, even though I never stopped being small. You would be so proud.

She’d fought for this pride to be led by a man of honor. She would fight again for her right to be part of it. Maybe she would have to remind Daniel that it was her pride, too.

When she felt better, she would go visit Daniel Magoro to discuss how she would serve the pride now that she was his champion.

Her nephew was his heir. She would have a hand in forging the next pride-king, too.

Liliana closed the door. She looked at the duffel bag full of money. It was a big bag. There was no way she wanted to pick it up right now. But it didn't seem like the best place to leave a bag full of money, right by the door of her shop.

She decided she would move it later. The wounded spider-kin limped back into her living space.

Someone knocked on her back door, just as she closed the door between the business room and the rest of her house.

Liliana sighed. The knock was on her home door this time. If it had been on the business door again, she might have ignored it, but very few people knocked on her back door. They were all too important to ignore.

She limped over and opened the door. "What?"

It was Pete. He looked puzzled. He had a split lip, and a nasty scratch on his neck. "That's the kind of greeting I usually get from Doc Nudd." He looked more closely at her face and whistled. "What happened to you?"

"I need to lie down." The spider seer left the door open. She limped over to her couch. She clearly wasn't going to get that hot bath today.

Pete followed her in. "So, what's the story?"

"I fought a lion-kin last night." She put her sprained ankle up on the arm of the couch. Leaning back, she faced the big, overstuffed armchair that Pete sat in the last time he visited her. "There is beer in the refrigerator," she told him.

"I'm good, but you’re not." He hovered over her a little. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"You could get me some ice in a towel for my sprained ankle, and maybe another one for my broken arm?"

"Sure, Lilly." He went into the kitchen. Puttering sounds came from the kitchen, but she didn’t bother opening any extra eyes to watch him. "Is that pumpkin pie?"

"Yes. Janice Willoughby made it. It's very good. You can have some if you want."

"No, thanks. I've got enough pie at home to gain twenty pounds." He came back into the living room holding two tied dish towels full of all the ice in her house in corn-based plastic bags. "Lou's wife made pie for you, too?"

"She was thanking me for telling her the red wolf would protect her husband, not kill him."

Pete grinned. "I appreciate that. It would have been a lot harder to protect Lou if he'd been trying to run from me and the Wolfhounds both."

Liliana hissed a breath in through her teeth as Pete placed the ice packs. The ice was very uncomfortable, but it would bring the swelling down on her ankle and numb the pain in her arm. She wished she could use over-the-counter medicines like Normals could. "Can you do something else for me?"

"Sure, Lilly, whatever you need."

"Can you get the duffel bag sitting by my business door and put it in my bedroom closet? I don't want to lift it right now to put it away myself."

Pete got the bag. He hefted it curiously as he brought it in. "What's in here?"

"A whole lot of money."

Pete hesitated for a moment, then walked into her bedroom to set the duffel bag in her closet.

Liliana watched him with her fourth eyes this time, amused.

Pete gingerly picked up the blood-soaked clothes she’d discarded on the floor earlier. She hadn't had the energy to take the blouse and slippers to the trash recycler. They were beyond any hope of laundering. She should turn on the room-bot to take care of it for her.

He came back into the room, looking concerned. "Lilly, why do you have a bag full of money?"

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