Page 87 of How to Entice a Fiend

“So you’ll keep two eyeballs.”

Alexei scrutinizes me. “I’m not making anything, so why would I need them? I’m just here to make sure you stay alive.”

Claude takes a pair from me. “Honey, put them on. Do you remember what happened to my eyebrow? You never know what might happen,” he says as he smiles at Alexei before sliding them on the unimpressed man. “Aww, you look so cute.”

Alexei is scowling quite hard about this whole thing.

I hand Claude his but he shakes his head.

“Sorry, it clashes with my outfit,” he says.

I stare at the plastic safety glasses, then at his lime green outfit with a pink floral design, and question how exactly the safety glasses could make that clash any harder. And are his shoes orange?

I glance at the safety glasses. “You know what would clash even more? An eyepatch. Put them on.”

“Honey, he’s being mean to me,” Claude whines as Alexei grabs the glasses and puts them on with enough force that I’m surprised Claude didn’t lose an eye from it.

“Thank you!” Finn says. And when I hand some to Ender, he takes a pair and fits them on Rylee. Then Rylee insists on a pair for Señor Fluffybottom, which Ender gives up his for.

I cock my head and raise an eyebrow as I walk up and slide a spare pair of glasses onto his face. “You need to protect those pretty eyes of yours.”

“My eyes are going to be closed as I sleep in the corner. You shouldn’t have to fear for them at all,” Ender assures me.

“I thought you were going to watch so he makes the right thing!” Finn says.

“The man is over here trying to protect vampires’ eyeballs, and you think he’s going to murder you all?” Ender asks.

“Let’s go through our safety steps!” I announce. “This device here is to flush out your eyes if something gets in them.”

“Can I use it to drown a man?” Alexei asks. “If not, I’m not interested in hearing more.”

“Good question but no. And if you pull this little handle here, water will drop down on you from above. Cool, huh?”

“That’s super cool,” Rylee says.

“Thank you. Now do you want to see a flame?”

“I DO!” she exclaims as she rushes over.

“You have to be super careful, though. Let’s put on the rest of our gear first! And we don’t want to light anyone on fire, even if they’re grumpy and mean to us! So let’s hand the kitty to Orin and you can come watch until I get things started, but then you’ll have to sit with the kitty, okay?”

“Okay! Orin, you better protect Señor Fluffybottomwith your life.”

“Oh yes, I very much will,” Orin says as he takes the cat and goes to sit down. The lab part is split from the classroom by a door, leaving Orin just on the other side of the door.

“I’m going to watch you so closely,” Finn tells me. “Like I even remotely know what I’m looking at.”

I grin at him. “I can teach you.”

“No, I think I’m okay. I’d rather not be bestowed with that knowledge, thank you.”

“Good point.”

The professor comes back with the materials, and when I assure him I don’t need anything else, he leaves while looking confused. Claude is up close, though, making me wonder if he knows some of what I’m doing.

Once everyone nearby is geared up, I set them to work helping me prep the station.

“I know I’m supposed to be making sure he’s not creating a weapon of mass destruction, but he could be making a bomb for all I know,” Ender says. “Mads, are you making a bomb?”

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