Page 48 of Forgotten Arcane

I pull a face. Yeah, I probably didn’t need to pack that many in retrospect.

Replying in a way that makes it sound more like a question than an answer, I say, “You never know when you’re going to need pens?”

The guys just chuckle and don’t ask any more questions about the slightly questionable contents of my bag. Thankfully, it doesn’t take me much longer to find my phone.

Holding it up triumphantly, I grin, “Aha, found it. Just let me put it on charge, and then we can go.”

“You got it,” River replies. “I’ll text the guys to get in the van. Doc’s going to transport us.”

“Oh wait,” I say as I plug the phone in and turn back to face the others, “could we stop off in town first, I need to get some of that supe contraceptive.”

“There’s no need. I make it. Give me a second, and I will grab you some from my workroom,” Ransom says as he stands up. He pauses and adds, “If you would rather get it from the apothecary in town, I completely understand, and I won’t be offended or anything like that. I’m good with whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“You have a workroom in the house?” I ask. “How is it that I still haven’t been given a proper tour of this place?” I add and then don’t wait for any of them to answer me as I add, “Wait, that wasn’t the point of the conversation. To answer your question, I would much rather get it from you. I know how good you are, and I trust you infinitely more than I trust some random guy in an apothecary store, especially one that looked at Raiden like he was going to eat him.” I glance at Raiden, “You totally should have pretended you were going to, oh or I can get Coen to pretend to, that’s always hilarious.”

“Oh, I want to hear that story,” River grins as Raiden bursts out laughing at my suggestion.

“Maybe later,” Ransom interrupts before the conversation can derail any more. He walks over to me, and kisses me once, “I’ll go and grab it for you now. I’ve tweaked my one, and you only have to take it every five years. If during that time you decide that you want to start trying for a baby, then there’s another potion that I have made that immediately stops the effects of the contraceptive potion, so you can start trying straight away.”

“Huh, that’s really cool,” I reply, impressed. “Not having to think about it for five years is a big improvement. Why haven’t you marketed it?”

“Time mostly. It would take a long time to figure out a way to do it and a way to produce it on such a big scale,” Ransom explains. He kisses me once more, “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

I nod, and as he leaves, I add, “Coen needs the guy version.”

“No problem,” Ransom replies.

River grabs my hand and starts to pull me from the room, “Come on, let’s go. I want to see if Sully can give us any new information now.”

“Yeah, it will be interesting to see what he can say now, and if there are still things that he can’t,” Raiden agrees. He grabs my other hand, “And we will give both you and Coen a tour of the house when we get back. I’m sorry that we haven’t given you one yet.”

I grin, “I would really like that, and it’s okay, we’ve had a lot going on. I know where the important things are, like the kitchen, the library, and the gym.”

“Is that the order of importance?” River asks as we wait by the door for Ransom.

I grin and then seriously consider his question, “Well, actually, I think that the library and kitchen switch quite a lot, but the gym is never at the top of the list.”

“I definitely agree with that order,” Raiden replies.

River looks contemplative, “See for me it’s kitchen, then the woods, then my bed.”

“Here you go,” Ransom says as he jogs into the foyer. He hands me a small vial. When he sees the look on my face, he chuckles and adds, “Don’t worry, it tastes nice.”

I grin, unscrew the top, and down it in one. “Oh, it tastes like strawberries, I like that. Thank you.”

Ransom smiles proudly, “You’re welcome, come on, let’s go.”

We all head out of the door to where the van is waiting outside, and Ransom hands Coen his own vial while Doc does his thing, and within moments we’re parked in the alleyway that we normally park in near Sully’s bar, and are all climbing out.

Although I took longer than I was supposed to charging my phone, we’re still early enough that there is no one here yet, which means that there are no bouncers guarding the doors, so we walk straight in.

“We’re fucking closed,” Sully’s voice booms from behind the bar, his back to us.

“I’ll come back later then,” I reply with a grin as we carry on walking into the bar.

Sully whips around, a huge and relieved smile on his face, as he vaults the bar like it’s nothing and comes barreling toward me. I chuckle as the guys all take a huge step away from me, so they don’t get knocked down.

As soon as his arms are around me, he says, “Oh thank fuck you’re okay. You did really good, do you know that? Fucking awesome,” he puts me down and steps back and looks over at the guys, “You all did brilliantly. Coen, you carried your whole fucking team. I know I wasn’t the only one yelling at the screen that you should just let them die.”

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