Page 4 of Nine Inch Nasty
“Cass, maybe we should discuss the matters at hand before demanding things. Delaney, did Zac happen to mention why we’re stuck here? Wait…if he’s with you, then he’s in this realm somewhere, right? We watched the broadcasts, but it just seems so odd, them all being turned into clouds…”
I take another sip of juice with the one hand Zac’s mother has allowed me to retain. The other is firmly tucked into her own, and she’s staring at me like I’m some magical fairy princess from a storybook.
“Yes, I heard the story about how you both ended up here. You have to know, he did his best to bring Shelly up properly. They’re sort of close, and to answer your earlier question, yes, she’s at Hemlock as well. Also a conduit, though maybe she’s best discussed later…we’re not…close, I don’t know much…about her…”
Can they tell I’m talking out my ass?
Cassandra narrows her eyes at me. “What did she do?”
Well, if they didn’t already hate me, they probably will after I tell them. Besides, I don’t think I could keep this from them if we’re about to work together. It’d make me all awkward and shifty. “Do you know anything about a cursed gargoyle at Hemlock that your family was tasked with monitoring the curse of? In other words, making sure his curse remained intact under any circumstances?” If I had a dollar for every time I read that on a greeting card…
His mother blinks at me, clearly not expecting those words from my mouth, recalibrating before she speaks again. She waves her hand at the air, as if batting away an imaginary fly. “It’s all bollocks. Right? I mean, my mother and aunts used to talk about it a lot, but…it always seemed like absolute rubbish. Why am I speaking like an English person? I’m so nervous right now, forgive me.”
I smile at her, steeling myself. “Not rubbish. There is a cursed gargoyle, or rather, therewas, and it was your line that originally cursed him.”
“I told you your sister wasn’t crazy! This plays into the story, yes?” Bill asks.
I’m sorry, but I kind of lowkey find it hilarious that a big, scary naga shifter is called Bill.
“So the gargoyle, Leo, is another of my fated mates. Shelly didn’t realize her brother was also, so there was a conflict there eventually, but…long story short, she and I have never seen eye to eye. I’ve only been at Hemlock a few months so I really can’t speak much about her, but I have to let you know she got herself into a bit of trouble. We can talk about that more later, after we handle this realm’s problems.”
“I always knew that girl had more spirit than was good for her. Alright. We’ll come back to her later, or I can get Zacky to fill me in once we rescue him. Let’s go!”
She stands and attempts to leave, but Bill grabs her by the hand and tows her back to the couch. “We need to tell her about,you know…”
“Oh, right.” Cassandra sinks back into her spot next to me. “This is going to sound ridiculous, but…it’s the only thing we can think of. We’ve been trying to figure out for quite a while now why everyone here is so miserable, and it seems that the more miserable they get, the darker the center of Glittertopia gets.
“Our best guess, and this is based off of scientific hypotheses, is that everyone is so depressed here because the food absolutely sucks.”
That’s…what? “The food? Are you sure?”
Bill produces a file folder from behind his back and lays it on the table between us. “Look. We’ve surveyed every possible Glittertopian we could, eaten at every restaurant, toured every grocery store, and every single common denominator for peak grumpiness is the food.”
“Saladriel, could you come here for a sec, babe?”
He quirks an eyebrow at me and saunters over, chest puffed up. “You called me babe.”
“Oops, sorry.” There goes that stupid blush again. “What do you think about this?”
He looks through the papers and shrugs. “I dunno. I think our food here is fine. And even if it needed a bit of improvement, which I’m not saying it does, I can’t imagine that would be the reason the entire realm is failing.”
“Well why not?” I challenge.
“Because…that would be ridiculous. Why would the goddess bring in a magically chosen savior to fix such a simple problem? It makes no sense. No, it’s got to be something else.”
I think about Saladriel’s time in my realm, trying to remember him eating anything other than super boring, bland food, but he always turned down anything the rest of us were eating because it wasn’t vegan. We started getting him his own food, but he always requested such simple things to eat when we’d get groceries that I can’t really say if it contributed to his moods.
Actually, no. That’s not true. “Your third day with us, do you remember when you accidentally took a bite of that mac & cheese I had, not realizing it had dairy products in it? You…acted strangely for a bit.”
He crosses his arms, turning his head up in the air slightly. “That was an accident. Hardly grounds for punishment.”
Cassandra looks at me as if it to say, ‘See?’
I put my hand on Saladriel’s knee, hoping to soften the blow. “Saladriel, why would you think we would punish you?”
He looks to Zac’s parents, then to me, and the rest of my mates are hanging closer now, eagerly awaiting his response as well. “The goddess is very strict about what we put in our bodies. She says that food is simply there for nourishment, and if we enjoy it too much…”
“Yes?”
