Page 28 of Elixir of Strife
Leon stepped forward. “I don’t know everything that happened between the two of you, but you’re better off leaving Max alone. And you have no right to keep all these people captive.”
I placed my hand around his wrist, wanting to pull him away, warn him, but Leon only shook me off. Divina’s eyebrows were as sharp as knives, her gaze flitting between the two of us.
“And do you know how I keep these people here, little boy?” She leered at him from the comfort of her office chair, a devilish stare to match her devilish smile. “Surely Maximo has warned you. Do you know what I am capable of?”
“I know that you take over people’s heads without their permission. I know you steal their willpower without their consent.”
Divina stood up, her hands on her desk, fingernails digging into the surface. “And knowing this, you still speak to me the way you do? Knowing I can take you and break you?”
I stomped toward her. “Leave him alone, Divina.”
“Go on,” Leon snarled, slamming his hand on her ridiculous desk. “Go on, then. Look in my head. See if you like what you find there.”
They stood there for a tense moment, glaring, breathing. I could hear my blood thundering in my temples. I couldn’t tell which one of them was the bigger fool. Divina was dangerous to anyone with eyes, to anyone with a functioning brain. And while Leon could speak for himself, trying to defend me, he had no idea what she could really do.
But she just had to try it. Divina started away from the desk, wincing in pain, her hands flying up to her head as she recoiled.
Leon clutched his own head, wobbling unsteadily. I caught him before he could sway fully off balance.
“We should go,” I told him.
“Not yet. Just one last thing.”
He raised his arm and breathed a single word.
“Emanate.”
A jet of water sprayed out of the palm of his hand, firing straight into Divina’s face. The pressure was only a little stronger than something coming out of a common garden hose, but the stray droplets hitting my cheeks told me that the water was freezing cold. Salty, too, as if conjured straight from the sea.
Divina shrieked, hands to either side of her face, fingers splayed like an eagle’s talons. Poised to kill, and yet helpless and blubbering, hair and makeup a dripping mess. At least the cold water was counteracting the pain of what she’d seen inside Leon’s mind.
But I could sense that this wasn’t just some prank on his part. I started to pull him away, the stream of water spritzing harder to compensate for the distance, and still Divina screamed and spluttered. Leon finally ran out of juice, chuckling to himself as he followed me back out of the office.
There, in the corridor, were the kitchen staffers who’d captured us for Divina. But their eyes weren’t glassy anymore, their mouths no longer hanging open and loose. Some looked confused. A few stared around themselves in fright. One man kneaded the center of his brow with his thumb, fighting off the mother of all migraines.
Divina stumbled out of her office soaking wet, hobbling on one half-worn stiletto, a set of false eyelashes hanging onto her cheek for dear life.
“We could have worked together for once, Maximo! All you had to do was get me that stupid evil olive!”
Leon shot me a suspicious glance, his forehead wrinkled, his mouth already forming a question.
“No time for that right now,” I told him. “We can talk later.”
“You were going to get her an evil olive?” Leon threw his hands up. “Dude. Why would you even hide that from me? That’s so weird.”
I rubbed my shoulder awkwardly. “No! She tried to make me fetch her one, but like fuck was I going to do that for her, of all people. I don’t know, man. Didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it was important at the time.”
He folded his arms. “Seems hella important now, doesn’t it?”
Divina clapped her hands frantically in a desperate bid for attention. “I am standing right here. Don’t talk about me like I’m not here. Notice me!”
The mounting chorus of anger and accusation from the gathered chefs drowned out Divina’s protest. In a multitude of accents and languages, they pointed and cursed at her, the one person in the hallway that they all recognized.
“You!” said a woman. “I threw you out of my bistro. What is going on?”
“Why am I here?” asked a man. “Where have you taken me? Why am I wearing this hideous uniform?”
Divina stamped her foot and cried out in frustration.
