Page 36 of Elixir of Strife
Absconding with the Aqueous Elixir? Eh, something of a gray area. Flora clearly wasn’t a saint. But come on. We didn’t even end up hurting anyone, unless you counted their egos. Now, spraying someone in the face with Tiamat’s dragonfire? Totally different ballgame. Not something I was super excited about doing, but if push ever came to shove?
“Get in!” Max shouted.
He slipped into the driver’s seat, turned over the engine, and zipped us away from a presumably very angry Flora, somehow making it all look so damn sexy. Something about a guy who was an infiltrator, bruiser, and getaway driver all in one just got me all hot and bothered. The leather jacket didn’t hurt, either.
Max drove like the devil himself was chasing us. Or Divina, maybe. I couldn’t be expected to know what the boy was thinking of all the time. Safe bet, too, since we were essentially playing hot potato with the Aqueous Elixir. The sooner we got this out of our hands, the sooner we got paid.
And then this would be a problem between Succulence and Atomica, and the job would just be something to leave in our dust, a distant sign in the rearview mirror. I did, in fact, check the rearview mirror. No sign of Flora or a car giving chase, whether distant or near. Good.
“Wait a minute,” I said, fingers clinging to the dashboard for dear life. “Shouldn’t we call Daniel first? You’re taking us to Succulence. What if he’s not there?”
Max scoffed, knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. “Then he’s just going to have to make a trip down to his precious shop. He can ghost all the messages I send him, but he’s not going to ignore one or two pictures of Succulence taken from the inside.”
I turned away from Max, grinning at the road, trying not to show him how much I enjoyed his naughty streak. Obfuscate. Penetrate. Dissipate. The right chain of spells — custom-tailored spells too, mind — and my boy could get us behind any locked door in Dos Lunas.
And what was Daniel going to do, have us arrested by the magic cops? We were only coming in to deliver the goods.
Succulence was predictably dark when we got there, from the in-store lighting to the signage. But as Max released his diamond dust into the air, scrambling the cameras, as he summoned his crystalline lock picks, I noticed something slightly off.
“Hey. Isn’t that the back room? There’s some light under the door.”
Max fiddled with the lock, squinting where I pointed like he didn’t even need to look at what he was doing. “Nicely spotted. Danny boy is probably back there right now.”
A click, and we had access. We slipped in, careful to be quiet. I pulled out my little bell, casting a quick silence spell around our shoes as an extra precaution. It wouldn’t last all that long, but it didn’t need to, anyway. I held a finger against my lips as I pushed the door open. I gasped. Silence spell ruined.
I’d expected incandescent lighting, not a spinning yellow oval the size of a doorway. The plants in the back room glowed in the soft gold of the shimmering disc.
“What is it, Max? Some kind of sunlight spell?”
He shook his head. “It’s a portal. And something tells me we’re going to find Daniel on the other end of it.”
Wordlessly, he took my hand. I nodded. Despite the hiccups, I knew I could trust Max in something like this. My first traversal through a portal. Damn. I took a deep breath as we stepped through the portal together.
A pleasant warmth washed over me, my skin tingling with the welcome sensation of being bathed in sunlight. I blinked, quickly understanding that it wasn’t the portal’s effect. We actually were standing in sunlight — in a grove filled with olive trees. No concrete underfoot, but the softest grass.
Were we in Greece, a secluded grove? Fucking hell. Were the great families really so wealthy that they could afford not just plantations in other countries, but portals to travel there, too? It was still behind us, spinning and golden yellow, tethered to a pair of particularly twisty olive trees.
Before I could say anything, a familiar face peered out from behind one of the trees. Dan D. Lyon gave a horrified shriek.
“You! How did you two get in here?”
Edel shuffled out from behind another tree, pruning shears in hand. She smiled at the sight of us. “Oh, hello, boys. What a pleasant visit.”
“I like her greeting better,” Max grunted. He held out the bottle we’d lovingly rescued from Flora. “Here’s your Aqueous Elixir.”
“You found one? You actually found one?” Daniel examined his fingernails, suddenly smug. “Not that it matters. I was going to talk to the Jade Spider again, you know? Tell her how disappointed I was in your failure to acquire the first elixir. Actually cut your fee in half this time.”
Max took one threatening step forward, glowering and growling. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Edel cackled. “Well, this just got interesting.”
My arm thrust out before I could stop myself. “Pay up, Daniel. I can soak this entire place in under a minute. Overwater your evil olives. See how you like it.”
“Oh, please.” He prodded an olive, eyes flitting toward me, then away again. Nice try. I could tell he was nervous.
“I’m really gonna do it,” I shouted, one hand raised. “I swear. I’ve had a lot of practice.”
Daniel pushed his glasses up and laughed, feeling every bit like a supervillain, one who got off on not paying his contractors.
