Page 98 of Rogue's Possession (Covenant of Thorns 2)

“I know I don’t want to.” I kept walking.

“Chicken!” His fake poultry noises followed me out the door.

Chapter 19

In Which I Tell a Terrible Story, Twice

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The properties of crystal to enhance and expand the influence of magic seem congruent with what I recall from New Age thinking.Interesting.

~Big Book of Fairyland, “Rules ofMagic”

Darling met meat the door of our rooms when we returned, prancing with excitement. Athena lurked behind him looking, of all things, a little guilty. “He’s settled on a new name,” she informed me.

I tried not to wince and looked at Darling expectantly.

“Hercules.”

“This is your influence?” I asked Athena.

She widened her large lilac eyes in effective innocence. “I had nothing to do with it.”

“Hercules, huh?”

“Hercules.Hercules.Hercules.HerculesHerculesHerculesHerculesHercules.”Darling danced about, chanting the name in his head. He sent me an image of the young man he sometimes pictured to me, only tall and muscle-bound in this version.

“Fine.” I stopped him and scratched his delightedly arched back. “Though I may call you Darling Hercules and Darling, for short.”

I didn’t think he’d bite on that, but he graciously agreed.

“Would you mind zapping me up something else to wear to the feast?” Athena gestured to her leather fighting outfit. “Something not too girly, but still nice.”

“The Lady Sorceress Gwynn is not here to squander her magic making you new outfits,” Starling called from the other room. “And she needs to get in here and take her bath orshewon’t be ready.”

I rolled my eyes and Athena grinned. I wished her into a black-and-white tuxedo, with little tails and a top hat. “How’s that?”

She looked in the mirror. “Spot-on, Lady Gwyn. Very nice.”

I took myself into my room, where Starling had a brass tub steaming for me. “Oh bless you. I’m dying to get clean again.”

She didn’t smile at me. “You shouldn’t indulge that fairy girl like that. She’ll just take and take.”

“I know how to say no. I’ll make you a pretty outfit too, if you want,” I coaxed her while I shimmied out of my now decidedly overripe dress.

“It doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s not like there will be anyone to dance with.”

“I thought you were giving up on the love hunt for a while and focusing on adventure.”

“Well, that’s not going so well, is it? I’m just some silly handmaid you’re dragging along, kept in the dark, useful only for preparing baths for you.”

If I’d known she was this mad, I wouldn’t have undressed yet. I dunked myself in the water rather than stand there naked.

“I’d like to point out that I didn’t ever ask you to be in charge of preparing baths for me.”

“No, but gee—what else is stupid ol’ Starling good for? I might as well be doing that.” She plopped herself on the bed, folded her arms and gave me a mutinous look. “I want you to tell me what Fafnir has to do with all of this.”

“It’s an ugly, awful story.”

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