huffed out her impatient annoyance. “Oh, alright,” she said before twirling her finger in Quilla’s direction, then mine.
A crawling sensation, like a million ants had just made their residence on my flesh, covered my skin. I instantly began to scratch at my arms. “What the—”
“Don’t rub it,” Melaina ordered. “You’ll ruin the glamour. Just stand still and take it like a man.”
Falling reluctantly quiet, I glanced toward Quilla, only to discover she had turned into the old man I’d first seen her being.
“Him again,” I said, nodding. “Smart thinking.”
“I wasn’t born yesterday, darling,” Melaina answered haughtily. “I know people always pay less attention to the elderly.”
Thinking she’d do the same for me, I looked down at my hands to see they no longer appeared to be shackled and that I was becoming the girl she’d changed Quilla into the second time I’d met her.
“A child? But everyone pays attention to small children.”
“The more eyes on you, the less on Quilla,” Melaina explained before giving Holly a condescending glower. “And you. Stop pretending to be a damn zebra. You stick out like a sore thumb. Either turn into a respectable-looking horse or that alley cat mongrel you like being so much, or I’m revealing your true form to the world.”
Holly growled at her, the tenor resembling a cougar’s snarl.
Wincing, I leaned toward the unicorn’s ear. “I hate to agree with her, but the zebra is kind of, er, noticeable.”
Snuffling in aggravation, Holly sent me an annoyed glance over her shoulder. But then she huffed out a breath, faced forward again, and immediately changed into a plain brown horse like the two Quilla and Melaina were riding.
“Great. May we proceed now?” Melaina wondered, already riding ahead.
“Aren’t you going to disguise yourself?” I called after her.
“I only hide all my amazingness under the direst of circumstances,” she tossed over her shoulder.
“Well, that’s safe,” I grumbled sarcastically. “It’s a miracle you two haven’t been caught and killed already,” I told the old-man glamour.
Quilla glanced my way, and I realized Melaina had left her eye color the same. She hadn’t given the man as irritable a disposition as she had the first time either. Today, he looked sad, worn down, and tired of this life. A pocket of pity filled my chest, as I wondered how these two continued to do this day after day, always operating under such precarious measures. It had been selfish of me for being so upset over learning they planned to leave the Outer Realms.
Leaving was the only chance they had at attaining a real life where they didn’t have to look over their shoulder and hide all the time. Of course, they couldn’t stay here. The helpless, panicking rage I’d felt when I’d learned she wanted to permanently vacate the world I lived in was stupid. Because she had to go. I knew that.
But she couldn’t leave me behind either. I would make sure of it.
“Just how sure are we that there’s another amulet in Tyler?” I asked, following when she started her horse into a canter.
“Not at all,” was her blasé answer.
I whipped an incredulous glance her way. “Are you serious?”
The old man gave a rather young-looking shrug. “The jeweler we went to Pinsky to question said we should talk to another jeweler in Tyler.”
“Jewelers?” My nose wrinkled in disgust. “You’ve been interrogating jewelers about this?”
“Since it’s jewelry we’ve been seeking, yes. Who did you think we’d been talking to? Stable masters?”
“Jewelers are the shiftiest lot of deceitful liars in the Outer Realms. You can’t trust a thing they say. They’re only after their own self-interests and the fastest way to make a coin.”
“I’m aware,” Quilla told me dryly.
“Then why are you letting them send you on a wild goose chase? They’re testing you, you know? Volleying you back and forth between their network of crooks, seeing how valuable this treasure is by how willing you are to go wherever they lead you. If they think you’re onto something big, they’ll put a tracker on you so they can steal whatever you’re seeking as soon as you find it.”
The old man sent me an irritated glance. “Then what do you suggest we do?”
“Stop and research,” I immediately answered.
She blurted out a harsh, disbelieving snort before asking, “How?”
“By asking reliable sources, to begin with.”
“Oh, so we’re just supposed to abandon everything we’ve done for the past eight years and follow your lead now, huh?”
I shrugged. “Why not? You haven’t had much success so far. And what could it hurt?