Phantom of the Library - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,20
“While we’re having this heart to heart, Graham, I respect that you’ve plunged yourself into the magical world. It was kind of a duty you didn’t ask for, but you don’t seem like a guy who complains when there’s work to be done.”
“I’m just frustrated that no one told me sooner. Looking back, I can see that my mother knew, and she was trying her damnedest to raise me as anything but an incubus.”
“Hey!” Maya waved her arms. “I kidnapped you! This is about me!”
I laughed. “Sorry, sprite. We’re just too busy, and we’ve faced worse stuff than you already. We’re not having sex with you.”
“I could if I wanted to,” she said. “You’re trapped here.”
“You can try, but I don’t think it’ll be your best day.”
Graham was starting to laugh as Maya got more infuriated by my indifference and she swam up to him and gave his face a little slap. “You’re a lousy incubus! You could get power from me! I’m better than your witch, I’m sure. And you dare to laugh at me? Your cock certainly says otherwise.”
“I want Helena to know she can trust me,” Graham said. “Even if it means I want things I can’t have. They’re sacrifices I’m happy to make.”
He really loves that girl, I thought. And so do I.
“This is the choice we’re making,” I said. I was still talking to Graham, really. The undine could flail around all she wanted. “I don’t know if we’ve earned a happily ever after yet, but I hope we do. All of us, together. If we all live long enough to get there after we open Pandora’s Box.”
“We will,” Graham said. “That, I definitely believe. We’re not going to let that little shit warlock have the final word.”
“Ugh! Blech! You’re not paying any attention to me!” Maya slashed the water around us. “I can see that you mean what you say. Your devotion is true. Before Sam started getting old and sick, he told me…” She sighed heavily. “I must give my treasure to people who can be trusted with it, and I guess you must be who he meant.” She waved a hand and we were released from the vines. “I’ll go get the map.”
She swam off to wherever undines go. Her light-up fish went with her so I could barely see a thing.
“Was that it?” Graham asked in a low voice. “Did we pass another test?”
“In my book, we did,” I said.
The final map was wrapped in cloth, just like the others, but even under the fabric it had a faint glow. Maya swam back toward us, holding out the bundle. “There you are,” she said. “Sam’s precious map. What the gods have joined together, let no one tear asunder.”
“Do you…know what Sam was planning?” Graham asked.
“I do know,” she said. “I also know it’s why he would never marry me!”
“Because of this map?” I asked.
“He told me he had to sacrifice something he loved to bring back the god who protects that thing,” she said. “And guess what it was!”
“Ouch. That is pretty rough. No wonder you’re a feisty little thing.”
The full importance of what we were doing hit me. This was it. The final piece of the puzzle. If we all meant what we said…we were about to blow the magical world open.
“So if you meet any nice lonely men who want an undine to settle down with, send them my way,” Maya said.
“We’ll see what we can do,” I said. After all, it was going to be hard to sell this house to a gay couple if they kept getting kidnapped by a horny female sprite every time they tried to have a pool party.
Chapter Eight
Helena
“Jake!” I ran to the pool to help the guys as they suddenly came up out of the depths. Jake was holding a familiar bundle. Graham was just behind him.
Jake spat out some water and rubbed his eyes. “Wolves are not meant to live underwater. But we got your last treasure from the undine. Do I still have gills?” he asked Jake.
“No, you’re good,” Graham said.
“Oh…? So…the undine…”
“Are you jealous?” He grinned up at me. Sexier when wet, I thought.
“You wish. I don’t care what that undine did to you,” I said stubbornly. “Enchantments, you know, a necessarily evil as long as you got the treasure.”
He kept grinning at me and I narrowed my eyes. “I mean…what did she do?” I said.