sounds. At least you don’t have blood that vampires would give their left fang for.”
Together, we drove the mist out of the last two men, and they slumped to the floor. Now we were surrounded by seven groaning, semi-conscious bodies.
“Only specific magical families get that gift,” Rita explained to me. “They call it the All-Knowing Tome. It’s a magical text that provides the answer to important questions, but it’s not really a text since it only exists inside the minds of the few people.”
“So, I can ask it any question and it’ll have the answer?” This sounded awesome.
She shook her head. “That’s not how it works. It’s like an emergency reserve. It only makes itself known when you’re in desperate need of an answer.”
“There always has to be a catch,” I sighed.
Rita was about to say something else when a frighteningly familiar voice whimsically agreed, “Doesn’t there, though.”
I startled and swung around, looking up to the chancel where I thought I’d heard strange laughter earlier. Perched on the edge of the mezzanine was Theodore, one leg casually crossed over the other. He wore an all-black suit with white and black loafers and red socks. I wondered if Rita inherited her unusual fashion sense from him.
Finn cocked his gun, but Theodore tutted and wagged his finger at him. “Don’t bother, slayer. You might as well be brandishing a feather for all the damage that thing will do to me.”
Finn’s eyes turned to slits as he grudgingly holstered the weapon.
“What do you want?” Rita demanded, a small crack in her voice. This was the first time they’d come face to face knowing the full truth of what they were to one another.
Theodore grinned at her, his face cracking into the chilling smile of a circus clown.
“Hello, my child. I’m not here for you. Not yet, anyway. I have a bone to pick with your friend.” He turned his head to me, and the grin vanished from his face completely, replaced with a look of grim disapproval.
“I thought we had an agreement, Treasure,” he said with a pout. “I let you live in exchange for you not telling your friends about my return. Yet you went and babbled it all out the first chance you got. This makes me feel betrayed, and when I feel betrayed, I get angry. And when I get angry, I want to dole out punishment. The question is, what will your punishment be?”
I swallowed hard. It felt like aeons ago that I found the note he left for me on Sycamore Strand.
“No suggestions, eh?” Theodore chirped. “Well, I do like to be controversial, so what say I pit you against a friend?”
Rita and I glanced at each other, simultaneously thinking the same thing. Did he think he could get the two of us to fight?
But no, that wasn’t what the sorcerer had in mind.
Theodore made a subtle hand gesture, and suddenly someone’s big, strong hands were wrapped around my throat, squeezing hard. I turned my head just enough to see that it was Finn. He was sweating heavily and his eyes were strained. They weren’t black, meaning the chaos hadn’t taken complete control of him yet, but I could see his internal struggle as he fought against the possession.
Dizziness hit me. My oxygen supply was waning as I struggled to fight his hold. I was vaguely aware of Rita shouting and fighting Finn, trying to get him to release me. Theodore must’ve restrained her somehow because a second later she fell silent. I gathered just enough strength to push my hands to Finn’s chest, and the mist started to leave him. Unfortunately, it only got so far before it gushed right back inside his body.
Theodore cackled. I tried again, but it was no use. Every time I tried to push out the mist, Theodore pushed it right back in. I brought my leg up and kneed Finn in the groin. I’d feel bad if he weren’t trying to strangle me to death.
The strike caused him to momentarily let go, and I dropped to the floor, whimpering from the pain of my bruised throat. He recovered quickly and came at me again. I scrambled backwards, but a second later, his large, muscled body covered mine. He held me down against the cold, tiled floor and slapped me hard across the face. His panicked eyes were the only indication that he was horrified at what the mist was making him do.