Page 56 of The Wrath
Pleased she’d struck a nerve? Hoping to shred Neeka’s self-confidence so she’d back down? Ha! It was a trick as old as time, and good ole Neeks wasn’t falling for it.
She levelled her shoulders and raised her chin. The King of Agonies didn’t deserve to be saddled with this hideous creature. Starting today, Neeka would be cranking up the heat. Tomorrow, after this present danger passed, she would begin fetching the ingredients for the elixir. Breaking his tie to this monstress had just jumped to the top of her priorities list.
“I will take immense delight in luring him away from you. I’m already halfway to the finish line,” she boasted. “Heloveskissing me.” He must. He’d practically eaten her face.
With a hiss, Lore jabbed a sharp nail in her chest. “You shouldn’t cross me, oracle. You may see the future, but I control the will of my males. The slightest suggestion can make Rathbone your greatest enemy. He’ll do to you what he did to the former king. Oversee the annihilation of everything you love.”
“Joke’s on you. He and I already agreed to that.”
The other woman floundered for a response. Not used to being thwarted?
“Enjoy your last days with him, oracle. Your misery is assured.”
Rathbone materialized with a screeching, bound, and blindfolded harpy in one arm, and a plastic skeleton in the other. He held the notepad and pen between his teeth. Wounds peppered his face, torso, and arms, each in the process of healing.
He looked between Lore and Neeka, and spit out both objects. “Why are you upset?”
Lore spoke up first. “The oracle admitted she intends to steal you from me by any means necessary.” Pale and trembling, Lore wrapped her arms around herself, pretending to be frightened. “She’s cruel, Rathbone. I can’t be in her presence.”
“Then leave,” he stated, his tone unbending. “We’ll handle things.”
He defends me?To hide a wild surge of pleasure, Neeka busied herself with collecting the notepad and pen. She couldn’t stop a peep at the goddess to gauge her reaction.
Lore dropped her jaw. “You allow an employee to disrespect your wife? Are you sure that’s wise, my darling? While I recognize your incomparable strength, I worry your enemies will assume you’re weak.”
He narrowed his gaze, saying to Neeka. “Hurry along.”
Not going to respond to Lore’s insinuation? Was that good? Bad?
“Hey, Daisy,” she said, focusing on what mattered. “Glad you could make it to our party. Listen, the big guy is gonna set you down. Don’t try to psychokinesis us, all right? Instinct suggests we’re going to be great friends, you and I. Plus, when we reach our next destination, I’ll be making you an offer you can’t refuse.” Yes, she’d borrowed the phrasing from Rathbone. Why mess with a classic?
Daisy stopped fighting. Progress!
Neeka reached out and squeezed the king’s shoulder, saying, “Put the skeleton on the larger throne, and be thinking of a safe place to flash a floor this size.”
“I have decided on a spot already.”
The second Rathbone released the harpy, she ripped off the blindfold, revealing narrowed brown eyes. “Why am I here?”
“We’ll get to that.” Neeka followed Rathbone up the dais. Once the fake skeleton occupied his seat, she arranged the limbs in the necessary position, wrote a note she stuck to a boney finger, and stepped back to admire her handiwork. “Sometimes I outdo myself.”
Rathbone looked at what she’d done and scowled. “This was mission critical?”
“Um. Yeah. Isn’t it great?”
He was still scowling as he took her hand and collected the other harpy. With a nod to a fading, fuming Lore, he said, “Appear to me when you can.”
Flash.
Azar hurt all over, but not by word or deed did he betray his condition as he busted through the final layer of a mile-thick wall and marched into Rathbone’s hidden throne room...where he discovered ruins and a single golden throne.
A plastic skeleton perched on it, one arm lifted, the middle finger extended. A piece of paper hung from that finger.
Azar read the nearly illegible text.Roses are red, violets are blue. I forgot the next line, but oh how I adore defeating you.
A growl brewed deep inside his chest. “Bring me the oracle’s mother.”
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