Page 289 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 8
I walked in. But it was entirely empty.
“Oh no!” said Rob and threw his hands over his mouth. “We’ve been robbed!”
I shook my head. I wasn’t falling for his shit. I’d gotten wise to his tricks. “Show me the real vault. Now.”
Rob frowned. “How did you know?” He looked devastated that his prank hadn’t worked. But then he pulled a tile out of the wall, revealing a second control panel. He typed in the code and it blinked red. “Rats. I keep forgetting the password.” He laughed.
I was going to murder him.
***
This one actually did take three hours to reset. But finally, Rob put in the correct password. Part of the wall disappeared, letting us walk into the hidden vault.
The lamp was right in the center on a pedestal. I lifted it up. But I didn’t see COOPER.
I turned it over to look at the other side.
Holy. Shit.
COOPER was scrawled across this side of the lamp in huge letters.
“I’m free,” I said quietly.
“What?” Nigel grabbed it from me. “We’re free boys?” He screamed at the top of his lungs. “We’re free boys!” He started jumping up and down. “Robert, we’re free!”
“Okay,” said Robert and shrugged like it wasn’t that big of a deal.
I just stood there. Ash’s last name was really there. She’d done it. I was free. I opened my mouth and closed it again.Is this real?I grabbed the lamp back. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I’m free.
Ghazi appeared beside me.
“Ah!” Robert jumped back. “You can’t be in here,” he said. “Whoever you are.”
“I’m Ghazi. And you will be silent, mere mortal!”
Robert’s eyes grew round.
Ghazi turned back to me. “Congratulations on getting free. Now you can be a mortal, magicless loser like everyone else. Like that guy.” He pointed at Robert. “And then he reached for my shoulder, but I pulled back.
“Wait, don’t take my magic.” I...I didn’t realize I was going to lose it. For some reason I had in my head that I’d be free from my curse but still get to keep my magic. And I wasn’t ready to lose it. There was still so much I wanted to do before I lost my powers for good.
“And why on earth would I allow you to keep your magic?”
“Because…”Shit! Think!“Because I need it to help find whoever stole Santa’s magic.” I knew Ghazi had a soft spot for Santa. Probably because they were both assholes.
“Hmm…no. Better idea. I’ll just give your magic to Santa.”
He put his hand on my shoulder.
I almost fell forward as the magic left my body. I suddenly felt weaker. I put my hand on my chest. I felt...breakable. I swallowed hard. I was used to feeling invincible. But I could die now. Did normal people constantly worry about how fragile they were? A car could just hit me on the street and kill me now. How was I supposed to function?
“But I’m feeling generous, so if you can find Santa’s magic, you’re welcome to keep it.”
Ghazi turned to Nigel. “Congratulations on your freedom, Nigel. You have truly earned it through years of faithful servitude. Mayyourmagic serve you well for the rest of your days.” Ghazi gave Nigel a respectful bow.
What the fuck? Faithful servitude?Nigel barley even worked anymore because he had so much time off. “Wait, Nigel gets to keep his magic? What the hell?”
