Page 127 of A Dose of Agony
“Hey!” I complain. “I can’t ask you guys to put yourself at risk for me. If someone needs—”
Janet holds up a finger. “You’re not asking. We’re offering. Take it or leave it.”
Manuela looks Janet up and down. “A half-troll and a pixie are going to be the backup plan?”
Janet narrows her eyes. “And a powerful wolf shifter.”
Manuela snorts. “He’s not that powerful.”
“So, you’re saying you won’t help us? Help me?” I step forward.
She twists her lips. “I’m saying this plan is foolish. I’ll pitch the idea, but Beatrice doesn’t know if she can trust you now that you’ve linked with Jarron.”
“Jarron’s fighting his own battles. He blocked me out again. I don’t know what’s happening with him, so he won’t know what’s happening with me either.”
Manuela blinks. “That’s not entirely true. He’ll check in periodically, so you will have to guard your thoughts diligently. And if you are ever in danger, he’ll know. This plan will put all of our lives in danger. Every single one of us.”
“Then, make your choice, but I have one more request.”
55
Deal with the Devil
“Thompson is on his way,” Janet declares, clicking off her phone.
“He can really afford to leave his pack right now?” I ask, pacing in my workshop. It’s pretty much impossible for my mind to stay off of the current plans, but I try my best to focus mostly on the fantasy of killing the council instead of the specifics of said plan.
That fantasy is not new. Jarron wouldn’t find it alarming if he caught me thinking about it.
Yes, I’m fucked up. No, I don’t care.
“Yes!” Janet answers. “After Jarron’s attack on the invading packs and his message to the others, there haven’t been any new threats. His pack got their supplies. They’ve been able to reset their defenses. It’s not over, but he has some room to breathe, and you know, the sooner this war is over, the better for him, so he’s invested.”
“How soon will he arrive?”
“Not until tomorrow. Manuela helped him find the fastest portal route back, but she can’t make him a direct portal because she’s used so much magic on what he we asked of her already.”
“Right. Yeah that makes sense.”
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Thompson will be here. Tomorrow, I’m going to kill the Cosmic Council and finish this once and for all.
I refocus my mind. There is honestly little for me to do right now. I have a meeting with Bea tomorrow morning to finish up our final plans, but for now, most of my potions are finished. And my allies are working hard.
There are still two potions sitting in cauldrons that I haven’t touched, mostly because they’re not relevant to my scheme, but now I’m stuck in this waiting mode, so I may as well finish them up.
I methodically portion out my nullifier antidote, even though it’s a fairly large dosage. I stare at the clear liquid, wondering if it was even a good idea to brew these.
Either way, I leave them unlabeled and in a side pocket of my backpack.
On my thigh, I clasp a stunning potion into one of the little slots and a paralyzer. These vials are extra strong and bullet proof, so they shouldn’t break easily. That’s both good and bad. It means they won’t accidentally crack open and stun or paralyze me just because I fell or was hit. Bad because they’re more difficult to use.
I also include invisibility, a weakening potion, and two extra nullifiers on my thigh clasp. The last two won’t work on me anyway, and the invisibility doesn’t seem to be too much of a liability.
I also have a steel box where I stack all the rest of my very important potions. Instant death. The rest of my delayed death. My stunning bombs. Invisibility. Weakener. Paralyzer. All in crushable vials for aggressive action.
After a while, I run out of tasks to complete, so I try to push through the barrier between me and Jarron. It’s killing me knowing he’s in danger but not knowing what’s happening.
