Page 63 of November Reign
“Are you sure you want to fight?” I asked the newly freed elemental.
“Basil robbed me of months of my freedom. Without my Barr, and his parents, I would still be in that cell. It is my fight as much as it is yours.”
“Very true, I just wanted to be sure you chose this of your own free will.”
“Thank you for checking, Thyme. I plan to be by my Barr’s side no matter what that means. He showed me true love, sticking by me while I was locked away. I cannot repay his kindness.”
“You can. Just love him as much and for as long as you can.”
“I understand now why he likes it here so much. You are all very kind and welcoming.”
Damon took that moment to stumble into the kitchen. He’d gone for a nap after using a lot of magic. That nap had included Mori, so I wasn’t sure just how much sleeping was done.
A gasp escaped my lips as I caught sight of his face. Blood dripped from a cut at his temple. One eye was bloodshot, swollen almost shut. He had many cuts over the lower half of his face. He looked beat to shit.
“Who did this?” I cried, rushing to his side, where I caught sight of bruises and marks. Just seeing them had me stumbling to a stop.
“Ta da!” Damon gave a flourish and bow. “I present to you my plan.”
“What the fuck?” Oak rounded the counter to see what was going on.
Damon touched his face. His fingers came away bloody. He pushed them into my gaping mouth.
“Corn syrup.”
“Huh?” I tasted the blood. It was sweet. Fake. “Wait! This isn’t real blood.”
“Correct.” Damon peeled off his “wounds” all of which were carefully applied makeup and special effects. “We need to get the demons ready to move. We can’t wait for too much longer, or Basil will find out we’re preparing. He needs to be caught off guard.”
“How is this,” he pointed at the makeup, “a plan?” Oak asked dubiously.
“It’s simple. With this, we can give Basil what he wants.” He pointed at himself. “The book and me. I look all defeated, completely fake of course, and once we are in place, we end him.”
Battle for Northarbor
Oak
Preparation for the confrontationwith Basil took another couple of days. We knew when I contacted him he would set the meeting place. I could try to make it more public, but I wouldn’t be able to push it too hard without raising suspicion.
That left us with very little time to get our allies into place. Both a good and bad thing. Good because Basil wouldn’t have a lot of time to prepare either. Bad, well, because less time meant less people to help us.
My sister wanted to come, but her family’s safety had to come first. I refused to put them in danger. I thought she was going to stop talking to me with how angry she was at being denied, but Poppy must have talked sense into her because Zin told me she loved me and ordered me to be safe.
I’d do my best. All I wanted was to get to the other side of this with Thyme so we could be free.
We gave out as many of the charms as we could get away with. Thyme had to lie and say he ditched a bunch because they were poor quality. Too manyof them were, honestly. The coven had gotten sloppy with their basic magic. He, Damon, and Cody fixed them right up. We wouldn’t leave our allies unprotected.
“Today’s the day!” Damon sang as he entered the kitchen looking like he’d gone ten rounds in a boxing ring. He had a case with him. “Your turn!”
“Mine?”
“There’s no chance Basil will believe you got the jump on me without a little damage.”
“Fine. Explain while you do your thing.”
Damon’s ability with special effects makeup was pretty neat. His bruises and cuts all looked authentic.
“We’re going to go off the mansion property when you call him. Say I did a guard shift with you. Found something iffy so you took the opportunity to knock me unconscious. Then you put the magic nulling cuffs on me. We fought, but because you still had magic, you won.”
