Page 147 of Happily Ever Witch
She smiled against his lips. “You think everything’s just yours.”
“I may be greedy…”
“You are.”
“…But,I’mnot the one refusing to share assets with my True Love, am I?”
Esmeralda made a face, because he had a point.
Dark eyebrows rose in dragon-y smugness.
“Oh, alright,fine. You’re the rich one, so we might as well split it all.” Esmeralda wasn’t against the idea of spending his money. There was a ton of pretty stuff she could buy. “We’ll be one of those annoying, share-y couples, who are always…”Her agreement was cut short when Trevelyan’s head suddenly snapped up.
His body stilled, even as she felt the dragon within him restlessly stir. Green eyes flashed to the left and he inhaled some invisible scent. “Fuck.”
Before Esmeralda even processed what was happening, he’d swept her right off the ground and literallythrewher back over the massive log. Esmeralda gave a yelp of astonishment, as she landed ass-first in the snow. If her skin was unbruised, it would be a miracle. “What the hell, Trev?”
“Stay down!Something is…Shit!”
His shout had her scrambling to her feet and peering over the top of the fallen tree in concern. “Shit!” She agreed.
A huge mushroom creature had grabbed Trevelyan. It was three times Trevelyan’s size, so there was simply no evading it. It came whiffling from the woods; an unstoppable force. The monster’s weird fingers jutted off in extra directions, with too-many knuckles and a coating of fuzzy mold. All of them dug into Trevelyan’s arm.
Half a second later, the creature and Trevelyan were both gone. Justgone. Vanished in a puff of polka-dot smoke.
Esmeralda’s lips parted in shock, finally catching up with what was going on.
Brilligs. Three of them. The biggest one had just kidnapped Trevelyan. Now, the littler ones were charging at the log, trying to get her. Unless she figured out a way to stop them, she’d be teleported, too.
Her mind raced, desperately trying to recall any useful details from the nature documentary she’d seen on them.Brilligs were somewhere between animals and plants. Walking fungus, with the IQs of gerbils and an appetite for rotting meat. Their muscular flesh was patterned like poisoned toadstools, while their oversized jaws were filled with yellowed rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Oh, and magic.
Brilligs had inexplicable magic, which wasn’t Good or Bad. Their uniqueness was why powerful people kept them as pets. It didn’t take a genius to figure out these particular brilligs belonged to the Queen of Clubs.
How was Esmeralda going to kill these things? The damn nature documentary hadn’t mentioned that part. And she really, really needed to figure it out. The brilligs began clawing at the log, desperate to reach her. Chunks of bark went flying, as their massive fists beat at the wood blocking their path.
Esmeralda took a stumbling step backwards. Trevelyan had bought her time. He’d protected Esmeralda by putting her behind the fallen tree --even though they’d agreed to standbesideeach other during a fight, dammit-- and that gave her an extra moment to plan. She generally sucked at planning, but she wasn’t about to let him down. She needed to do this.
Yes… She could do this.
Crap… She couldn’t do this.
Brilligs were way,waybigger than giving Trevelyan a stunning manicure. Good magic was a mystery to her. Nothing she tried would work! She knew that without even trying. Nothingeverworked right, for her.
The log splintered into twigs and the brilligs surged forward.
In her panic, the damn ginger-mutant spell was the only thing that popped to mind. Cookies were food. Mushrooms were food. That was common ground, right? Trevelyan had said the ginger-mutants didn’t obey her, because she’d used too much Bad magic. Maybe unadulterated Good magic would make the spell work better.
It wasn’t like she had another option.
Esmeralda lifted her hand and let loose with every bit of her power. Good energy slammed out. Green and glowing, it glittered like springtime burning through frost. The spell arched forward, in a joyful fireworks display of wholesome command and unstoppable sparkles.
The force of the magic hit the brilligs full-blast, knocking both of them off their feet. The mushroom monsters toppled to the snowy ground and broke into a million pieces. It was like shoving over a gumball machine and watching the candy explode everyplace.
Were they dead?
Breathing hard, Esmeralda edged closer to the fallen creatures, wondering what the hell she’d just done. She craned her neck forward to peer down at the remains and then squeaked in alarm when something moved.
