Page 62 of Happily Ever Witch
Trevelyan jumped to the next bookcase over, shoving the one he’d been standing on with his foot. It toppled down on top of the robots, flattening them beneath the massive weight. The shelves hit the next bookcase in line, as it fell. Andthat one hit the next, and that one hit the next, in a domino effect of cascading paper and wood and deafening sound. The final bookcase went right over the library balcony, bending the decorative metal and then exploding onto the floor below.
Trevelyan smirked.
It wasn’t an elegant win, but he’d take it.
Dropping back down to the ground, he stalked towards the trapped Tweedles. Esmeralda turned the corner, just as he’d exposed their gyrating heads. Their blinking eyes saw him, but their guns were trapped beneath the debris and there wasn’t time for them to crawl free.
Trevelyan stomped down on their faces, crushing their mechanized brains with his heel. Their clockwork bodies slowly stilled, jittering madly and then going silent. Trevelyan smashed them a few more times, just to make sure. Enemies could never be dead enough.
Esmeralda frowned. “Well, that was a little much.”
“Muchness was required. They don’t have no-kill shelters for murderous robots. Best to just put them down.”
She wrinkled her nose and forgot about the crazed security force. “Anyway, you’re saying Maid Marion is like your family? That’s it?”
Trevelyan considered that question. Family meant everything to dragons. And for a man who was the last of his line, it meant even more. “Yes.” He finally decided, dusting his palms together. “She’s myonlyfamily.”
The witch was welcome to join him too, but instead she’d cast her lot with the rejects in the Enchanted Forest. Shecouldn’t be in both camps. You were either with Trevelyan or you were against him.
Esmeralda crossed her arms over her chest, hearing the exclusion he’d built into his reply. “Why do you want to turn everything into a fight?” She asked, as if she hadn’t raged into the library looking for one herself.
“I’m not ‘turning’ anything into a fight. Fights come at me and I respond to them straight on.”
“That is such troll shit…”
She didn’t get to finish that insult. The laser targeted Trevelyan again, its red beam aimed right at his head. He always forgot about that damn thing. He automatically dodged, not sure he’d be able to get out of the way fast enough.
And then approximately ten million gallons of liquid dumped down on Trevelyan and everything else in a four yard radius. The laser cannon was blasted right out of the ceiling and propelled downward, as it was power-washed from its perch. The giant weapon shattered into the pile of destroyed bookshelves, broken and dark, adding to the mountains of rubble on the floor.
Trevelyan stood there, dripping wet.
Water.
For one terrible instant, that was the only thought in his head. Water, water,water. Motherfucking water waseverywhereand Esmeralda would be melted.
Desperation seared through his brain, like a blowtorch. “Get back!” He roared and his eyes jumped to her, frantic to see if she’d been harmed. She seemed okay, but what if she wassplashed? What if it pooled at her feet? What if more fell from the sky? “Run!”
She stared at him, not running. Her head tilted to one side, when she saw his expression. “I’m fine.” She promised softly. “Calm down.”
“Don’t let it touch you!”
“Only pure water burns witches and this is…” She cringed a bit and cleared her throat. “It’s kind of… rum.”
The breath wheezed out of him. She was okay. It was all okay. Except…
“Rum?” He sniffed at the sleeve of his jacket, smelling the liquor now that his initial panic had started to ease. “Why am I covered in rum? And,” he picked up new scents, his mind whirling, “black tea and fresh lemon and sugar cane? Wait, is this…grog?”
She shrugged, like she had no idea what he was talking about.
Trevelyan’s eyes narrowed, angry at himself and at her. Mostly her. “It had to be your magic that did this, because it sure as hell wasn’t mine.” He flicked some of the sticky alcoholic concoction off of his fingers.
Given every single option in the world to stop a laser beam,grogwould’ve been the last weapon he picked. No. Scratch that. He never would have thought of itat all, because it was insane.
“Yes, fine! It was my magic.” She allowed. “But, it wasn’t really my fault you got a little damp.”
“I’m soaked ingrog!” He would simply never get over it. “What the fuck, Ez?”
“I told you my powers are twitchy! I don’t know why they did that, okay? I just…” She made a frustrated sound. “I should’ve just let you get zapped.” She went flouncing off, unwilling to continue listening to his very rational critique of her bizarre spell-casting choices.
