Page 14 of The Tracker's Rage
She stepped forward, holding her chin high. “I’m greatly sorry for that mistake, Damien. I hope you will forgive me.”
He raised a white eyebrow and shrugged one shoulder, seemingly accepting her apology, though not in a very gracious way.
Damien waved his hand in the air. “It doesn’t matter. I have more important things to worry about. Now, if you don’t mind, I would appreciate it if you see yourselves out.”
“Let us help you,” Rosalina blurted out.
Huh?How did she think we could manage that?
Damien blew air through his nose, and his expression seemed to say we would be as useful to him as two toddlers on a rampage.
“Um, we can help you find the ingredients,” she said, clearly grasping at straws.
If she was thinking we could get the ingredients from Elf-hame, she was deluding herself. Damien surely had better access to the Fae realm than we possibly could. He had been a mage for who knew how long and must have contacts we couldn’t begin to imagine.
“Look,” Damien said, heaving a sigh as if to draw patience from the air, “I don’t have time to waste with the likes of you.”
“Hey!” I exclaimed. “Don’t be an asshat. She’s trying to be nice.”
“It’s all right, Toni.” Rosalina smiled sadly. “I guess the best thing we can do is leave and be glad of it. Who wants to deal with a recalcitrant, embittered jerk, anyhow?”
She whirled on her heel and started walking out.
I did the same, and just as we exited the sitting room, I spoke casually to Rosalina. “I thought he might like to know who Blake and Jenson work for, but why wasteourtime with an old man.”
Rosalina came to an abrupt stop in front of me. I crashed into her and grabbed onto her shoulders as I stumbled forward and quickly closed the cloak around my body. Damien had appeared in front of her and was blocking the exit.
“Who are you calling an old man?” he demanded with an indignant expression.
I stepped next to Rosalina. “You went to college with my mother, so you areat leastfifty years old.”
“I’ll have you know I’m not a day older than you.” The few subtle wrinkles he had around his mouth and eyes suddenly smoothed over, making him look a lot younger than me.
I blinked in surprise but recovered quickly. “You may notlookold, Damien Ward, but you have the heart and the mood of a crotchety sourpuss great great grandfather.”
Rosalina put a hand over her mouth and stifled a laugh.
Damien narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips, glaring at us as if he were considering turning us into bird droppings.
I grabbed Rosalina’s arm. “C’mon, we’d better go.”
The mage put on a smile that made him look like a grimacing monkey—a handsome one, but still. “What was that about telling me who Blake and Jenson work for?”
I shrugged nonchalantly, pulled Rosalina toward the door, and attempted to turn the knob. It didn’t budge.
“Open sesame,” I said, knocking on the door three times. It still didn’t open. I glared at Damien and struck a careful pose, working around the limitations of the cloak. “Let us go.”
He crossed his arms in response.
I rolled my eyes. “Ulfen Erickson. They work for Ulfen Erickson. Now, open the door.”
“I know Ulfen is not involved,” the mage said, “and I have a feeling you know that, too.”
Bobbing my head from side to side, I said, “Maybe, but I’m not telling you,grandpa.”
Damien’s face grew red, and a muscle jumped in his jaw. Again, he breathed patience from the air and said, “I’m willing to negotiate for whatever information you possess.”
Rosalina and I smiled at each other. Her green eyes glinted, and her mouth stretched into a tiny smile that made her look like the cat that ate the mouse, which was exactly how I felt.
