NOVEL NEXT Book 9 - The Deal - Chapter 36
The rest of the team had made it back.
Oz had left the door open when she came into my room, so I assumed that she knew that I was out of the chamber that I'd been trapped in for the last few days. I had an idea of who she was talking about, but it never hurt to be sure.
"Who are you killing?" I flinched as her gaze turned into a glare.
"There is no way that thing is your sister!" Oz dropped her head back onto the bed.
"I'm a lady, thank you very much!" Pixie leaned against the door.
I looked at the pink-haired woman, then back at Oz. "What did she do?"
"It wasn't that big of a deal!" Pixie sighed, then pointed at Oz. "Besides, she made me do it!"
"I WHAT?" Oz sat up.
Even if I did have better stats than Oz, she had still been trained by a pretty good swordsman since she could hold a weapon and probably before that. If I'd done something to make her that mad, I'd be trying to find a way to apologize, not irritate her more.
"What happened?" I looked between the two.
"This princess can't follow orders is what happened." Oz pointed at my cousin. "She's supposed to be the Healer, but she keeps getting up in melee range with those claws of hers!"
"Is that what you're upset about? Pfh. I thought it was the other thing." Pixie smirked. "Does that mean you liked it?"
"Don't you dare…" Oz glared at her.
"Liked what?" Aelin looked between the two.
"Pixie kissed Oz." Jenne leaned around the doorframe.
"Traitor!" Oz grabbed the pillow away from Aelin and threw it at the spy.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Jenne giggled as she dodged the projectile, then shrieked as Oz jumped up and chased her down the hall. I heard a door slam and Oz yelling.
I felt jealous. I wasn't sure why, though. I knew Oz and Ren had a thing with each other, but maybe that was because they were the other two women who were really in my harem. I looked at my cousin. "What did you do?"
"She got in my face and was yelling at me." Pixie tried to look innocent. "She was just too cute. I couldn't help myself!"
"You know…"
"There is going to be none of whatever kinky fantasy that you had going on in your head." I twirled my finger at Aelin to cut off whatever she was about to say. "So you can stop dreaming."
"Blondie wants to play?" Pixie purred the words as she started to walk across the room towards the bed.
The look on Justia's face told me that she was not comfortable with the direction that the conversation had taken. I headed my cousin off. "No, she doesn't want to play." I grabbed her by the arms. "Let's get you to your room before you start any more trouble."
"But..!" Pixie pulled, but not hard enough to break out of my grasp. "They started it!"
"And I'm ending it." I shook my head. This pretending-to-be-her-brother stuff was coming a little more naturally than I thought it would. All that teasing and grief Aelin had been giving me had probably helped.
I guided her into the hall where Gesai was talking with Kara. The redheaded teacher did not look pleased and the ivory woman didn't look much happier. On a positive note, Oz was no longer in the hall, though I hoped that wasn't because she was currently strangling Jenne.
"What did she do?" Gesai used a glare that I hadn't seen since her argument with Jovenna.
"Got in the way during training, kissed Oz, and came on to Aelin." I glanced between the two. "Am I missing something?"
"Shelly got hurt while she and Oz got in a shoving match. Jenne was able to finish it off while Ren healed him, but…" Gesai took a deep breath to calm some of the rage that was bubbling inside her. "Someone could have gotten hurt really bad because she ignored my directions."
"But it's so boring waiting for someone to get hurt." Pixie whined. "If we beat the monster faster then we'd have even less of a chance for someone to get hurt!"
Honestly, I was kind of surprised that Gesai hadn't lashed out. She had absorbed the sink-or-swim mentality that Trent used, yet seemed to try to drive the danger home rather than let us experience most of it ourselves. That had translated into her being too aggressive in the past, but maybe she'd learned from it.
"Let's get you to your room before you do anything else." I started moving towards the exit.
"My room's over there." Pixie pulled towards the other end of the hall.
Great. Because of course she'd be staying with us.
I looked at the third woman. "Kara, would you take her to her room and make sure she doesn't cause any more trouble while I talk to Gesai?"
"Oh, come on! It was all just a joke!" Pixie tried to resist as Kara started dragging the Godling away.
Gesai opened the door to her right and held it open for me. "We need to talk."