So I just patted the troll on the back.
He gripped my knees, pushing me away. “That’s enough of that.”
But I could tell he was moved by the gesture.
“We’ll get them,” I said, encompassing all the assholes who dared to hurt the people and creatures I’d grown to care about. We were a bizarre cast of characters, but we were, in our own odd way, a large—highly dysfunctional—family.
“We won’t stop until we do,” I added.
“You’d better believe it, Jasmine Jolly,” Orangesicle said, being a prick by calling me by my full name. Everyone knew I detested the flowery name my parents had given me.
He slammed his tiny fist into the palm of his other hand and I decided to forgive him. Knowing the pygmy trolls, they probably couldn’t help but be jerks. It seemed bred into them.
“We’re ready to go after them now. And we won’t let up until they regret what they did.” He slammed his fist into his hand again. “With their dying breaths.”
“Okey dokey, then. I’m on board,” I said, like they were waiting for me to join their battalion or something. Now that I no longer had access to the pendant’s magic, my shifter magic was all I had. That, and strength of will.
But I was all done thinking of my skunk as less than. I might only be a shifter, but I would be part of this force seeking justice and retribution.
For when we know how to do better, we have the obligation to do just that.
And I had both knowledge and duty.
I patted the front pocket of my jean shorts again, feeling the pendant there. It remained quiet, just like it was supposed to.
My shifter magic wasn’t quiet, however. It simmered, preparing to roar.
“Can I borrow someone’s phone so I can call my mom?” I asked. “If she’s going to tell me not to join the fight, I want to get that shit over with.”
“That’s ma girl,” Roberta said, and produced the latest model iPhone from … somewhere in her skintight leather wear.
I didn’t ask. I simply dialed.
A girl had to pick her battles, and I’d already chosen mine.
4
The conversation with my mom was largely predictable. She freaked the hell out when she realized it was me on the other end of the line instead of Roberta, whom she greeted right away in a snappy tone, getting right down to business, meaning she’d called the rabbit at least once. No wonder everyone was anxious for me to call my mom and get her off their back. If she’d called even Roberta, she hadn’t held back in the least in her efforts to try to find me.
My mom and Roberta weren’t friends. They were too much alike to get along. Sure, personality-wise, my mom was a bit less murderous—maybe anyway; I never knew what exactly she and my dad got up to as part of the governing board of the legitimate Shifter Alliance—but both were veritable bulldozers.
When I finally hung up, Roberta and Sadie were standing nearby staring at me, while Damon, Orangesicle, and some of the daughter rabbits, whom I was thinking I’d call the Daughters of Doom since the name was so fitting, hung off to the side, deep in conversation. With the way Damon kept running his long fingers along the straps of his crisscrossing weapon holsters, I was guessing they were plotting how to bring down Gorky Gower and the rest of the Voice.
Why was, also predictably, clinging to me as if he were fearful I’d leave him behind with all these crazy creatures. Val, also clearly unnerved by our welcome party, pressed against one of my bare legs, occasionally hopping from foot to foot nervously. I wanted to at least pat him on the head to comfort him, but I was all out of free hands.
“Thanks,” I told Roberta as I handed back her phone. “Mine doesn’t work anymore, not after how long I was gone.” Unbidden, the backs of my eyeballs stung at the thought of how much more time I’d lost to the pendant’s magic—really, to the greedy mofos who wanted what wasn’t theirs. I blinked my regret away quickly.
“Ya got somethin’ stuck in yer eye there?” Roberta asked, peering at me.
“Yup. But it’s gone now.” I smiled tightly, dipped my head so I could reach it with Egg under my arm, and attempted to run a hand through my hair. Happy Land had kept all of me clean. Its magic came in the nighttime, moonless as the daytime had been sunless, and left me all squeaky and minty fresh, but it didn’t detangle, and after so long in the alternate dimension, with little idea as to when I might actually be able to return, I’d stopped trying to keep my mop of hair presentable. I winced. Too bad, my hand caught halfway across my head of chin-length hair. I dropped it around Why, giving up. I’d need a brush and patience. The latter would be far more challenging to find than the former.
Sighing, I asked the rabbit and the Enforcer, “You heard what my mom said?”
Sadie chuckled and grimaced at the same time. “I’m pretty sure the whole of the academy heard your mom. She doesn’t want you to join the Enforcers, that was damn clear.”
“Well, then you also heard me tell her that I’m old enough to make my own decision now, and that my mind is made up.”
“That we done did,” Roberta said. “We also heard ‘er say she was on ‘er way, catchin’ the next plane outta there. Knowin’ her, she’ll be here before the day’s out.”
“Yeah, well, it’ll be a wasted trip.” But I was nervous. I knew my mom better than anybody. She wasn’t used to being refused.
I pinned Sadie in my gaze. “When are you leaving with the new Enforcers?”
Her fingers caressed her short swords. “Well, technically, no one’s gonna be an Enforcer right out of the gate. We might be heading into war, but we still have standards. Being an Enforcer is hard work—and dangerous—and you can’t take that for granted.”
“But … you told me…” I felt my brow scrunch as I hugged Why reassuringly and petted Val’s head as he rubbed his face against my thigh. I needed to find a place to set down Egg, stat. This was getting ridiculous.
“‘Cause I figured you remembered how things worked,” Sadie said. “Anyone coming with Damon and me today will start as an apprentice. Just ‘cause we’re contemplating heading to kill some motherfucking bitches doesn’t mean we want all our new peeps to be murdered on their first time out of the gate.”
“Wow,” I said. “Way to get me pumped to join.”
“I’m not trying to pump you up, Jas.” For the first time in a long time, Sadie looked dead serious. Then again, everything seemed like a long time ago to me. Because it had been. Thanks so very fucking much, pendant and Happy Land.
“If it were up to me, we’d leave all of you that are still green around the gills for a while longer. But…” She shrugged. “None of this is how I’d want it. We can’t let these assholes take over the world. It’s not gonna end up being one any of us want to live in, guaranteed.”
“And we got us some vengeance ta hand out,” Roberta interjected. “My babies ain’t gonna go un-avenged.” She flexed her clawed paws, the fingernail polish on them making me think of blood; it was very possibly the effect she was going for.