It was a spell I'd done so many times I didn't need to say the words. With spy school, I sometimes even forgot I had such abilities, but today had merely reminded me of my unique skills.
When I opened my eyes, it was gone, and I looked back at Yuriel's and Daniel's impressed expressions.
"Safe and sound," I declared.
"Excellent." Daniel grinned and looked over to see Daisy was still playing around with Star. “Guess we'll walk you two home seeing as Daisy's having a blast with Star right now."
"Are you sure?" Yuriel questioned as I folded the wrapping paper and gathered the ribbon to bring home. He reached for my hand and I wrapped my fingers around his hand as Daniel answered.
"Certainly. It's been a while since we last saw each other. Plus, your dorm home is near where I parked."
"Okay," we agreed.
"C'mon, Daisy. We're walking Silver, Yuriel, and Star home!"
"YEAH!" Daisy cheered.
"Mewr!" Star raced out the door and Daisy followed not too far behind. Daniel began to proceed out the door and I looked up at Yuriel.
"Why do I have a feeling this book is going to become handy?"
"If it's from Aria, it’s definitely going to become of use," he agreed. "Must also mean someone has summer homework."
"Ugh," I huffed but had a big grin on my face.
"Are you happy?" Yuriel whispered.
"Very happy," I replied, and leaned up to kiss him one last time.
Happy to be alive.
Moonlight Goodbyes
"Guy's we're bac-"
"I'll fucking kill you, dammit!"
"Go ahead and try. You think because I don't have my time magic that I can't burn your ass to a crisp?"
"Ryuu? Shouldn't we stop them from burning the house down?"
"What?" There was a huge crashing noise. "See? I can't hear shit with all this sound."
"That's because those two are trying to kill one another!"
"Hmm. Isn't that irrelevant?"
"It’ll be relevant if either one succeeds! I'm not being lectured by Silver!"
"You just don't want to be denied sex. I can already imagine your moping wolf ass whimpering and howling all night like you were the one slain in battle because of these two hotheads."
"You're supposed to be the hot head!"
"Ya, but the dynamic here has changed so I'm gonna be the cool one trying to make dinner cause y'all are all bored of waiting for Silver and Yuriel, and food will at least give you a distraction and maybe keep those two from burning the house down."
"Oh fuck! The lamp is on fire!"
"What?"
"Damn hellhound shit!"
"Keep the insults coming. Doesn't even dent my manly pride!"
I stared at the four of them helplessly before noticing the lamp was indeed on fire while the living room was in shambles like a tornado had gone through it.
My eyes landed on Dimitri and Uzziah, who were clearly fist-fighting with flaming balls of fire while Ryuu paused in stirring whatever he was cooking and Wolfgang was attempting to work on putting out the lamp fire.
"What an intriguing situation to walk into," Lia commented.
Aren't you in the slightest bit worried?
"Nope." She didn't even sound concerned. "This seems like a normal occurrence."
The others don't fight to this extent. Not often.
"You're right, but I wasn't referring to your timeline," she teased.
Ah.
Deciding it was time for them to cut out the foolish banter, I snapped my fingers and in a second, the two wrestling hellhounds were drenched from head to toe. They paused and immediately looked my way, just like Ryuu and Wolfgang.
Wolfgang beamed before he looked back at the burning lamp. "Welcome back, Silver and Yuriel. Now before you go lecturing us, just know I tried to intervene but I don't want to be a burned wolf. I also don't want to be a wet one, so if you're going to use your epic magic to put this lamp out, wait till I run away," he explained with a sheepish grin.
That made me smirk. "Come here, Wolfgang," I encouraged. He scurried right over to me before I sprinkled enough water to extinguish the flaming lamp.
I hope we don't gotta pay for that now that we're leaving.
"Welcome back," Ryuu greeted, returning to stirring his stew like nothing happened.
"Whatcha cooking?" Yuriel inquired, looking intrigued as he headed towards where Ryuu was standing while I gave Wolfgang a hug and tender kiss.
"Chili. Thinking we'd have it as a side dish with mashed potatoes, steak, and vegetables as the main, and ice cream as dessert?"
"Exquisite," Yuriel replied. "What's the occasion?"
"Today's technically our last night here. Figured we'd have a nice, filling meal to celebrate."
"Good idea," Yuriel reasoned. It hadn't dawned on me that today was our last day here. Wolfgang released me so I could go deal with the two soaked men, who were now sitting on the floor with scowling expressions.
I stood before them before putting my hands on my hips in an authoritative manner. "Who started it?"
"Uzziah!" Dimitri pointed at him, and it was Hellsin who followed up with, "He pissed us the fuck off so we were going to teach him a lesson."
Before Uzziah could even say a word, Zephyr was in control and grinning at me. "Hey, beautiful."
"Stop flirting with her," Uzziah muttered and rolled his eyes.
A second later Dimitri was huffing, "Ya, Zephyr! Sit back and let me deal with this shit before we flirt!"
"Do you ever deal with an identity crisis?" Uzziah pondered.
"No!" Dimitri huffed but then Zephyr was back. "All the time." Then came Hellsin. "Would you two stop going back and forth? This is exactly how this hellhound whatever he is mastermind ticked us off in the first place!"
"I'm innocent." Uzziah put his hands up like he'd committed a crime as he looked at me with puppy eyes. "Queen of Hearts, Dimitri's bullying me."
"Fucker!" Dimitri pointed at him. "He fucking started this shit!"
"I did no such thing," he pleaded. "I was merely stating that Dimitri's a weak-ass hellhound with an identity crisis, and then he started hitting me. If he used his words, none of this would have happened. And by the way, I was so winning before we got drenched. Now I have to go change before dinner."
I just stared at the two of them before I sighed.
"Dimitri, stop starting stuff," I huffed. He gave me a sad look like I'd called him ugly, but I merely moved on to Uzziah, who was grinning happily.
"Uzziah? You’ve got to work on not pissing off everyone."
"But that's my life’s purpose."
"Find another one!" the other four snapped while I fought not to smirk.
"Try a different hobby so there's a balance," I encouraged.
"Fine," he replied and was up and picking me up.
"Uh? Where am I going?" I inquired. "Plus, you're still drenched."