Love Croakies Sam Cheever (red queen ebook txt) 📖

on the air a foot from our heads, arms crossed and a judgy look on her tiny face. “Are you two done congratulating each other? Because these things won’t capture themselves.”

Grym and I glanced up at the cranky sprite. Her fire-red brows lifted into her hairline.

Grym blinked as if suddenly remembering where he was. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” He shoved himself off me and climbed quickly to his feet, reaching down to give me a hand up. “You’re sure you’re okay?” His tone was tender, his gaze skimming quickly over me to check for damage.

Words wouldn’t come. I swallowed hard and nodded.

Then I saw the speck of blood on his shoulder. “You’re bleeding.”

He glanced at the small slice through his denim shirt, his mouth curving up on the corners. “It’s just a flesh wound.” He laughed. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

I rubbed my gritty hands on my jeans. “What’s going on here?”

Grym looked around, his expression turning dire. “The cherubs seem to have adjusted their attack to stealth mode.”

“They’re invisible?” The shriekish quality of my voice was embarrassing. I worked to tone it down. “The one that attacked us just kind of popped out of thin air.” My stomach twisted into a painful knot. The only thing worse than shark-toothed cherubs shooting people with poison arrows was not being able to see those cherubs coming.

But Grym shook his head. “Not invisible. I mean, for all practical purposes they are invisible to the naked eye. But it’s more like they’re using voids or something.”

I thought about what I’d seen and realized it was exactly like that. Archie was a void sorcerer, and he’d stepped out of voids in thin air just as the cherub had. “Is that possible?” I asked Sebille and Grym. Though we were all magic-users, they’d been part of the magic world all their lives, where my magic had been ignored and hidden from me until it was impossible to ignore any longer. I knew next to nothing about the magical world compared to them.

Though, my job was proving to be an adept teacher on the subject, if a little death by fire-squadish in the delivery.

“I haven’t seen anybody who could use a void like Uncle Pudsy,” I said

Grym nodded thoughtfully. “Yes. But the thing is, demons aren’t generally able to use voids that way.”

“Spatially restricted invisibility magic?” Sebille offered.

Grym thought about her question for a beat and then shrugged. “Could be. I’ve heard of demons who were able to utilize that type of magic in controlled situations.” He looked around, frowning. “But this whole place would have to be spelled for it to work.”

“That would be a humdinger of a spell,” Sebille said, sharing his frown.

“Like something a demi-god might be able to use?” I said, reminding them what…or who…we were dealing with.

“Hello?”

We all turned at the sound of an uncertain male voice. A short, portly man was waddling in our direction, his sparse combover flopping in his eyes before he shoved it off his forehead. The air behind him shimmered and I glanced at Sebille. She buzzed away, using the small trees adorning the central mall space to keep out of sight of the approaching human.

A beat later, a wash of green energy lit up the space behind him and he jumped, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned to look.

Seeing nothing, he ambled in our direction again. “I’m evacuating the mall, folks. Some kind of flash mob has taken over and people are acting crazy. It’s not safe here.”

Grym showed the man his badge. “Detective Wise Grym of the Enchanted Police Department. And you are?”

The man examined Grym’s badge, his expression relaxing. “Thank goodness you’re here. I don’t know what’s going on.” He seemed to realize Grym was still waiting for him to identify himself and nodded. “Name’s Pinch. Ralph Pinch. I’m the manager of this mall.” His gaze slid toward the pile of ostensibly sleeping people. “Are they okay?”

Grym nodded. “They passed out.”

The manager’s eyes went wide. “Oh my! You mean all this is because of a bunch of people who drank too much?”

Grym opened his mouth and stopped, seeming to rethink whatever he’d been about to say. Finally, he nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

The man nodded. “Well, in all my years managing this place, I’d have to say this is a first.” He crossed pudgy arms over his well-padded chest and shook his head. “What will we do with them?”

“I’ve called for backup,” Grym told him. “We’ll get this cleaned up in no time, sir.”

The man nodded. “Good. What do you want me to do?”

“Getting people out of here is a good idea. Then lock the doors and watch for my people to arrive.”

The manager nodded. “I have a few staff left in the building. I’ll see if I can roust them to help.”

“I can help,” I told the man. I shared a look with Grym and he frowned. “I’ll back you up,” I told the manager in a firm tone that was meant to remind Grym the human manager was in danger from the cherubs. He probably wouldn’t even see them coming and, if he did, he wouldn’t know what to do about them.

Not that I was a super hero in the defensive magics myself. But in a pinch, I could zap the little monsters with my Keeper energy. It was enough to curl their hair or make them pee into their diapers.

Grym got a constipated look on his handsome face. “I don’t want you to go with him.” He blinked even as the words came out.

We stared at each other for a beat, then both of our gazes slid to the small wound on his shoulder.

“Oh, oh,” Sebille said, coming up behind the manager.

Grym’s lips compressed. “I can handle it,” he finally said.

“Handle what?” the manager asked.

“Coordination of the cleanup,” Grym said, his hostile gaze sliding to the man. “You can evacuate anyone who isn’t passed out?”

“Yeah,” the man said, his expression turning leery in the face of Grym’s inexplicable