“Is it because she’s married to the king of the fae?”
“Love the life you live,” Subner stated. “Live the life you love.”
“That’s exactly why,” Papa Creola affirmed, ignoring his assistant.
“Well, I guess the king of the fae can marry multiple people,” Sophia said mostly to herself, trying to work this all out in her head.
“It’s not so much about marrying royalty as much as marrying someone from a magical race,” Papa Creola corrected, strangely being direct and somewhat helpful.
“Oh, cool,” Sophia said dryly. “So I need to find this lady and ask her to marry a magician or elf or something so that she can visit Roya Lane and fix Subner before I kill him. I look forward to explaining this all to a stranger who will no doubt put a restraining order on me right away.”
Papa Creola nodded. “Good. Glad you have a plan.”
“True friends are like stars,” Subner said, “you can only recognize them when it’s dark around you.”
“Friends…” Sophia thought, trying to figure out which one of hers she could ask to marry this mortal.
“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you,” Subner went on. “You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”
“You’re causing me a great deal of suffering,” Sophia joked.
“Some people feel the rain,” Subner stated. “Others just get wet.”
“Can you make this a priority?” Papa Creola asked, the irritation heavy in his tone.
“Yes, I’ll devote my attention straight to it.” Sophia made for the door. “I think I know how to track down this doctor, but I don’t know who I’ll chain her to yet.”
“Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny,” Subner sang as Sophia sped out of the Fantastical Armory.
Chapter Forty-Two
A figure went down Roya Lane with a crazed expression on his face as he whipped his arms back and forth to propel him faster.
He weaved around larger groups and slammed into a cart that sold “unlosable” keychains. They clattered to the ground and made a series of chiming noises as they fell.
Sophia would have ignored the commotion, bent on getting to the Brownie Official Headquarters as fast as possible since Father Creola expressed how important it was to help Subner. However, tucked under one of the madman’s arms was a small figure that Sophia recognized, although he was moving at almost a blur.
And if she didn’t think she recognized the little Brownie, she definitely knew Ticker’s voice as he yelled, “Melp he! Melp he!”
Sophia darted forward, racing after the criminal who had abducted the little guy who belonged to Mortimer and Pricilla. She planned on running straight into him, halting his progress and grabbing the Brownie from his grasp. However, the offender caught sight of her and veered suddenly down a narrow alleyway off the main lane.
“Damn it!” Sophia yelled while pushing past elves and gnomes who didn’t seem to have anywhere to be and clogged up the area in front of her. They were all lollygagging like they didn’t have a care in the world or notice that a crazed lunatic was carrying a Brownie and darting through the roads.
“Move aside!” Sophia screamed and made a broad sweeping motion in front of her, using magic to help encourage the obstacles of people out of her way.
Gnomes, who never liked to be told what to do, stubbornly stood in her path with their hands on their hips or crossed over their chests. They weren’t being budged by her magical attempts to get them out of the way. This was one of the ill-timed opportunities where they chose to exert their independence.
“Oh for the love of the angels,” Sophia complained, sliding around a group and then leaping over the next. She sprang high enough in the air to clear the heads of the gnomes she jumped over, but barely.
Like a pole vaulter, Sophia’s arms and legs pistoned through the air as she soared. The heel of her boot grazed the top of a gnome’s head, and he yelled in protest.
“Well, move then!” Sophia shouted as she landed in a crouched position on the other side of the stubborn group of gnomes. She kept moving and swung around the corner of the narrow alleyway where she saw the villain turn down.
He was already to the far side, and whipped his head around to look at Sophia’s pursuit over his shoulder.
“Bophia Seaufont!” Ticker yelled with his head pressed between the guy’s arm and side. His little voice pained Sophia, thinking that the criminal could be hurting the little Brownie.
Sophia dared to halt and removed her grappling hook from her cloak, which thankfully she’d remembered to bring with her, although at the time she didn’t know why since she was only coming to Roya Lane. Just showed that she needed to be prepared for a battle or a pursuit no matter what.
If she were simply trying to take down a bad guy, she would have fired on him. However, Sophia was acutely concerned about not harming little Ticker in her process. That’s why she refrained from throwing anything at the guy that could stop him but might indirectly hurt the Brownie.
He was moving fast and nearly to the far side of the alleyway, which she knew spilled out into a very large area with tons of hiding places. If the madman got there, then finding him might be a lost cause. And more importantly, getting Ticker back safely would be next to impossible. That was unacceptable.
Therefore, Sophia aimed at the building on the far side of the alleyway and fired the grappling hook. It zipped through the air and stuck into the wood of the building, then instantly yanked Sophia in that direction. She clenched her teeth together as she sped through the air, racing toward the solid building.
The guy didn’t seem to know what was happening—all the events took place so quickly before his eyes.
When Sophia was on the other side of him and before she hit the building, she let go of the grappling hook and dropped straight in front of the guy, which made him halt suddenly.
He backed up and nearly tripped on his feet.
“Hand over the Brownie and you won’t get hurt,” Sophia warned while holding up both of her hands to try and make the guy surrender.
He apparently wasn’t the surrendering type. Up close, Sophia could see that he had piercings all over his face and neck tattoos and dirt caked under his fingernails. He was a magician down on his luck by the look of his torn and stained clothes. He whipped around and looked at the alleyway where they came from.
Apparently the guy wanted to get hurt because he didn’t release Ticker but instead, took off back the other way.
Sophia rolled her eyes, realizing she was going to have to get dirty taking this guy down. And right when she thought she had an easy case where she only had to fetch some mortal.
She darted forward and caught up with the guy within a few strides thanks to the chi of the dragon. Sophia slid forward, brought her leg around, and swept the guy’s legs out from under him.
In a swift, clean movement she kicked out his feet and made the guy fly up, his back horizontal to the ground for a moment. Sophia jumped up, seized her opportunity and snatched the Brownie from the criminal’s hands, then tossed him over her back where he held on tightly around her neck. Back there, he would be safe from an attack if the guy tried. However, the man landed hard on his back and appeared to have the wind knocked out of him.