“I’m sure you are,” Sophia began, “but first, I have something I need you and Evan to attend to.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Tiffannee said with relief. “Our marriage. We need to get it annulled.”
“Totally heartbroken then, huh?” Evan asked bitterly. “You little she-devil. You’re going to move right on, aren’t you?”
“Actually, it is about the marriage,” Sophia stated. “But I hoped you wouldn’t get it annulled yet. I need help with a task, and it requires a married couple.”
“Is this like when we got married so I could get onto Roya Lane?” Tiffannee asked.
“Strangely, yes,” Sophia answered. “I need a married couple to go with me to Scotland to pick a magical thistle.”
The doctor scratched her head. “I thought you all were dragonriders. That doesn’t seem like something they’d do.”
“The job description is quite lengthy and has a lot of loose language,” Sophia replied. “Can you help me out with this? I’ll try and make it as fast and straightforward as possible.”
“But I have to do it with him?” Tiffannee pointed at Evan, hesitation heavy in her voice.
Sophia nodded. “Unfortunately. You two have to pick it together, I believe.”
“I think what you meant to say was, ‘Oh, I get the honor of spending more time with my darling husband,” Evan quipped, his arms folded across his chest.
Tiffannee shook her head. “That’s not what I meant to say.” She returned her focus to Sophia. “Then after that, I can annul the marriage and go back to my life?”
Sophia nodded. “Yes, and I’ll be indebted to you. If you ever need something from the Dragon Elite or help from a fairy godmother, then we’ll have you covered.”
“What would I need help from a fairy godmother for?” Tiffannee asked.
Sophia shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you need a date for a ball or something.”
“She’s married,” Evan cut in.
Tiffannee shook her head at her husband. “Let’s go pick this thistle as fast as possible. I have a life to get back to and a marriage to annul.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“When you say ‘as fast as possible,’” Evan tentatively said as they stepped through the portal outside the Barrier to the Gullington, “you’re referring to getting back to your life, right?”
“Whoa!” Tiffannee exclaimed as they stepped through the Barrier and the Castle and grounds took shape around them. “This is where the Dragon Elite live?”
“That’s right, baby,” Evan said proudly. “Welcome to my castle. Bet you’re rethinking this annulment business now that you realize I’m loaded.”
“Yeah, loaded full of bull—”
The scolding glare Evan shot Sophia cut off her words. She decided she’d let him have this one with Tiffannee since it didn’t much matter to her.
“It’s a real castle,” the doctor said, still in awe. “Does it have a dungeon like some? Is it drafty and cold like the ones I’ve read about?”
“Depends on how the gnome feels,” Evan answered, which produced a confused expression on Tiffannee’s face.
“I’ll be fast.” Sophia hurried to the front of the Castle. “I need to grab a book. Then we can find out where this thistle is and head in that direction.”
“It’s in Scotland.” Evan repeated Papa Creola’s words.
“Thanks,” Sophia muttered dryly over her shoulder. “You’re the pillar of helpfulness.”
“Glad you’re starting to recognize it,” Evan said smugly and hurried after Sophia.
The dragonriders were so much faster than the mortal that they left Tiffannee behind fairly quickly. The doctor also lagged because she was taking in so many of the details around the Gullington. She’d spotted the elder dragons sunning themselves on the Expanse in front of the Cave, enjoying a rare bit of sun for that time of year.
“Wait for me in the entryway. I’ll run up to my room and get the book,” Sophia told Evan as they approached the Castle.
Tiffannee had to jog to keep up and was nearly out of breath when they reached the front doorsteps.
“I allow Sophia free room and board and only recently moved her out of the servant’s wing,” Evan said smugly to the mortal.
Sophia had to restrain herself from laughing. “Yes, my laird is so hospitable and kind. He puts up with us peasants, allowing us to walk on the same ground as him.”
Evan patted his chest. “’Tis true. Although enduring your smell has taken the full extent of my patience.”
Sophia waved at Trin as she sped through the front door, then took the steps to the great staircase two at a time. “Hey, Trin. Bye, Trin. In a hurry. Promised Dr. Freud I wouldn’t make her spend any more time with Evan than she had to.”
“Doctor…” Trin’s eyes widened, and the cyborg swiveled one toward the entrance although she still looked in Sophia’s direction. “You don’t mean…”
“I do,” Sophia replied over her shoulder while sprinting for her room. “Evan’s wife has come to join us briefly for a mission. Will you please offer her something to eat? I’ll be back in a moment.”
From over Sophia’s shoulder, she heard what she could have sworn was a grunt of frustration from the cyborg housekeeper. However, she ignored it, burst into her room, and grabbed the book, Hidden Places from its hiding place in the vault in the wall that Quiet had installed for her to keep Baba Yaga’s grimoire as well as the Complete History of Dragonriders and Hidden Places.
A moment later, she sped back down the stairs toward the entryway where the scene wasn’t at all what Sophia expected. Trin wasn’t offering Tiffannee a drink or a snack. She also wasn’t dusting like she’d been doing when they’d entered the Castle. Instead, she had her hands on her hips, and one of the angriest expressions Sophia had seen her wear.
Conversely, Tiffannee looked the cyborg over like she was…well, a cyborg. Most mortals had never set eyes on something as strange looking as Trin. For that matter, most magical creatures too. Trin wasn’t merely any cyborg. She was more machine than human now, having been overhauled and deformed by Olento Research.
“Wow, what are you?” Tiffannee stepped backward as if afraid of Trin.
“Trouble,” Trin replied through clenched teeth.
“This is Trin,” Evan boasted. “She’s the housekeeper for the Castle and the coolest cyborg on Earth.”
Trin’s eyes cut to him. “Why did you bring her here?”
“It was the Pink Princess’ idea.” He pointed an accusatory finger at Sophia coming down the stairs, carrying Hidden Places.
“We’ll get out of your hair now.” Sophia offered the cyborg a smile.
“Your hair,” Tiffannee remarked while running her eyes over Trin’s strange hair made of black wires. “What’s wrong with it?”
Trin’s cyborg eye flashed from blue to red.
“Wrong?” Evan asked with a laugh. “Nothing’s wrong with Trin. She can do all sorts of cool stuff. Like my cyborg dog, NO10JO.” He looked around. “Where is my buddy?”