“I’m going to be close by,” I said, not that she seemed to care. I was the one who couldn’t stand still, who had to shove her hands in her pockets to hide the fidgeting.
She smiled. “I know.”
“Very close. You’ll never actually be alone.” See? It would be fine. They wouldn’t get anywhere close to her.
She nodded. “I know.”
“You tucked those pants into the boots all the way down so they can’t lift?” I stared at her ankles.
She tugged up a pants leg, displaying the metal underneath that would protect her if they got a nip. It had been Musso’s brilliant idea. It was some weird material the grouslies would have trouble chewing through. Musso had gotten them from an ancestor who’d been a dragon trainer in a past life. Apparently it wasn’t a very good job. Dragons didn’t train well and usually killed their trainer eventually, like Musso’s great-uncle. Musso had inherited the pants but had passed on the occupation.
“And don’t lean down to pluck them off. They’ll get your hands.”
“Hawk went over all of this. And Oscar, and Musso too, but at that point I was sort of drifting, so I’m not sure. I’m ready, so don’t worry. I’ve got this.” She didn’t stop smiling.
Just the fact that she said she had this under control made me feel like we were all standing on quicksand. She was Bibbi. She had nothing under control. She was my age and yet so much younger. She had zero idea of what she was doing.
“I know you do, but don’t be overconfident. That’s when people screw up.” She was heading into battle. I couldn’t have her going in shaking, but damned if I’d have her walk in like she was indestructible.
“Even if I do mess up, it’s not like I’ll be alone for long.”
I tried to smile back. If it had been anyone but her doing this…
I looked about the room at the familiar faces, people who’d become more a family to me than my mother had been. They annoyed the hell out of me sometimes, and when they did, there was no escape. I worked with them, I ate with them, and sometimes I fought with them. And then something would happen like this and I’d be fighting beside them. I’d fight to the death for any of them. It didn’t really matter which one of them was going; it would be horrible.
Hawk walked over with the box that held the gem and opened the lid. “You get them close and drop it. That’s all you need to do,” he said.
His hands were steady and his voice was calm. What was wrong with him? Why was I the only person that saw the potential disaster?
Bibbi plucked the gem out of the box, and it glowed a soft lavender, like a night-light of sorts. It was warm and soothing. If I’d been a Whimsy, was that what my magic would’ve looked like? Probably.
She tucked it into her pocket. “Thanks,” she said, as if he were doing her a favor.
“You ready? It’s almost dusk, and that’s their most active time,” Oscar said, coming over.
“I was born ready.” She laughed, almost gleeful.
Kill me now, because she was going to take me out with a heart attack before the night was over.
Zab handed her a bag of bloody meat. It had been explained that it was similar to throwing chum in the water for a shark.
I stepped in front of her, blocking everyone else. “You follow the plan. You walk the path. We’ll be right behind you. You don’t deviate.”
“I got it,” she said, acting as if I were being a mother hen. “See you on the other side with hopefully a couple more answers.” She waved to us as if she were leaving to go on a holiday then walked out of the front door of the office alone.
Oscar and Zab would follow her through the front a few minutes later. Musso and Bertha would leave and take a different route. Hawk and I headed toward the back door, going yet another way.
Hawk grabbed my arm as I rushed. “You have to give her a minute. If we’re going to do this, we might as well get it done the first time. The grouslies won’t get close if they sense you anywhere around.”
“There’s not going to be a second time.” I opened the door.
I walked fast, my feet refusing to listen to logic and keeping time with my heart, the one that would break if anything happened to Bibbi. My breathing was heavier, and not from the strain of the pace but from the weight of what I’d helped set in motion.
Bibbi was a kid. I shouldn’t have gone along with this. For what? To catch a glimpse of a stone’s color? Who cared? Would it really help much?
Slow down.
This was her choice. If she wanted to do this, I had to let her. I slowed my pace for all of two minutes before I double-timed it, making up for the loss and then some. Of course I didn’t have to let her. She was being an idiot.
“It will be okay,” Hawk said, following at my pace.
“She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
The alley split off and I couldn’t remember which way to go as my nerves wiped away my memory. “Left or right? Which way?” I turned around. “Hurry up.”
“Left.”
By the next turn, he was pointing the directions before I got there. My head had been clearer when I was fighting a giant bat for my life. That was the key to the problem. I’d been fighting for my life, not lying in wait as Bibbi fought for hers. This was the stupidest thing I’d ever done, even if it hadn’t been my idea.
Oscar and Zab had taken the direct route behind her because they’d be less likely to scare off the Grouslies. Another dumb idea. What if they couldn’t scare off the grouslies at all?
“Even if they get a bite in, I’ve got the treatment on me to stop it. It’ll be okay,” Hawk said, still calm.
“Have they ever almost eaten you to death? No. Nothing about this is fine.”
How was it that the person who hadn’t wanted this to happen was now telling me it wasn’t that bad?
The sound of a whistle broke the air. It was Oscar’s signal that they were moving in on her.
We both took off at a run.
I turned the corner just as the herd surrounded Bibbi about fifty feet away.
“Come on, I know you want this.” She was drawing them close in, holding the bag of meat out, her other hand in her pocket. “Just a little closer,” she said, as calm as if she didn’t have a single nerve in her body.
I watched as they circled her, as was their way.
Hawk grabbed my arm, trying to hold me back so she could do what she needed to do.
He didn’t have to bother. I’d been running here to save her, but she didn’t need me, not yet. She had this under control.
The grouslies moved in slowly, as if they sensed a trap.
“What’s she waiting for?” How close was she going to let them get before she used the stone? It would hit at least one of them, and we’d get some sense. She didn’t have to take a bite in the process.
“She’s drawing them in tighter to make sure. She’s pretty good at this,” he said, as if he hadn’t expected it.
We were both asses, then, because I hadn’t either. She might be a Whimsy witch, but what she lacked in magic, she definitely made up for in balls. The grouslies drew in so slowly. She shook the bag, and a few more pieces of meat dropped to the ground in front of her. They snapped, the bloody meat driving them into a frenzy. She followed it immediately with the stone, dropping it right on top of where they made a blanket covering the meat.