Evan's arm scooped me back up at the last second, pulling me into his chest.
That's when I heard a familiar buzzing noise overhead. I looked up to see a black speck in the sky.
And it clicked.
Oh, hell no.
My tiny hands clenched harder onto Evan's shirt and I gnashed my teeth, glaring up at the drone. "That asshole!"
"What?" Evan asked.
"Put me down." I screeched, scrambling to find my balance when he set me on my feet. It was way fucking harder than I would have expected. Fucking tiny T-rex arms.
My little fists balled up. "Did you pack a wand and parchment?"
Evan's expression said I was crazy. It kind of made me want to smack him. But, of course, I couldn't.
Because Grayson Mars was an asshole.
The drone swooped lower, so it could get a better view.
"Throw a fucking rock at it!" I yelled pointing with my tiny fingers to a rock nearby.
"Hayley, what the hell—are you under a spell?" Evan held his hands up like I was some kind of mental loon.
"Yes! Catch up! Grayson did this." My tiny arms gestured frantically at my torso. Of course, they were so short that they could barely reach from my belly button to my boobs with full extension.
Evan clutched his chest. "This is a prank? Oh, thank God."
"No thank God! He's a fucking shithead!" I yelled up at the drone. "You just wait, Gray. Just wait." My tiny fist flailed in the air, useless and as threatening as a cooked spaghetti noodle.
My gaze flashed fire. "Gimme a damn wand."
Evan's face immediately drooped and I knew what he was going to say before he even opened his mouth. "I didn't bring one."
I hadn't either, and my rage at myself was twice as thick and choking as anything I felt toward Gray. “Take me home,” I grumbled, vowing revenge.
Gray thought he had the upper hand. Right now, he had the bigger one. That sparked an idea that put an evil gleam in my eye. What if I gave him these damn shrinking arms any time he tried to jerk off? Bet he wouldn’t be laughing so hard then.
Not good enough.
He deserved worse.
The entire ride back in Evan’s arms I plotted various ways to destroy Grayson Mars. But none of them satisfied me. Because when we finally got to the condo, Gray threw open the door and had tears in his eyes.
My heart leapt into my throat, instantly thinking someone was hurt. Or caught.
“What is it?” I stumbled up the stoop.
His shoulders shook and he clutched his stomach and the tears didn’t stop. “It’s just … seeing you in person. It’s just so much better than from the drone.”
I kicked his balls hard enough to send them to Jupiter.
Evan was kind enough to catch me as I tumbled backward because I overbalanced on the kick and had no damn way to catch myself.
But even as Gray clutched his precious jewels and fell forward at my feet, he still shook with laughter.
Asshole.
I stepped around him and made my way up the stairs, where a red-faced Z met me, looking guilty as hell. “Don’t say a word, or I’ll turn your dick into hamburger meat.”
Z’s eyebrows shot up. But he kept his smartass mouth shut.
I heard Evan mutter, “Pretty sure she’s serious dude.”
I was dead serious. Fury raged through me like an inferno that had just gotten an influx of oxygen. My mind swirled with heat and my fingertips leaked shadows. I had to clutch the walls and lean forward as I climbed the stairs, but I made it up to the third floor without help. I stared down at the bedrooms, debating how the hell I was going to grab parchment with tiny-as-fuck arms when Evan joined me.
“Can you unravel this?” I asked him.
“Yeah. Looks like a pretty straightforward level seven,” he replied. “Let me just grab my kit.” He slipped into his bedroom and reappeared a moment later with a wand, parchment and ink.
I sank onto the cheap linoleum floor and leaned my back against the wall. “Thank God.” I closed my eyes.
I could hear Evan slide down the wall beside me. I heard the little pop as he uncorked his inkwell. Then I heard the pffffft as he unrolled his crinkled parchment. But I didn’t hear a wand scratching against the paper.
Was the spell harder to write than he’d thought?
My eyes popped open and I looked over to see Evan frozen, suspended mid-action, his hands poised over the parchment but unmoving, even as his shoulders jerked backward. As soon as he dropped the wand, he could move freely again.
“Evan?”
His head whipped toward mine. “I think he knew I’d help you. Pretty sure he wrote something into his spell to prevent it.”
THAT. LITTLE. SHIT.
I literally growled as I slid forward on my ass. Then I leaned sideways holding my abs tight as I tried to scoop up the wand from the floor. I ended up falling on top of it.
Grayson Mars is a rotted penis, I repeated internally as I rolled onto my side and snatched the wand up.
I basically had to face plant in order to get to the parchment and ink. I used my chin to slide the paper down across the floor, within reach of my stupid claw arms. Then dipping the quill? It took five tries. Five fucking tries and on the fifth I ended up spilling ink all across the floor.
Fuck it. He can pay the damage deposit, I thought, dipping my quill in the spilled ink. I didn’t give two shits if this floor was stained black forever. I splayed out on my stomach and had to use my abs to hold myself up as my tiny baby hands tried not to tremble from the weight of a quill that felt as heavy as a freaking CrossFit tournament monster truck tire.
Just as I was about to start writing, I heard loud guffaws. I turned to see the rest of my crew peering around the stairs, crouched like naughty preschoolers spying on their parents. “I will end you!” I hurled eye daggers at Gray.
The laughter just grew.
Fury boiled over inside. I fought to restrain it at first. Then I decided what the hell? And I unleashed a massive shadow toward the stairwell. Those assholes wanted a show. But they weren’t gonna get one.
I tuned out their complaints at instant blindness, a small smile curving up my cheeks. It wasn’t even close to what they deserved. But it would do … for now. I blew out a breath and called on all the focus I could muster. I started the spell, but quickly realized it was harder than I thought. Soon, I was struggling desperately not to let the wand shake in my hand as my abs started to tremble. My arms burned from the strain of holding up the wand. I breathed out with every stroke I wrote, trying to ensure I didn’t make a single mistake. It felt like years passed, maybe decades, but finally, finally I was done.
The parchment burnt up into a crisp and my arms tingled as soft, lavender magic sparkles sunk into them.
My shadow magic lifted from the stairs as relief swelled inside my chest.
As soon as they saw my arms start to grow, the cowards on the stairs booked it.
But there was nowhere for them to hide. A vindictive smile crossed my face as I cracked my full-sized knuckles. I glanced over to see Evan watching me, admiration in his glance. “You work damn well under pressure. So, what are you going to do?”
“Just wait.”
I leaned back over the parchment and wrote out a spell to punish Mr. Mars for all his wrongdoing. He thought today was bad? It would be nothing compared to his tomorrow.