The captain entered with his usual judgmental frown directed at me. “I wouldn’t go that far, Zoey. Well, besides the infant comment.”
I waved him up and down from my perch in the armchair. “Oh, you’re what ten years older than me, max. Huge difference. I’ll lump you in the ancient category with Fin. Get your tombstone prepared. It’ll say, ‘Here Lies Captain Douche.’”
He didn’t bother responding, but crossed the room to whisper to Fin, who nodded.
“What?” I asked Fin.
“We should go back to the forest.”
I threw up my hands. “Last time we came out with a ribbon after being there for hours. You think there’s going to be anything else to find? Besides, it’s getting dark.”
“Afraid, Zoey?” The captain asked.
“Of dying, absolutely, especially of being torn to shreds by fanged mage beasts, or whatever the mage equivalent of a scary creature is.”
Fin gripped the back of the other armchair and stared me down. Damn it, he was about to talk me into this dumb plan that had to be a bad idea. And a trap.
Definitely a trap.
I met his eyes head on, ignoring the captain. “Why do you want to go back there? What do you think we’ll find?”
He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. But I think we should keep going back until we do find something. It’s the only lead we have to my sister.”
“Yeah, provided by my weird mage dreams that may or may not be Esteban in disguise.”
“A fifty-fifty shot then.”
I snorted. “A fifty-fifty shot we get killed.”
When he licked his lips and a tiny grin sprouted at the corner of his mouth, I knew I was in trouble. “Well, if we are headed into such dangerous territory then I think we need some weapons.”
What?
I blinked, sure my smile had turned dopey. “Are these the weapons? The infamous, amazing, weapons I was promised the last time my life was put in immediate danger? Those weapons?”
“The very same,” he said with a chuckle. “Let me escort you to the armory.”
I groaned aloud and dropped my head back on the chair. “I’ve never heard a more beautiful statement from a man’s mouth.”
He ignored me and headed toward the door, so I hopped up and followed. The captain trailed behind me, but thankfully at a distance.
As we approached a door down a random long hallway, I would never be able to locate on my own, the captain called out, “Are you sure about this?”
“Shut it, Hiram,” I said. “Fin was just about to show me the goods.”
I heard him whisper to himself behind me. “Hiram?”
Pretending I didn’t know his first name would be way more fun than mocking him with his actual name.
Fin unlocked the door, spread them wide, and led us into the room.
I rushed toward a rack of neatly polished swords. Then my eye caught on a case of handguns, but before I could hurry over, I spotted a display of knives, all under glass and sparkling in decorative lighting.
I lay myself across the glass counter, pressing my cheek to the icy surface. “Leave me here. Just let me stay here, and if I die, just bury me in the floor.”
Fin chuckled from across the room. “Anything calling out to you?”
I stood and levelled him a look. “What are they supposed to say besides ‘here, let me give you a lady boner’?”