Chapter 232: I Quit (The Dragon Was The Last Straw)
Chapter 232: I Quit (The Dragon Was The Last Straw)
Elyn’s POV
Azerion turned to Velira with the ball in his hand.
He smiled widely.
Velira’s eyes narrowed immediately. "Maintain," she told him flatly.
He just smiled wider.
And then he sent the ball spinning in her direction with full force.
Velira was already moving before it reached her, stepping neatly out of its path, and the ball shot past her and headed straight for Zayrion.
Zayrion caught it in one hand, and if not for the fact that I had not been expecting that, I would have applauded him. And he looked cool while he did it too.
He adjusted his glasses with the other hand, the ball spinning in his palm, and then turned to look at Azerion with a glare that was quiet and very deliberate.
Azerion’s smile didn’t move.
"Only yours has to be different," Velira said, folding her arms.
"It’s more fun this way," Azerion said simply.
I was watching all of this without saying a word.
I had opened my mouth at some point—I was fairly certain I had—but then I had closed it again because I wasn’t entirely sure what I would have said and also because something about the way Zayrion was now looking at the ball in his hand made me want to see what happened next.
Zayrion turned the ball over once.
"Very well," he said, with measured calm. "Since we want to play like this."
He took the ball in both hands.
I don’t know what he did.
I genuinely could not tell you the mechanics of what happened between him holding the ball and him sending it toward Velira, because one moment there was a ball and the next there was a stuffed bunny flying through the air toward her.
It was white. Large—much larger than a thrown ball had any right to be. Its ears flopped down as it flew, soft and floppy, turning slowly end over end in a gentle, almost peaceful arc.
Velira’s face did something interesting. She smiled, and her eyes widened with delight.
"It’s so pretty," she said, and immediately after she did that, it hit her in the face.
She stumbled back one step.
The bunny hit the grass, and we all looked down.
It was a ball.
Just a ball. Smooth and weighted, sitting innocently in the grass like it had always been a ball and had absolutely no idea what we had just seen.
Velira looked at Zayrion.
Zayrion shrugged. "It’s more interesting this way," he said.
There was a beat of silence.
Then Velira’s expression shifted into something that I could only describe as a false calm because of the obvious excitement beneath the expression on her face.
"I wanted to be civil," she said. Her voice was very even. "I wanted to be the normal one." She picked up the ball. "But you’ve pushed me too far." She looked between Zayrion and Azerion. "You’ll get what comes to you."
Purple mist curled around the ball slowly, and then I felt it.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I had a very strong feeling about that ball. A warmth toward it. A pull. It was a lovely ball, actually. A wonderful ball. The nicest ball I had ever seen, and I very much wanted to hold it in my hands. I wanted to show it love.
Velira smiled at me, and foolishly, I smiled back.
She threw the ball toward me, and I extended my hands in a come-to-mama gesture.
And the ball obeyed, coming toward me. I wanted it, I genuinely wanted it, my hands were already open and reaching and—
I stopped. All of a sudden, the feeling was gone.
But I was too late.
The ball hit me in the face.
I stood there for a moment. Velira was a succubus. Her mother’s magic didn’t work on me, but it seemed Velira’s did? I did not understand. Perhaps I’ll ask Zorathys about that, but for now... I turned to Velira very slowly.
She blinked at me with wide, innocent eyes. "It’s the shot of love, Your Majesty," she said sweetly.
I stared at her and then sighed.
"According to the rules," I said, when I had located my voice, "Velira and I are both out."
Velira’s face fell immediately into a pout. "But we were just getting started," she said. "We should start over."
Aziren nodded eagerly from where he stood, the flames in his hair jumping with enthusiasm.
I looked at them.
I exhaled.
"Fine," I said. "We start over. But—" I looked at each of them in turn, "—no more tricks."
They agreed immediately, heads bobbing up and down, and I should have known right there and then that they were not going to listen to me.
I passed the ball to Aziren, who took it with both hands giddily, like he had been waiting for his turn.
He looked at the ball.
Then he looked at Azerion.
Then he threw it.
The ball left his hands covered in fire.
Cheerful—that’s the only word I can use for fire that looked excited—orange flame wrapped around a ball that was now traveling through the air toward Azerion at considerable speed.
I closed my eyes briefly.
I should have known. There’s no way this game was ever going to be normal. I should have known. And given how the fire wrapped the ball... we may need more balls.
Azerion caught it with a huge smile on his face, the fire apparently not bothering him in the slightest, which was—honestly—not surprising in the slightest.
He sent it spinning again toward Velira.
Velira caught it, and the purple mist returned immediately, wrapping around the ball like a rope—an actual rope of mist that she used to swing it sideways toward Zayrion with a motion that had no business being as graceful as it was.
Zayrion caught it.
He turned it over in his hands once, and then his gaze locked on me.
Something in that look made me want to take a step back.
I didn’t. But I wanted to.
And then from the ball—or from the air around it, or from somewhere that was not entirely clear—came a dragon.
One with three heads, each one distinct, each one looking in a slightly different direction, materializing from the space between Zayrion’s throw and wherever the ball was supposed to land.
It was heading toward me.
All three heads were heading toward me.
I watched it come.
For approximately two seconds, I watched it come, which was long enough to fully process what I was looking at and make a decision about it.
Yeah... not today.
"I quit," I said.
The dragon stopped.
Halfway between Zayrion and me, it simply paused, suspended, all three heads frozen mid-trajectory.
The children stared at me.
All four of them, with frowns on their faces.