The Villain Wants to Quit

Gems (3)

What exactly Terrell could do to them was exhibited very shortly when the next day, Marc, Marie, Owen, Sofia, Giselle, and Vin were all assigned work that would put them in separate faraway locations all over the continent. It was extremely rare for everyone in the inner circle to be away from the capital at the same time.

Marc was furious as he stormed into Terrell's palace room.

"I know you were the one who did this," Marc slammed Terrell's door shut.

"Calm down, little brother," Terrell smiled genially, "you left me with no choice."

"He is going to die if nobody's there to take care of him," Marc hissed.

"You can leave him in my custody," Terrell said, "I'll keep him alive."

"And that's about all you'll do," Marc shouted, "don't you have any sympathy."

"For a terrorist, not really," Terrell said dryly. "But out of great love and care for my little brother, I could let you be the terrorist's keeper if you agree to my terms."

"What do you want?" Marc slumped into one of the chairs in Terrell's sitting room.

"First, you'll let me attach a tracking spell to him," Terrell said.

"But-" Marc started to protest. They wouldn't be able to keep him at Vin's anymore.

"Second, he will have two weeks to recover before I expect to see him earning his keep, or we can reenact Henley's performance."

Marc kicked the floor. "What did you have in mind for his assignment?"

"We could send him to assassinate Dullahan," Terrell shrugged.

"There's no way he's capable of that yet," Marc disagreed.

"I really don't care what he does as long as it either brings results or kills him," Terrell said.

Marc paused as he thought of something that Terrell would approve of. "Look," Marc explained, "we discovered that Dullahan is collecting gems to repair a divine dagger. Theo would be able to retrieve the pieces that are still missing."

"I could have someone else do that," Terrell said with a shrug.

"But Theo's already shown he can," Marc argued, "He's retrieved three out of eight, and there's one that we only still have because he tipped me off."

Terrell fixed an eye on Marc, "Exactly how important are these gems?"

"Dullahan's been obsessed with them, which is enough for me," Marc said.

"Fine," Terrell agreed. "I'll agree to let Theo of Dullahan work on that for now." Terrell stood and escorted his younger brother to the door. "I expect to see Dullahan this evening if you want some of those assignments to change."

Marc bid his brother farewell with a curse before he made his way to Vin's house, where the others were waiting. Since the sofa was the only piece of furniture in Vin's sitting room, they were all sitting on a rug. Their faces were etched with worry as Marc slammed the front door behind him. The slam of the front door was enough to briefly wake Theo. Scourge nudged himself under Theo's hand when he realized his human was awake. Theo's hand twitched in an attempt at a pat.

"Terrell is going to make us let him put a tracking spell on Theo, or we will have to abandon him," Marc announced.

Theo smiled thinly, and Marie moved to feed him a potion as soon as she realized he was awake. Theo passed back out before he could finish the vial. Marie sighed and corked the remainder.