Gracie Abrams is eking out a solitary existence, fighting day-in, day-out against the drain of working customer service and nursing two newborn kittens in her off time. Out on her own ever since her sister moved in with her boyfriend, the burden of...
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"Yeah," I said simply, twisting my body at Kakashi's side so that I could face the witch and the child. "We did want to speak with you."
The witch—I had identified.
The child, though...
"What do you say?" Patty asked. "I'm not unreasonable." She grinned, wearing only the most unreasonable expression.
The kid stood by the High Priestess's side. Their eyes were at once devoid of life and filled with mischief. I couldn't help the tingling awareness that I wasn't recognizing them. I should know who they are, but I don't. Short, dark hair. Those shorts, like some rich young master from an anime.
But there were so many dark-haired rich young masters to choose from! And tons with their own powers. What had those been? Shadows? But they'd felt so real!
"We're not in a position to be able to give you anything." Kakashi pointed out. I looked up at the sharp edge of his jawline. The setting sun ringed his profile in fire, in gold. Now wreathed within some protective circle, the shinobi should have relaxed a bit.
He had not.
The woman spread out her dark gloved hands. "Sure," she acknowledged, a rather customer-service-oriented nod. "Let's discuss that."
If this witch thought she was coming inside my apartment, she needed a hardy dose of reality. "Is Sam involved in this? Did you call her to come down?"
Patty twitched a smile filled with things I couldn't understand. She toed the line between cocky and intelligent. I felt she was ringing circles around me, but I didn't know how. And I didn't know what to do about it.
"She knows I'm here."
That...sounded ominous. Maybe witches could just tell? I wish I wasn't so out of my depth. After Bella's rather begrudging history lesson, I still couldn't say how magic actually worked. What were the rules? What was possible with it? I didn't know either of these things, and the not-knowing scared me.
What could a High Priestess with ulterior motives do to those who didn't even know what could happen to them?
"Is there..." I cleared my throat. "Is there something we can even give you? You know what we want. For Kakashi and Kirishima to be—to be brought back to their original worlds."
Without flinching, Patty replied, "Sure, I can do that."
Did I dare to feel relieved yet? "Alive," I added, brain trying to find any loophole. I hadn't been specific, had I? Scrambling, I stuttered out, "We want Kakashi to be returned to his original universe and Kirishima to be returned to his own universe. I don't know how time works in all this, but we want you to put them back to the same time period they're from. And, uh—"
