“Uh,” I said.
“The one she helped to slaughter yesterday at the consul’s home,” Adra said helpfully, because I guess there wasn’t much he didn’t know.
Pritkin looked at me some more.
“I didn’t know it was an Ancient Horror!” I told him. “I don’t even know it now!”
“Oh, it was,” Adra put in helpfully, as the book disappeared. And in its place—
Goddamn, it was ugly! I’d been so terrified that I hadn’t had a chance to fully take it in before, but it really was a horror. Half of its head seemed to be razor sharp teeth, like some anime villain come to life, and the slitted eyes, slitted nostrils, and misshapen, bony claws didn’t help.
“You fought that?” Pritkin asked, staring at the model Adra had conjured up.
I was just glad the creature didn’t have anything beside it to show scale. It was bad enough as it was. If he saw it next to a person—
Like that, I thought, as a tiny man appeared, looking around the desk in confusion. Before stopping, like somebody in a horror flick, and slowly, slowly, slowly . . . looking up. Right before being impaled on one of those huge claws.
Well, shit.
“Kulullû!” somebody screamed, accompanied by a lot of splashing. “Kulullû! Kulullû!”
I jumped and looked over at the aquarium, only to see that the water was sloshing over the sides and tiny scuba guy had gotten a friend. I couldn’t tell much about it; just that it looked small and dark, more like an eel than a fish. But it didn’t matter.
I’d heard that voice before.
“He was in the dead vamp’s head,” I said, and Adra nodded.
“Yes. And is one of the reasons you are not currently facing the Council. He credits you with his survival—”
“What dead vamp?” Pritkin interrupted, still staring at the thing on the desk.
“The one whose head she invaded to retrieve the Ancient Horror, so that she and the senate could kill it,” Adra said placidly.
* * *
* * *
Yeah, that had gone over well. Like trying to explain that it wasn’t such a terribly dangerous Ancient Horror really, while the damned model was busily devouring its kill. Pritkin had been . . . well, let’s just say that his temper seemed to have gotten an upgrade, too.
“How, in the course of one. Fucking. Day—”
“—did you meet up with two Ancient Horrors?” Adra finished for him. “That is what I was going to ask.”
“I . . . don’t know,” I said, looking back and forth between the two of them. “The book I found—well, it looked like there was a ghost in there, and I couldn’t just leave it—”
“You could damned well just leave it!” Pritkin snarled.
“I couldn’t!” I stared at him. “The shopkeeper said the mage who had trapped it was dead; it could have been stuck in there for—”
Pritkin grabbed my shoulders. “And you could have been killed! If that damned thing hadn’t decided to be grateful, it could have done to you what it did out there!” He flung an arm in the direction of the burning city.
“I was just trying to help!”
“And I’m just trying to keep you alive!” he rasped. “But that’s a little difficult when you insist on—”
“I can take care of myself!” I said heatedly, wishing I hadn’t downplayed everything quite so much. Not that it should have mattered; he’d seen me take on worse things. “You’ve seen me take on worse things!”
“And I’ve seen you almost die to them! I can’t—” Pritkin suddenly pulled me out of my chair and up against him. My face was mushed flat against his chest, his hand was on my head and gripping really hard, and overall, it was just seriously uncomfortable. But I didn’t pull away, because he was shaking. He was actually really upset.