17. I was beginning to believe a miracle would be required. #3
As I’d done my fair share of ramming my head through doors, walls, and windows, I couldn’t judge him too harshly.
“Don’t think you ate enough nay-palm for good bender.
Sor-ree. Need much more, and need the infused stuff.
It go where it want. It extra tasty. More punch.
But stuff we have make hyper, yes? Hyper! ”
Quinn got to his feet, shook his head, and sighed. “Bailey, darling. Have you ever seen me hyper?”
“Maaaaayyy-be,” I replied, refusing to look him in the eyes. “At night. In bed. Hyper there!”
He sighed, and I loved the patience-worn sound. “You’re incredible.”
I was. “I uni-corn. I in-cred-uh-ble by de-fault. Still not fair you talk good.”
“I’ll make it up to you later,” he promised. “Can you make us a path to Janet?”
“No map or ink or stuff. Sor-ree.”
“Then let’s get moving before someone checks out why the window broke.”
“They see Quinn-sized hole and know you do it. You make very big hole. I del-i-cate flower, no make very big hole.”
While soft, he whinnied his laughter. “Right. Nobody is going to expect fire-breathing unicorns, Bailey.”
“They expect me. I like Janet. They not stupid. Well, they stupid for taking Janet. Why else take Janet?”
“I don’t think they’re expecting you. I think they’re expecting a gorgon hive to kidnap you.
Again. Because the person I think might be responsible for Janet’s disappearance has been trying to sell you to gorgon hives.
” Quinn’s ears flattened, and he snorted flame. “I will enjoy tearing him to pieces.”
I assumed a napalm bender resulted in Quinn indulging in the more violent tendencies of his heritage. “Wait to fight until Janet safe. Then you fight. Not before.”
He sighed.
I suspected I was getting a taste of what he felt like when I ran around on four hooves. “Go be-fore we found,” I ordered, poking him in the rump with my horn. “Go, go!”
Quinn picked his way along the hallway, which curved along the dome’s facade.
Glass doors led into abandoned offices. Once upon a time, some of the offices had been converted into bedrooms, but those too had grown dusty from disuse.
All remained quiet, but something on the other side of the building creaked.
“Think that some-one?” I whispered.
Quinn focused on the nearest office, which had been converted to a bedroom. “I think this dive is about to crumble around their damned ears. We’ll be doing them a favor torching the damned thing.”
Yep. Quinn cruised on a napalm high. “Later.” I bumped his shoulder with mine and pointed my nose at the office. “Gor-gon?”
“A female’s solitary nest—or had been.” Quinn pushed his nose to the door, and it opened.
He pawed at the bedding crammed into the corner.
“Most females share rooms or suites but have personal spaces for privacy. This would’ve been one of the women’s personal spaces.
” He narrowed his eyes. “I had no idea you could see so well in the dark, Bailey.”
“See good. Uni-corns best.”
Quinn explored the office. “Her things are still here. Jewelry, and so on.” Quinn lifted his hoof and snagged a necklace off the desk shoved up against the wall with a claw.
“See? She probably died, and the hive male left her quarters intact. It’s part of how gorgons grieve.
At first, they don’t touch anything that belonged to their lost wife.
Then, over time, they begin taking items away, donating them, or giving them to other wives or sisters in the hive as they accept her death. ”
“That sweet. Sad but sweet.”
“Gorgons are often misunderstood. Their capacity for ruin comes second only to their capacity for love. Most only see how good they are at death and destruction.” Quinn’s ears turned back, and he returned the necklace to the desk. “I wonder if the hive was also infected with rabies.”
“And left only male?” I asked, sighing at the reminder of how Quinn and I had somehow become candidates for parenthood.
“A very desperate male. Perhaps Winfield sold Janet to this hive to get his revenge on you both. That would make sense. The male—or males—were likely vaccinated for rabies but his females weren’t.
Most gorgons won’t get vaccinations without a good reason, and you know how expensive treatments for rabies can get. ”
“Ver-ry ex-pen-sive,” I conceded. “I spend all your money on rabies cure.”
Quinn nuzzled my shoulder. “If they tried to use Janet as a surrogate, we’ll take care of her—and we’ll give her the option of co-parenting with us. She likes children.”
“Janet good person. That why. But this trauma.”
“Janet’s tough. We’ll take care of her no matter what her circumstances. But this is concerning. Are the gorgons participating victims, too?”
“Even if victim, they take cop. You know law,” I reminded Quinn. “If let gor-gons break law be-cause threat-ened, they make dust, make more gor-gons, make more problems. Can’t let slide, Quinn.”
He heaved a sigh. “I think I understand why you like fire so much. It’s so much simpler just to burn it all down, isn’t it?”
“That the nay-palm talking. It talk loud and like fire. You be okay.”
“Why do I have a feeling this is going to be an unmitigated disaster?”
“I in-volv-ed, you smart. That why.”
The look Quinn shot at me made me laugh.