19. CHAPTER #2
“Ugh. Somewhere in the human world. Smelled weird.” Misingno groaned. “Like, bad taffy. No, uh…”
“Do you know an address?”
“What’s that?”
“A memory for a memory then,” Gammy said firmly. “Trade me your memory of meeting with Mr. Mitternacht so I may divine his location, and you get all of mine from dying.”
“That seems like so much—”
“Going once, going twice—”
“Ah!” Misingno grabbed her hand. “It is done.”
Gammy’s lashes fluttered, and she smiled. “It is done.”
Misingno licked his fingers like he could actually taste it and didn’t want to miss a drop.
“Mmm, damn. That is wonderful. And oh, is that a little hint of depression that I taste? Lovely.” He bowed to Gammy.
“Thank you. Been a pleasure. I’m going to go savor this and watch fucked-up cartoons.
” He looked around at all the blood. “Hmm, and maybe clean up a bit. Yeah, but later. That’s boring.
I want to see cartoons sing and have sex. ” He waved cheerfully. “Adios!”
Indy waited for Misingno to stroll back into his house and the door to shut before he let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “So. Wow. That was fun. Not.”
“I expect the twins will be along soon,” Mr. Heiss said with a grumble. “Which will be even less fun.”
“What for? I get they’d wanna come check stuff out if there was a murder, but Misingno is sort of not murdered now. He is unmurdered. He unmurdered himself.”
“He is still the son of King Zolrya, and I imagine they’re all going to be very interested in finding the guilty party.
Such an insult to the crown will be taken very seriously.
” Mr. Heiss spat out a short laugh. “I imagine whoever did it had no idea who he really was. They’d have to be an absolute moron to do so knowingly, considering what a target it’s going to put on them. ”
“Misingno doesn’t seem that upset about it…?” Indy glanced at the door.
“I can promise you that the king will not be so kind.”
“On that note, I would say it’s time for us to skedaddle.” Gammy smiled at Indy and Mr. Heiss. “I have a memory to analyze, cookies to bake, and you two still need to find some nasty little drug dealers, so! Ready?”
“Yes.” Mr. Heiss grabbed Indy and held him close. “And not a moment too soon.”
“So.” Nyp coughed. “Are we still going to go get coffee or—”
“No.”
They returned once more to Mr. Heiss’s home, and Gammy went right to the kitchen to get to work sorting out the memory Misingno had given her. She was sure she would be able to make sense of it, but it would take her a while to process a faerie’s memory into one a human mind could understand.
Something about faerie magic and faerie this and a bunch of other magical things Indy didn’t understand.
All Indy knew was that it involved a lot of potions.
Like, a lot.
Mr. Heiss left them alone, having said he needed a few moments to take care of some business.
Indy figured that was either code for mafia shenanigans or for needing time to recover from Misingno pushing his buttons.
Indy never would have thought that the cold, stoic demon had any such vulnerability, but it was clear Misingno’s prodding had shaken him.
Certainly it wasn’t lying constantly and hiding a terminal illness, since Indy had that covered, but it was definitely not good.
“Oh, and the big pot down there!” Gammy was saying, waving at a lower cabinet.
“Right. Got it.” Indy kneeled to get it. “Sorry. Little distracted.”
“Worried about your beau?”
“What? No. Yes. But he’s not my beau.” Indy grabbed the pot and stood, groaning lightly. “He’s just, you know, this… demon… guy.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, did yis have the ride? I bet yeh did!” King’s disembodied voice called out.
“Where the hell…?” Indy looked around. “I can hear you, but I can’t see you.”
“In the freezer!”
“In the… Oh my God.” Indy opened the freezer.
King was indeed sitting there on top of old frozen waffles with two pizzas on top of his crown. “Hi!”
“What are you doing in here?” Indy chuckled as he picked him up. “Needed time to cool off?”
“Y’know, that’s exactly what the fuck face arsehole said to me!” King cackled. “Are you a psychic too?”
“Nope. Just gorgeous.” Indy set King on the counter between the maze of bowls and pots. “You okay after being locked up in there? Didn’t turn you into a skull-sicle?”
King scowled. “That’s not a real word.”
“Right.” Indy sighed. “Don’t suppose you came up with anything useful to share while you were freezing your bones off? Like where to find the drugs? The bad people making the drugs? Mr. Mitternacht?”
“You’re makin’ up a veritable dictionary of words, and I don’t like any of them.”
“Okie dokie then.”
“Oh!” King gasped. “Wait, I have one.”
“What is it?”
“Knock, knock, knock.”
Indy blinked. “What? Is that a knock-knock joke? Because that’s supposed to just be two.”
“How the fuck should I know?” King blinked right back. “But it’s important. It is very important. The voices said so. There you go. Enjoy. On the house.”
“Thank you.” Indy smiled at Gammy and tried not to grit his teeth too tightly. “Anyway. So. Where were we?”
Gammy smirked, stirring some herbs into a pan on the stove. “Ah, talking about your beau.”
“No, let’s not.” Indy’s face pinked up, and he cleared his throat. “What I actually wanted to talk about was you.”
“Me?” Gammy blinked. “What is it, sweetie cakes?”
“About the memory you gave away.” Indy fiddled with one of his nails. “You really, uh, felt that way? About being forgotten?”
Gammy’s smile was somber as she reached out to touch Indy’s hand. “Oh, it’s fine. You don’t need to worry about that now.”
“Well, I am gonna worry about that because uh, duh, I love you, and you never told me.”
“There was no need.” Gammy’s eyes twinkled. “Don’t you get it? I never had to worry about any of that ever again once you found me. Yes, you were doing that whole demon thing for your, ahem, problem—”
“Yeah, which is still a problem.”
“One we are going to fix! I promise!” Gammy patted his hand.
“But listen, hmm? You could have left me in that stupid ol’ shed after you got what you needed, but you decided to bring me home and give me the family I’d always wanted.
Someone who listens, who loves me as I am, purple hair and all.
” She smiled warmly. “A beautiful grandson who is kind and sweet and—”
“Dyin’!” King declared.
“Dammit, King!” Indy made strangling motions with his hands. “Oh, if you had a fucking neck—”
“But I don’t.” King blinked. “And you are. Dyin’, I mean.”
Indy groaned. “Wanna say it louder, asshole?”
King took a deep breath and shouted, “Indy is—”
“Shut up!” Indy tried to clamp his hand over King’s mouth. “Ow, what the fuck? Did you just bite me?”
“Did you just try to shush me? Me? Whose very purpose is to speak?”
“You are such a dick.”
“I’ll bite yer arse next!”
Indy resisted the urge to throw King across the room. “It’s a secret. A secret, remember? Can you keep a fucking secret?”
“Possibly maybe, probably not? I never really tried before. Sort of defeats the purpose of bein’ a talkin’ skull if I can’t fuckin’ talk.”
“What do you want, eh?” Gammy eyeballed him. “What would buy your silence? A new crown? A toothbrush?”
King’s glowing orbs darted between them both. “You’d… give me something? To make me stop talking?”
“Only about one specific thing.”
“The dying.”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. Is this legal?”
“Probably not,” Indy replied. “We would be bribing you.”
“I want… a cushion.” King’s eyes lit up.
Indy stared. “You mean, like, a pillow?
“Yeah! Not the crappy hard ones from the sofa neither. A nice one full of eiderdown that’s quality, and light, and soft.”
“You can… you can feel that?”
“My brain says I can.”
“Could you feel how cold it was in the freezer?”
“Are we makin’ this fuckin’ deal or not?”
“Okay, yes.” Indy clapped his hands together. “If we get you a nice cushion, will you shut up about my dying?”
King scoffed. “Cushion first.”
“Oh my God.” Indy stalked off to the bedroom.
He had no idea what eiderdown was, but he figured a big fluffy pillow would suffice.
He snatched one from the bed and then came marching back.
He didn’t see any sign of Mr. Heiss and figured his business had taken him outside of the house.
Indy made room on the counter to set the pillow down, picked King up, and then dropped him right in the middle.
“There!” Indy declared. “Happy?”
“Oh…” King’s eyes flickered and his skeletal grin somehow grew bigger. He sighed with deep satisfaction, purring, “Yes.”
“There. Yay. Not going to question any of this if it will keep you quiet. Yay! Now.” Indy turned his back on King, offering Gammy a strained smile. “So, uh. Is that whole tender, mushy moment completely lost now or…?”