“I still don’t like those things,” the Torch said, eying the doll. “They creep me out.”
“Oh.” Serafina laughed and flicked her wrist at Lyssa. “Just because one giant doll tried to bash your face in isn’t any reason to get all uptight about the others.”
“That big doll tried to kill you, too,” Lyssa muttered.
“But I didn’t die. Why complain about not dying? That’s the best thing that can happen to someone after someone or something tries to kill them.” Serafina clapped her gloved hands with a grin. “But seriously! I love you like a sister, Lys, and I want to help you kill bad guys, but the showstoppers take so much out of both of us. You’ve gone through a lot lately, and now you’re wanting more than you normally keep around.”
Lyssa didn’t expect Jofi to interject a comment, despite Serafina not being able to hear him. Whatever interest he had in praising the destructive round was outweighed by his worry that Serafina would get her hands on him to experiment.
Lyssa shrugged. “It’s not like I’m trying to go through them. I never thought I’d have to fight a rogue with a stupid shard shield, and I didn’t anticipate having to take down a huge-ass sorcery-created terror monster not long after. It’s like it’s been raining trouble on me.”
“You’re a Torch,” Serafina replied. “Trouble is what you do.”
“Yeah, random terrorists or out-of-control gangsters are one thing,” Lyssa said, “but I’ve faced some of the top challenges in my career back to back since moving to Arizona. It makes a girl paranoid.”
Serafina cocked her head to the side and put her finger on her cheek. “You say that, but sometimes I think, ‘Oh, if I was Lys, it’d be so weird because people would always be trying to kill me, and then it’d be boom, boom, boom, take that. But I’d get surprised because some rogue with a butter essence would show up and drown me in a pool of butter like I’m a lobster.’ But then I wonder what kind of spells I could pull off if I was Torch with a butter—”
Lyssa threw up her hand. “Serafina, let’s stay on this planet with normal Sorceresses and no butter essences. There’s been no butter essence in the history of the Illuminated Society.”
“Are you sure?” Jofi asked.
“Quiet, you,” Lyssa whispered.
Serafina stared at Lyssa with a serious expression. “How do you know there hasn’t been one? Maybe it was common back in Lemuria. Seasoning essence. Condiment essence. Spice essence.”
Just what she needed—Serafina and Jofi agreeing on something ridiculous.
“Okay.” Lyssa shrugged. “You got me. No one has had a butter essence since the fall of Lemuria, then. Back then, it was all butter and spice essences, just like you said. That’s probably what caused the fall. Someone mixed the wrong spice spells with a butter spell, and the entire place sank after an explosion of thyme.”
“I’m just saying, a butter essence could be dangerous and useful, and not just when eating lobster.” Serafina headed over to the table and squatted until she was at eye level with the clamped round. “But not as dangerous as this, and you can’t use this when eating lobster. Disappointing.”
Lyssa grabbed a water bottle from a cart and gulped down some refreshment. “I’d almost rather fight someone than do these spells, but I need more showstoppers. With my luck, being without them isn’t a risk I can take. If I hadn’t used three in a row on that monster, it could have wrecked a town. There’s no way the National Guard would have gotten there in time to stop it.”
“I’ve been trying to think of ways to minimize the strain for years,” Serafina said, straightening back up to her full height, which still put her a good head below Lyssa. “But there’s only so much I can do. They rely so heavily on your essence.” Her gaze went to Lyssa’s holsters, and a grin built on her face. “And your link to Jofi.”
“Change the subject,” Jofi said. “Don’t give her any ideas.”
Serafina scurried toward Lyssa so quickly the Torch jumped back. She almost went for her gun before reminding herself where she was. She dropped her hand as her friend stared at the pistols.
“You know this is kind of messed up,” Serafina said with a mischievous grin.
“Messed up how?” Lyssa asked.
Serafina gestured at the guns. “This only works because of him. We were never able to get it to work when you first thought up the idea, before Jofi. I don’t have that problem with any of the other rounds. They’ll work for any Illuminated. All they need is a tiny bit of sorcery to prime the enchantment. I could probably rig something to make them true shards without much trouble.”
Lyssa nodded. “No one’s going to deny there are advantages to having a gun spirit helping you out. What can I say? I’m not a spirit expert.”
Serafina lifted her mask and stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, eyes narrowed in curiosity. “That’s the thing,” she murmured. “It’s always kind of bothered me. I don’t get how a gun spirit helps a darkness spell work so well. There’s something I’m missing. I’m trying to understand so I can do more and help more, but I just don’t get it.”
Lyssa’s heart rate kicked up. She’d gone for years without Serafina getting close to the truth about Jofi. While he hadn’t demonstrated more strange behavior after the showdown outside the mine, she couldn’t ignore the possibility that the seal was weakening. Chatting about it in Serafina’s workshop wasn’t going to help.
“The showstoppers work, and that’s all I care about.” Lyssa shrugged. “I’m sure the true secret was lost along with butter essences after the Great Thyme
