Her voice cut through everything else, and Alaric swung around to stare at her. “I the hell am the one who is going to fix your problem. I only have personal acquaintance with one witch, but you are apparently her equal in your ability to annoy me. I advise you to be quiet and learn something.”
Rose turned pink and then white, and her entire body started to vibrate. Alejandro took a careful step back before she exploded.
Ven just grinned. “I apologize for Alaric. He woke up on the wrong side of the century, and he’s grumpy whenever he travels without his wife, poor baby.”
Alaric simply sighed, clearly well used to Ven’s jibes.
Alejandro repeated his introductions, and Rose’s eyes widened as she stared back and forth between Ven and Alaric. “Really? Atlanteans in my garden? This is definitely a weekend for the record books.”
Alaric beckoned Rose over, and Alejandro took her hand in his, earning him a surprised and grateful look that he tucked away to be remembered later, when he was alone again.
“You are not at fault, Sorceress,” Alaric said.
“I’m not a sorceress,” Rose said.
“You’re my sorceress,” Alejandro murmured, feeling like an idiot when she shot him a shocked look. He hadn’t expected her to hear that.
Hadn’t actually expected to say it.
Damn.
“We’re witches, honey buns,” Granny said, and Alaric scowled, earning him a fresh wave of laughter from Ven.
“Yeah, they’re witches, honey buns,” Ven said.
Alaric casually flipped a hand into the air, formed an energy sphere, and then hurled it at Ven. It smacked the prince in the arm, hard.
“Ouch,” Ven drawled.
“What do you mean, it’s not my fault?” Rose interjected. “The potion didn’t work. Of course it’s my fault.”
Alaric shook his head. “No. It is not, although you are clearly well-mated to Alejandro, since both of you insist on claiming blame for guilt that is not yours.”
Rose gasped. “I’m not mated to anybody--”
“We didn’t do anything,” Alejandro said, at the same time, as he watched Sue’s frown reappear.
Granny just chuckled. “It’s about time. That girl has needed a good man for a while. You know the saying: a hard man is good to find.”
“Granny!” Rose covered her face with one hand for a moment, and then sighed. “Alaric. Your Priestlyness. Please continue.”
“And we need to get rid of the basilisk infestation,” Alejandro added.#p#分页标题#e#
Justice rounded the corner of the house just then, and Rose’s mouth fell open.
“He’s married. And possibly schizophrenic,” Alejandro growled.
Rose tried to yank her hand away, but he tightened his fingers on hers. She gave him a look, but quit struggling.
“Are you insane?” she finally asked, her tone sweetly and falsely polite. “Did the P-Ops training rot your brain?”
“No, but you might,” he muttered, shaking his head to clear it of thoughts of her lush body wrapped around anybody but him. That kiss had clearly destroyed his ability to reason.
She edged as far away as she could get while he still had her hand.
“Rose Cardinal, Lord Justice. Lord Justice, Rose Cardinal,” he said, realizing he sounded rude and not giving much of a damn.
Justice bowed and Alejandro scowled at him. Justice and Ven exchanged a glance, and then Justice grinned. “We see. You have found your Keely.”
Granny looked interested. “What is a Keely? And how did you get your hair that gorgeous color?”
“Keely is our wife, and our hair is the result of our half-Nereid nature,” Justice told her. “We will take care of the basilisks with our sword now, since we must return to Keely.”
“That’s not the royal we, that’s the two sides of his charming personality talking,” Ven offered, when all three Cardinal witches stared at Justice.
“You can’t kill the basilisks,” Rose said.
“Oh, no,” Sue agreed. “You kill those creatures over my daughter Buttercup’s dead body.”
“Where should we put it?” Alaric asked.
Alejandro stared at him. “Put what?”
“The child’s dead body,” Alaric said, but then he seemed to catch on pretty quickly that he’d gotten it wrong when Sue threatened to ‘cut his priestly balls off with her kitchen shears’.”
“STOP,” Rose shouted. “There will be no killing and no castration. But for the love of the goddess, will somebody please tell me how to fix Alejandro’s partner?”
“Your bay laurel was from a stunted tree,” Alaric said, which meant nothing to Alejandro but obviously meant something to Rose and her family.