“Maybe we aren’t supposed to talk to him and just get to the entrance without him,” Kat suggested.
Heath expelled a long-suffering sigh. “We need the key and the entrance doesn’t even appear until we talk to him. So if we don’t talk to him, there’s no key and no entrance.”
“But the minute we do, a fuckton of goblins jumps our asses,” Kat said. “So either we are doing something wrong, or we need a whole lot more people here to help us.”
“Dude, a raid of twenty-four players couldn’t deal with that many high-level goblins!” Heath protested.
I sat with my chin in my hand, watching them all, silent as usual. They tended to forget I was here unless they needed to make a sarcastic remark about how frustrated they were. Then suddenly they’d become aware of me. They’d learned long ago not to try and wheedle any clues out of me.
I was actually pretty exhausted tonight but God help me if I yawned. They’d jump down my throat in seconds.
“Let’s just go again—maybe we’ll learn something new this time,” Emilia said.
Heath rolled his eyes. “That’s what you’ve been saying for the last two dozen tries.”
She raised her eyebrows at him. “Do you have a better idea?”
“Fuck, I don’t know. I’m getting frustrated.”
“Well, then, just talk to him and trigger the key and tunnel entrance.”
Fragged approached the non-player character, Sergeant GriffonShield. Heath began typing furiously.
*Fragged says, Hail, Sergeant GriffonShield.
*Sergeant GriffonShield says, “Hail, traveler. What brings you to this forsaken part of the world?”
*Fragged says, “I’m here to save the princess. She is imprisoned in the castle.”
*Sergeant GriffonShield says, “Some say that her prison is there, yes. The poor lass. I mourn her loss. If only a brave soul would help free her.”
*Fragged says, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, enough with your spiel, asswipe.”
“That’s not part of the script…he’s not going to answer you,” Kat said.
“I’m sick of this asshole. He’s just going to rain goblin hell down on us in a minute if I type the correct line.”
“So you are just going to swear at him? That will get you far.”
Heath heaved a huge sigh. “Fine…I’ll type the damn line. Sheesh.”
*Fragged says, “I want to free her.”
*Sergeant GriffonShield has offered Fragged a tarnished key.
*Sergeant GriffonShield says, “Here, brave soul. Take this key and find the niche where it fits on yonder mountainside. It will take you to the passage you seek.”
*Fragged says, “Screw you, fucktard. Help us.”
“Heath, just take the goddamn key,” Emilia hissed.
*Sergeant GriffonShield says, “Alas, I would love to help you but I cannot leave my post until you gather my allies.”
Three heads immediately jerked in my direction, eyes huge with surprise. I almost laughed at them. Almost. It figured that it would take Heath’s exasperation for them to accidentally discover what they had to do.
I looked down, trying to appear very fascinated by something on my keyboard.
“Uh, what the fuck just happened?” Heath asked.
Nobody responded so I glanced up. They were all still staring at me. I cleared my throat. “I think he offered to help you. Can I yawn now?”
Heath grabbed a scrap of paper, balled it up and threw it at me. I batted it away with a laugh. “Wow, was that the doorbell? Let me go get that. You three can just…talk amongst yourselves.”
I stood and, before leaving, caught Emilia’s eye. She sent me a huge grin. I winked at her and left the room.
I returned about a half hour later and declared myself—and Emilia—too tired to go on anymore tonight. She had another round of chemo in the morning and needed all the rest she could get.
At the top of the stairs, she turned and hooked her arms around my neck.
“Well, aren’t you just full of surprises.”
“You’re just realizing that now?”
She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed me. “No. Of course not. I’m dense but not that dense.”
“You’re not dense.”
She stood perfectly still, hesitating.
“What?”
“Sleep with me tonight?”
I swallowed. It was getting harder and harder to say no. And harder and harder to deny that I really wanted it—wanted her. However, I slept in her bed. I folded her thin frame in my arms and pressed her against me. It was the most I could give her now. And I honestly had no idea when it could be more.