CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Aaron

"Are you fucking with me?" Zak shouted. I looked up from the book I'd been 'assigned' to see what was going on. Zak was standing over Brian, hands clenched tight at his sides and staring murderously down at him. And based on the fact that he was shouting, I figured it was safe to say he'd skipped 'irritated' and jumped straight to 'angry'.

Since he'd joined the guild 'angry Zak' had made an appearance exactly twice; it really took a lot to piss him off. The first time had had something to do with the Alchemy Lab. Still not entirely sure what happened there, but whatever it was, he was taking the minutes at the next Guild meeting. It was hilarious. Even Saber was snickering.

Less hilarious was the second time, because I was on the receiving end when I'd drunk dialed him to come help Kit and me after a game of 'truth or dare' went awry and Kit ended up with burns on his left arm and leg. Fortunately, he'd been in the city getting supplies. Unfortunately, after he finished helping Kit, we got our asses chewed out. It was like getting yelled at by Kai and Darius at the same time. Except Zak actually yelled and the words 'careless' and 'idiots' were used liberally along with a variety of colorful metaphors. Had I been sober, it probably wouldn't have been so terrifying and guilt inducing, but at the time we were both pretty wasted. And to add insult to injury, he'd made us sleep on the floor of his motel room and refused to give us anything but ibuprofen and water the next day. So when Brian flinched at Zak's tone, I totally empathized.

"What's the Spoken?" Sam asked cautiously, eyeing me. His brow furrowed in both curiosity and confusion. I had no idea, so just made a 'your guess is as good as mine' face and shook my head.

"It's a myth." Zak snapped, and slowly crossed his arms over his chest, while still glaring down at Brian.

"Ooohkay…"

"It's allegedly the secret language of the First Fae."

"So, it's very powerful?" Ezra ventured.

"Oh, it's very powerful…" Zak's voice turned to ice as he glanced at Ezra for a second then returned his death glare to Brian. "According to the legends, a mythic who masters the language can use it to put a Fae on a leash… Complete obedience."

Okay, now I was curious, "Wait, you mean like a demon contract?"

"Similar." He growled, not taking his eyes off Brian, who seemed to be making a concerted effort not to look at Zak. Or any of us really.

"Well, I can see why they wouldn't want that information getting out." I muttered.

"Is it true?" He tilted his head trying to force Brian to look at him. "Is it true, Brian?" his voice shifting to a dangerous monotone as he slowly lowered himself into a squat next to him, his arms on his knees, head still cocked to the side, "Can you use the Spoken to bind a Fae in servitude?"

Everyone's eyes were trained on Brian.

Head still down, he fiddled with the edge of the page, "I don't know."

Eyes narrowed and lips thinned in an angry line, Zak pushed up to standing, striding angrily over to his backpack, he picked it up and sat it on the arm of the chair Dean was sitting in.

And now Dean was leaning in, forearms on his thighs and looking just as pissed as Zak, "I'm sorry, but did you just say you don't know?"

"I…"

"And you," he looked up at Zak, who was rummaging through his, seemingly bottomless pack. Seriously, that backpack was like Mary Poppins' carpet-bag, "why the hell didn't you mention this before?"

Zak took the pen out of his mouth and tucked it behind his ear, "Because up until thirty seconds ago I thought it was a myth!" he snapped back as he took a book and a spiral notebook out then dropped them on the arm where they fell in between Dean's thigh and the armrest. "Even Bane thought it was bullshit! And trust me, he would have sold his soul for power like that." He angrily zipped his pack and tossed it to the ground.

Dean frowned. "Ok, fair. So what's your excuse, oh 'Lord of Great Knowledge'?" He taunted, air quoting the last part.

"I didn't think it would work. I have never seen or heard of a Fae or Mythic using the Spoken to enslave a Fae or trap one. I mean, even this guy says it only 'sort of' worked! And he was just 'trapping' a Fae!" He thrust his hand angrily at the book sitting in front of him.

A collection of frustrated sighs and profanity went around the room. Ezra was raking his hair and cursing under his breath, Sam was scowling and looked like he was barely keeping it together, while Zak and I contributed to the profanity.

"Christ," Dean muttered, flopping back against the chair and looking up at the ceiling, "how are you even a god?" he threw his hand up and then scrubbed it over his face.

Zak was still giving Brian a death glare, then picked up his books and headed to our table, "Sam."

Sam straightened, "Um, yeah?"

Zak thumbed through the book, then unceremoniously shoved it into Sam's chest, "familiarize yourself with this." He ordered.

Sam looked down at the book on his chest and back up to Zak, who seemed to be thinking about what other orders he needed to give. "Um, yeah, sure…" Sam stumbled and put the book on the table.

I leaned in to get a better look at the title and my eyebrows shot up, "An Introduction to Fae Language and Spellwork'." Jesus.

"I expect some form of competency by tomorrow morning." Zak clipped.

Holy Shit. Sam paled and his jaw dropped, doing a very good impression of a fish, as he glanced at me with panicky eyes then back up to Zak. He was apparently thinking the same thing 'that's insane.'

Zak pinned Sam with a steely glare, "Can you do it or not?" his voice tinged with impatience.

"Tsst, yeah totally, I can a," he cleared his throat again, "I can be competent by tomorrow morning." He nodded and gave Zak a nervous smile as he opened the book.

"Puttin' that Stanford education to good use." Dean smiled and waggled his eyebrows.

"Stanford?" I said, a bit shocked. But Sam ignored me.

"Good." Zak gave a curt nod. "Chapters two, three, four, eleven and thirteen are the most important."

I looked at Sam, "At least it's not the whole book." I said as encouragingly as possible.

"Aaron."

I looked up, "Yes, boss?" and got an annoyed scowl.

"Call Darius, and let him know we might need some weird shit."

" 'Weird shit'? How weird are we talkin'? Like, you weird? Or, Ezra weird?"

"Me, level seven." He answered quickly, then went back to assigning shit.

"Ah." My eyebrows went up a little, and I nodded as I took out my phone, "Got it, really weird shit."

"Ezra, call Tori and have her ask Rikr about the Spoken."

"Got it. I'll bring them up to date." Ezra nodded.

"Hey, what about me?" Dean asked.

"You're with Aaron and the weird shit."

"You got it boss." He smirked and saluted.

"And you," Zak jabbed the notebook at Brian as he dropped back onto the couch, "you," he slammed the notebook onto the table, opened it and clicked his pen, "are going to tell me everything you know about the Spoken."