In Exchange for Magic

"Oh, by the way, Ez," I told him once we were back at the campsite. "I had a run-in with that imp as well!"
He looked surprised. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, it was no big deal. It didn't hurt me or scare me or anything."
"So..." Ez asked conversationally, trying to get a fire started to protect us from the cold. "Who was it?"

I was confused. "Who was who?"
"Who was your imp?" he repeated. "Imps play on your greatest fears and your deepest desires. They can shapeshift into pretty much anyone."
"Oh... I... It was nobody," I lied, flushing.

He pretended to think. "Well, you weren't hurt or scared... so it was obviously one of your deepest desires..."
"Ez, don't." I sighed.
He smiled sneakily. "What? Uncomfortable, are we?"
I rolled my eyes. "No, we are not."
"It was me, wasn't it?" he asked, chuckling and feeding small twigs to the newly made fire.
"No!"
"Was I shirtless?"
"Ez, it wasn't you!"
"All covered in sweat and-"
"It was Prince Jude!" I blurted before I could stop myself.

There was a moment where I thought Ez's eyes were going to pop out of his head. Then he began laughing uncontrollably.

"Shut up!" I yelled, trying to hide my embarrassed smile.
"Prince Jude is your deepest desire?" he choked, tears of mirth streaming down his face. "That git?"
"He's not a git!" I retorted hotly. "He's charming and gentle and-"
"Oh, you only like him because he's sexy."

I huffed. "Well, Ez, if you think he's so sexy, you can have him."
He rolled his eyes. "Don't try to turn this around, sweet!"
"Are you jealous of me, Ezekiel?" I asked, pretending to sympathize. "Don't worry, maybe another imp will turn up and you can kiss Prince Jude too!"

His jaw dropped. I realized what I did.

"Oops," I muttered.
"You kissed the imp?" he cried. "You are so weird!"
"Hey!" I answered, trying to defend myself. "It's not my fault! He... It came on to me... And, plus, I've been in love with Prince Jude ever since I first saw his face in storybooks!"

He suddenly began laughing evilly. "Well, then I guess we're even."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "W-What do you mean?"
"I kissed the Rose imp."

Shocked, I slapped his shoulder. "You did what?"
He just laughed again.
"Oh my God!" I groaned. "Ez... Why?"
He shrugged. "It was the last time I was going to see you."
"So..."
"So, what?"
"Was I a good kisser?" I teased.
He chuckled. "You were stunning!"
"Ew!" I wrinkled my nose. "I was all bloody!"

He thought about that for a second, staring into the fire.

"Rose," he announced grimly. "I am an idiot."
"I'm glad we see eye to eye."
"No, I'm being serious," he told me, looking straight at me. "Your imp was bloody!"
"Yeah. I know. Gross."
"No!" he shouted. "I should have been feeling thirsty! I'm so stupid! And your blood was pure red, not sparkling! Oh, man... I'm a colossal-"
"Ez!" I interrupted. "It's not that bad. It's not your fault."
"Why didn't I notice?" he whined, putting his head in his hands. "I should have known the imp wasn't you! I put us in danger!"

I huffed in annoyance. "Not this again!"
He glared at me. "Rose, that imp could have killed you the first time you met it. I brought you to danger again. You were the one who forced it to change. You're the one who had to save me! I'm the Attannian here, I should know about-"
"Ez!" I repeated. "Stop now."

He looked surprised. I reached out and hugged him. He looked even more surprised.

"Chill out," I said into his neck. "Just calm down."
He sighed and pulled me off of him.
"I promise I'll try to relax," he said. "But I also promise to be better about not bringing you into danger."
"Ez, that's not-"
"There are many more creatures out there, Rose," he told me. "Bigger, stronger, nastier, uglier creatures."
I was silent.
"I will do my best to protect you... If you do your best to..." he sighed, as if admitting the words was like stabbing his pride. "If you to your best to protect me, too."

I laughed and hugged him again, much to his displeasure.

"I'm sticking with you, Ezzie."
"Don't you dare call me that," he ordered.
"Ezzie-kins?"
"Rose," he warned, completely serious.
"Ezzie-Wezzie?"
He rolled his eyes and laughed. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight Mrs. Rose Silver. Have sweet dreams of your precious Jude Silver."
"Hey!" I called after him. "That's Princess Rose Silver to you, peasant!"

-_-_-_-_-

"Rose..." I heard a voice whisper sharply in my ear. "Rose!"

I jolted awake.

I rolled over to see Ez, his face glistening with sweat and his eyes alight with a crazed fire. He was grinning from ear to ear and giggling heavily.

"Rose... Rose... Rose..." he said, laughing. "Rose, it snowed!"

I rubbed my eyes and sat up, raising an eyebrow.

"Look! Snow angels!"

Ez spread out on the forest floor, belly-up, and began to wave his arms and legs about. He kicked up dirt and made me cough.

"Ez, what's the matter with you?" I scowled. It's not every day that Ezekiel Sullivan acts like a drunken six-year-old.

"Snow angels... Snow angels..." he mumbled.
"Stop that!" I barked, waving at the dusty air.

He suddenly leapt up from where he was lying and stumbled out into the middle of the clearing, tripping over his own feet.

"It snowed! It snowed! It snowed!" he chanted, jumping and waving his arms.

It was then that I took a second to look around. Both of our packs were lying open, gutted. Their contents were strewn about the campsite.

And that's when I saw what Ez had done.

Every single scrap of while material we'd been carrying had been ripped into tiny pieces and spread about the ground. Our blankets, shirts, pants, and our white tent... Gone.

"Ez... What did you do?" I breathed.
Ez, obviously put out by my reaction, slumped to the ground and pushed his sweaty bangs from his face.
"It was hot, so I made it snow," he explained.

I blinked heavily.
"Where are your pants?" I cried.
"I was hot!" he whined.
"That's no excuse for taking off your pants!"
"Hey," he said, giggling. "At least I kept my undies on."

Something was definitely wrong with Ez.

He lifted his right foot up into the air.

"Look, Rose! I made a sock!"

I stormed over to him and ripped my folded up tee-shirt off of his foot.

"Hey! My sock!" he protested.
"Ez," I ordered through gritted teeth. "Get up. Now."
He did so, but wobbled slightly on watery knees.

"I don't know what the hell is wrong with you right now, but you need to start acting like..."

I had began my rant with a hot-headed temper... But it slowed and eventually trailed off as I caught sight of Ez's shirt. On his chest, three silver lines had appeared and bled through the fabric. They were slowly spreading... I gasped. The imp scratches!

"Oh no," I muttered. "Ez I think-"

But he never found out what I thought. At that moment, Ez's eyes rolled back into his head. He muttered something that sounded like, "Slip," but was most likely, "Shit." And then he collapsed onto the ground in a crumpled heap.