Chapter 26 Forrest
Forrest
“This is—”
“—the same thing we’ve had in the Mason household every Feast of Liberisca since I started working here twenty years ago. It’s good. Better than good.” Rodgers glares at me, and it’s seriously more intimidating than when the king does it. “Get out of my kitchen.”
“Thank you,” I say, a little too late, and head down the corridor to the dining room and living room.
Zion’s lying on the sofa with his eyes closed. “You need to relax. You weren’t this wound up during your election for governor the first time.”
“This matters more.” It slips out, and I have to pause for a minute. Do I mean it? Does it matter more? “I knew I was going to win the election.”
“Cocky much? There was no guarantee. Even for you,” Zion says, his eyes narrow slits.
“I knew it would work out. Things always do for me.” I circle the sofa and sit in one of the chairs next to the window. The dome’s lit up for the holiday. Purple and golden yellow lights flank our window, Stele’s colors.
Zion opens his eyes the rest of the way. “You’re wearing that suit?”
“This?” I look down at my chest. It’s a tight-woven midnight purple tunic with matching trousers.
“It’s a bit old-fashioned.”
“I’m a bit old-fashioned.” I laugh, but there’s a fluttering in my gut.
Am I too old for this? I’m the oldest of the seven.
I want it. I know Delmar does. Clark too, or he wouldn’t have invited Blair here without talking to us all about it first. We should have done it last night.
After he invited her to the performance. “You’re right. I should go change.”
“It’s fine, Forrest. Also, you’re not old and . . . seriously. I’m sure that Blair isn’t up to date on male fashion of the Veiled City.” He rights himself and places his tablet on his lap.
“Work okay?”
“Yeah, I’m . . . The Koralli, at the school today, Sherman Staal . . . What do you know about him?”
“Nothing.” I pull at my cuffs.
“You didn’t run a check on him when we got home?”
I blink at Zion. “I did.”
“I knew you would.”
“Sherman Staal lied.”
“That’s great. I mean, not great. About the lying, that is.” Zion puts his feet on the floor.
“Yeah, don’t get too excited. He wasn’t just the commander of the Vega. He was a five times decorated commander of the Vega. Put up for admiral, but he declined because he wanted to take care of his aging parents.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. It gets worse. He started a charity the second he heard about the pod-birthed females. He’s raised a hell of a lot of gold to track them down––”
“Okay, that’s kind of creepy. Trying to find a mate that way.”
“That’s not it. Though I did think the same thing. They’ve found a few and have set up trust funds for the females, leaving them alone.”
“That’s unfortunate. He’s an upstanding individual.”
“And the rest of them?”
“Spotless. The Staal pod doesn’t have a blemish on their record.”
“That’s not something we can say.”
“I agree. It’s not. All of us—no, most of us—have done something really stupid.”
There’s a long silence before Zion starts clicking on his tablet.
“We shouldn’t be surprised. We’ve known there’s a lot of pods interested in Blair.” I wait. I’m fishing because the Tinom Driftwood pod has already made their interest known. And Zion spends the most time with Clark. He knows him better than I do at this point.
“What are you asking, Forrest?”
“What has Clark told you about working with the Driftwood pod?”
“Pains in his ass. Hale Driftwood came out to the job site yesterday.”
“And?”
“He didn’t say, ‘Back off or you’ll lose the contract.’”
“That’s good. King Atlas doesn’t like blackmail.”
“Clark didn’t say they were blackmailing him. Hale’s interested in Blair.” Zion nods and goes back to his block.
I stand up. “I’m going to change.”
“You look fine,” Zion yells from the living room.
“Okay.” I pivot and head down to the kitchen wing instead, where Grayson has a basket full of tea boxes and supplies.
“What’s that?”
“I made a basket for Blair. She likes this.” Grayson takes a pink tin from the basket.
“That tea?” My throat tightens.
“Yes?”
“That’s fertility tea.”
“No.” Grayson looks at the blank back of it. “No, it’s not.”
“It is.” I place the tin back in the basket.
“Why would we have it in our kitchen?”
“It tastes good.”
“Obviously. Blair raved about it. But that’s not what I asked. Why do we have it?”
“It was Anya’s.”
“I gave Blair ten-year-old tea?”
“No. I like the flavor. And the herbalist said that it was fine for me to drink every once in a while.”
“Oh, okay. So it’s not going to hurt Blair.”
“You’re the doctor. I would think if it doesn’t hurt me, it’s not going to hurt her.”
“We should tell her.”
“No, you should tell her.”
“I will. But maybe I won’t give her another basket of it,” he says.
“Right. Absolutely. What do you think of this tunic?”
“It suits you.” He pivots back to the kitchen with the basket.
“It doesn’t make me look old?”
“You are old. So am I. A tunic doesn’t change that, Forrest.”
“Right.”
Grayson stops by the kitchen door. “Is Sterling coming to dinner?”
“I have no idea. But he does like to eat, so hopefully.”
Grayson holds the basket to his chest. “I’ll find something else to give her. Alexei told me I couldn’t give her a ring.”
“Why not?”
“Apparently it means we’re mated if she wears it.”
“That’s crazy.”
“That’s what I told him. My cousin in Zaffiro showed me a nice diamond and emerald ring.”
“You bought it?”
“Of course. But Alexei’s confident we can’t give it to her.”
“Yes, well, he’s pulling for the Koralli to date Blair.” I laugh. Because we’re never going to let him forget it. But hopefully it will be funny in five years when we’re celebrating our mating anniversary with Blair.
“You think she’s going to pick us?”
“We’ve got a head start on the others.” Grayson steps to the side of the kitchen door as one of the chefs pokes his head out.
“Have you seen Rodgers?” the chef asks.
“No. Can you get— Would you like to give this to your mate, Vito? It’s fertility tea,” Grayson says.
“Yes, thank you.” The chef takes the basket and cocks his head at us. “If you see Rodgers, tell him we’re looking for him.”
“Is everything okay?” Grayson asks. “Anything we can do to help?”
“You.” His smile widens. “No. Is Clark home yet?”
“No. But I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty in the kitchen,” Grayson says.
“I don’t think it’s your hands he’s afraid of you getting dirty, Grayson.”
The chef inclines his head and turns back to the kitchen. I peek into the space before the door swings shut again. But nothing is on fire, and nothing smells burnt. There’s more noise than normal coming from the kitchen. One voice rings above the others.
“Alexei,” I say, pushing into the kitchen. “What are you doing in here?”
“I’m just making sure we have a few things that Blair will like.” He’s standing next to another chef. I raise my eyebrows at Vito. “Alexei, I think we should find Rodgers and see what he has planned.”
Vito inclines his head at me, a smile on his lips. “Come on. Let’s go.”
“Right. Are you sure you don’t want my help?” Alexei asks.
The two chefs’ and their assistants’ voices ring as one. “Yes.”
Alexei points to the basket on the counter on the way out the door. “You’re not giving Blair the tea anymore?”
“Turns out it’s as bad an idea as you helping in the kitchen.”
The six of us are waiting in the lounge when the elevator doors open. We all scramble to stand, but it’s Sterling, and while most of the others sink back to their sofa and chairs, I head straight for him.
“Stop, Forrest. Not now.” He’s grimacing like he’s in pain.
“Yes. Now.” Because I’m not taking his normal nonsense. Not today.
“I said I’d be here for things. I’ll fulfill my promise.
” He thunders to the pod room and steps into his walk-in closet.
Our room is as large as some apartments in the city.
There are eight doors around the room, a bathroom and six closet doors.
He doesn’t pull the door shut behind himself, and I take that as an opportunity to continue our discussion.
“Are you limping?”
“No.” He pulls off his trousers, and there’s a large bruise on the side of his hip.
“Then what’s that?”
“None of your fucking business.”
I blink at him. Because there are no secrets in a pod.
“Really, Forrest, there are things I can’t tell you.” But it sounds like a lie.
“Last I checked, I’m one of your bosses.” I’m a governor in the security council. And as such, I help run the network of enforcers who act as bounty hunters, jurors, and punishers of criminals in the Veiled City.
“King Atlas would disagree.”
“Yes, I bet he would.” The king has taken what are normally solo agents and given a team to Sterling.
It’s a team of killers. “How is your team? Are they enjoying their new assignment? Rather easy compared to what they normally do.” Though the bruise on Sterling’s hip makes me want to retract my statement.
“That . . . that depends on who you ask. And not the color on my leg, which will be gone by morning. It didn’t come from my assignment with Blair. Celeste was at the school.”
“Your sister?”
“Yes, my sister. How many Celestes do you know? Forget it. I’m sure you know every Celeste in the Veiled City.”
I give him a light shrug. I actually don’t know any other Celestes, but that’s not the point here. “Celeste did that?”
“Yes.” He nods once and pulls on a clean tunic.
“Why?” I’m trying not to laugh. But the thought of his wiry, petite sister inflicting enough force to cause that much damage to one of the toughest enforcers in the city? Yeah, it’s mildly humorous.
“I told her she could have one free shot.”
“And she took it.” I stand and crouch next to his leg. “What did she do? Hit you with an anchor?”
“The how isn’t important.”
“I suppose you’re right. The why is much more interesting.” Though I’m definitely intrigued by the how. And I’m most definitely going to see if Delmar can find some camera footage of this mysterious how. I need a copy of it for the days I want to kick him myself.
“Right. She thought I was there to see Lyra, my niece. When I told her I was there for work, she jumped to conclusions—”
“That you were there to haul someone away?”
“Yes. She got mad that I’d be ruining someone’s holiday.”
“And you let her continue to think—”
“She’s allowed to think anything she wants of me.”
“I . . . Sure she is, but that doesn’t explain that.” I point at his leg. “And also how I didn’t hear about it.”
“I had her step into a nearby classroom.”
“And?” I move back to the bed and sit down.
“I told her if she thought that poorly of me, she should kick me. Take her best free shot. And she did.”
“Remind me not to make her mad.”
“Forrest, Sterling.” Grayson’s at the door. “Blair’s here.”