Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
They didn’t head to the cafeteria like Jonah had expected.
Instead, Roz pressed the elevator button to go upstairs, not down.
That was confusing for Jonah, he’d never been upstairs and had no idea why he would need to go up there, but Roz didn’t look interested in answering questions.
She hovered in the air, poking at her phone and frowning at it before tilting to screen toward him.
“Which one?”
He glanced at the screen with a frown. She was showing him two monitors, one curved and one that was just plain massive.
“What’s the plan for use?” he queried. “What you pick depends entirely on what you use them for.”
Her smile seemed almost proud when she replied, “This is why I like you. You’re actually smart. I’m looking for my home set up. I don’t really play games, but I do some private cyber security stuff at home. My monitor is throwing errors so it needs to be replaced.”
He considered the options with a frown. “How often do you get visitors at your home? It’d be more expensive to put a privacy screen on the curved one.”
She snorted, shaking her head at him. “You’re thinking like a human. We use spells for privacy, so it’s not more expensive for a certain type of screen.”
He made a face. He’d honestly forgotten about that. In his defense, in general, the work he did with tech thus far was the same across the board. He hadn’t had to deal with anything magical when it came to IT yet.
“I’d say the bigger one, honestly. The specs are better.”
She hummed, looking at her phone again. “I think you’re right. I like the look of the curved one, but I don't need anything fancy.”
The door opened to the 52nd floor, and they stepped out to a quiet office with a spider person sitting at the front desk. Jonah swallowed uneasily, but Roz didn’t stop at the reception desk, just flitted right past and went down a hallway on the right.
“Uh– Hey!” the receptionist called, sounding annoyed.
Jonah’s shoulders went up. He wanted to say something, the receptionist didn’t know Roz couldn’t hear her, but he’d thus far avoided getting close to spider people, and he was still a little freaked out by them.
He tried not to be, Emmett said more than once that they were just people, but he couldn’t help it.
The arachne spun around to look at him, her lips pulled into a tight frown. “Are you two together? You’re supposed to check in with me before going anywhere. Especially down that hallway.”
“Uh… Why?” he croaked. “What’s down that hallway?”
The elevator dinged behind him, signaling someone else’s arrival, and Jonah was relieved when Emmett stepped off, a bunch of food in his arms. He beamed when he saw Jonah, but the smile fell and he cocked his head when he noticed his anxiety.
“Hey. What’s wrong?”
Jonah shook his head. He didn’t want to admit he was still struggling around some supes. He didn’t want to offend the arachne who was just doing her job.
“Are they with you?” she asked, still frowning at Jonah.
Emmett nodded, coming to stand by Jonah’s side. His arms were too full to put one around Jonah’s shoulders like he normally would, but he pressed up against him and the warmth helped Jonah relax.
“Yep. This is Jonah.” He looked around with a frown. “Where’s Roz?”
Jonah flapped a hand awkwardly down the hallway Roz had disappeared down. “She went that way. She didn’t hear the receptionist when she called out.”
“Ah,” Emmett nodded, then explained to the woman, “Sorry about that, Nadia. She’s deaf. If she didn’t see your lips moving, she wouldn’t have heard you.”
Nadia blinked but looked mollified by the explanation. “I see. Well, hopefully she didn’t anger Mr. Van Buren by waltzing into his office unannounced. I try to call to let him know when someone is coming so he isn’t taken off guard. Isaac insisted on that protocol.”
Jonah didn’t know any of the people they were talking about, but he didn’t ask. He felt better with Emmett nearby, and when Emmett led the way down the hallway Roz had gone through, Jonah fell into step beside him.
“Why does she need to warn someone that people are approaching the office?” Jonah asked, taking a few of the takeout boxes out of Emmett’s arms to help him out.
Emmett shot him an appreciative smile before explaining, “Because the dragon is territorial. Important rule of thumb for all shifters: never enter their territory without express permission. Especially not dragon shifters.”
Jonah’s mouth fell open. “Dragon?”
Emmett didn’t respond, poking his head into the office at the end of the hall. “Knock knock. Can we pass through?”
Someone grumbled an unhappy sound, and someone else snickered. “He’s fine. Go on through. They’re waiting for you.”
“Thanks, Isaac. Come on, Jonah. We’re just passing through.”
Jonah scurried to keep up with Emmett, sneaking a look at the two men in the office.
The one with the pink hair was hard to picture as a dragon shifter.
It was his companion who sat at the big wooden desk that Jonah figured was the one to avoid.
He was massive and currently expelling little puffs of smoke when he breathed.
“Don’t mind him,” Emmett murmured as they exited the office and crossed the grassy lawn of the enormous greenspace on the rooftop connected to it. “He agreed to let us use this space. He’s just a grouch in general.”
“Who? Maverick?” someone asked. “That’s not about us. Apparently one of his nephews got arrested, and he has to deal with it.”
Jonah had been looking over his shoulder at the dragon shifter, so he hadn’t realized they would be eating with new people. He turned around to find a giant picnic blanket spread out, with new faces smiling up at him in greeting. His feet froze, and he looked between two of them, confused.
“Are you… human?”
The smaller one, a blonde with big blue eyes, beamed at him. “That’s right. I’m surprised you can tell.”
“I, uh… Emmett told me what to look for,” he admitted.
It was hard to tell since some species looked human in every way except their magic, but during his first week, Emmett had talked him through what to look for when finding the difference between a human-looking supe and a regular old human.
Eye color was a big one. If their hair or clothes seemed to move in a way that wasn’t natural.
Sometimes it was just a general aura. He’d tried to compare when at home with his family to see the difference, but it was when the humans were around other supes that it became easier to tell.
“Come sit,” the blonde urged, gesturing to the blanket. “I’m Avery, by the way. Avery Hawksley. And that gentle giant over there is Tony. The pretty man hovering behind him is Zephyr, one of his mates.”
Jonah’s brows snapped together tightly. “Wait. What? Humans don’t have mates.”
“Not true,” a strained, but familiar voice said behind them. “Goddess, this thing is heavier than I expected.”
Jonah glanced over his shoulder as he sat down, watching Taron trying to carry a big squashy chair on his own. He kept stumbling and tripped over his own feet at one point. Lucky for him, he landed in the chair and not on the ground, letting out a surprised, “oomph!” as he fell.
Making a tick sound behind his teeth, the man Avery had introduced as Zephyr pushed to his feet, careful to make sure Tony was steady before going to help Taron. “Why didn’t you text me and ask for help? Or shift, for that matter. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
Taron looked up, a sheepish grin on his face. “I, uh, may have worn my magic out with that shift last night. Flying is hard.”
With Zephyr’s help, they moved the chair to the edge of the picnic setup and helped Tony into it. Jonah didn't need to ask why, he could see the scarring on Tony’s face and neck, and figured the guy needed something more comfortable than sitting on the ground.
Taron plopped down next to Jonah, putting an arm around him and squeezing tight enough to make his bones creak.
Jonah schooled his face not to grimace, Emmett’s reaction to a little rough play that morning had been kind of freaky, and he didn't want to set him off again, but he breathed a sigh of relief when Taron let him go.
As Emmett passed out the take out containers, Jonah shot him a questioning look. The picnic thing was nice, but it was honestly pretty low key from what he’d been expecting. And he didn’t understand why Emmett invited new people instead of their usual crowd.
Emmett caught his look and did a doubletake, frowning at him. “What?”
“Nothing. Just… confused, I guess.”
“You’re wondering why you were invited to eat with us,” Taron piped up, drawing Jonah’s attention to him.
“Well, not you,” Jonah shook his head. “You join us for lunch at least twice a week.”
Taron looked like he wanted to be offended, then pursed his lips thoughtfully when he realized it wasn’t an insult.
“Okay, true. But this lunch wasn’t Emmett’s idea, it was mine.
” Taron shifted himself around on the blanket so Jonah had no choice but to meet his eyes.
“He didn’t tell me much—boy’s locked up tighter than a vault—but I didn’t need a full report to see you could use a reminder.
You’re not on an island here. There aren’t a ton of humans at Spellbound yet, but the ones who are?
They’re worth knowing. And you don’t have to figure all this out alone.
You’ve got people now—me included, whether you like it or not. ”
His expression was more serious than Jonah was used to, but the words struck deep and Jonah wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of emotion that followed.
The ache of the loss was still a livewire of pain in his chest, despite his friends’ best efforts, but Taron’s steady insistence was like a balm, and he felt tears prick his eyes as he looked around.
Avery smiled softly at him, and Tony nodded in agreement.
Roz gave him a pointed look, silently telling him Taron was right and he should listen.
And when Jonah looked up at Emmett, the werewolf smiled softly at him.
“You’ve got people here, Jonah. I know it feels like you’re on your own, but you’re not. We’ve got you. You’re not alone.”
His breath left him in a rush, and he couldn’t help huffing out a choked laugh. “Gods, this wasn’t what I’d thought this lunch would be like,” he croaked.
It was a lot, and while it didn't take away the pain, it did ease it a little. Enough to let himself breathe without feeling like he was moments from falling apart. He cast another look at Emmett, leaning into him when Emmett wrapped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed gently. Maybe they were right. He didn’t have to do it all alone.
He had people in his corner. Not the people he’d expected, but people who cared. That was enough for him.