Chapter 6
SIX
By this time, my “break” was very much over, so I turned away from the prying gazes of the two dragons and jogged up the stairs after Faris, following him into the club and wincing hard as I took in the scope of the damage.
How many times now had I been at least partially responsible for destroying his property?
I knew I needed to offer to pay for it, but also that it would take literal years based on my current salary.
“Faris, I…”
“Still haven’t had your break,” he said coolly. “And don’t argue with me. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy facing those two.”
In some ways, Faris was as steady and predictable as the sunrise, but sometimes he still managed to surprise me.
“Then why did you send me in there? You could have just told them I was busy.”
He glanced over at me. “You would have worried about it all night. Tripped all over yourself wondering what to say to them. This way, you didn’t have time to plan.
And you were still angry, so you didn’t let them bully you.
” He huffed. “The only way to live with dragons is to prove that they can’t steamroll you whenever they feel like it. ”
I groaned. “So you were hoping I would insult them to their faces?”
“More or less.” He shrugged. “If it helps, I think you did well. There was no yelling, nothing is on fire, and no one tried to eat you for your presumption.”
I stared at him, certain that I was going insane. How was this my life?
“I’m going to go clean up,” I muttered. “And”—I waved a hand at what was left of the club’s furniture—“I’m really sorry about this.”
“You didn’t do it.”
“No, but…”
“Raine.”
His tone turned me to face him, ready to be chastised.
“Don’t make the mistake of treating anyone here like humans,” he warned me.
“Sure, they ran from the fight, because they’re not stupid.
Naga can be mean and dangerous, and this one was clearly fighting for keeps.
Otherwise, they’d probably have just joined right in.
” I heard him sigh, like a tired parent of toddlers.
“But they’ll be back, because they love the drama, and they’ll be gossiping about tonight for weeks.
So no, you didn’t ruin my business or cost me anything I can’t afford.
This isn’t uncommon. At least a dozen times a year, I have to ban someone or other for starting a fight. Just part of the job.”
Okay then.
“Go take your break,” my boss said, a little more gently. “And call Callum. He needs to know.”
I pulled out my phone and glanced at the time. A little after nine. He might still be in meetings at this point. I really didn’t want to disturb him…
Or maybe I was being a complete and utter coward. If I could face Tairen-li-Corva, I could call Callum after telling him I loved him.
Faris disappeared into the kitchen—probably to give me some space—so, feeling cranky and a little vengeful, I stabbed at Callum’s name and waited for the call to go through.
It went to voicemail.
So, of course, instead of feeling relieved like a rational person, I was completely disappointed. I might not want to be a burden, but I did want to hear his voice.
“He must be busy,” I mumbled to myself, just as Tairen and Skye finally made their way back up from the basement. “I’ll call him later.”
“He is not too busy,” his mother declared firmly, flipping her silver-blonde braid over her shoulder and reaching for her own phone. “Not for this.”
A moment later, she lowered her phone from her ear, face frozen in a thunderous expression. Which was, of course, when Kira walked in through the front door, her mouth dropping open a little as she surveyed the destruction.
It closed again the moment she spotted her mother.
“Uh, hi Mom.”
Tairen’s arms folded across her chest. “Kira.”
“What are you doing here? I told you the wedding is off.”
The former dragon queen stiffened with annoyance. “And that means I’m not supposed to want to see you?”
Kira winced. “I didn’t mean that. I just…” She frowned. “Okay, but why are you here, here? Instead of the bookstore? And what in the name of all Idria happened?”
She scanned the room, and I saw her eyebrows climb halfway to her hairline when she spotted the blood on the floor from the first altercation of the night. Her gaze shifted from her mother to me. “Did you two…”
“We were perfectly civilized,” Skye protested innocently. “Just a social call.”
“Uh-huh.” The look that passed between the cousins suggested that the two women might actually be more friends than just relatives. “Well, it is good to see you. But back to this mess… Raine, did someone try to kidnap you again?”
“Not this time,” I assured her. “I think he was… flirting?” I shrugged. “I broke his nose.”
Kira grinned. “And that’s why I love you so much.”
“Where’s Ari?” The sleepover wasn’t supposed to end until the following morning, so I would have expected Kira to still be at the bookstore.
But she grimaced. “Actually, that’s why I’m here.
We were playing hide and seek, and Ari just…
disappeared. There aren’t that many good hiding places in the store, so I think she must have teleported out somewhere.
I texted Kes to let her know, and Hugh helped me search again.
Then I tried to call Faris, and he didn’t answer, so I decided to come down here and check The Portal before I freaked everyone out. ”
The sick ache of anxiety lodged behind my sternum, even as a jolt of adrenaline bounced from my heart to my fingertips and back.
More than likely, Ari had just teleported home and was hiding somewhere in the apartment.
If you didn’t set very strict rules for hide and seek, Ari would seize the opportunity to use her powers against you.
However, I also wasn’t willing to count on her having disappeared of her own accord—not with Blake out there plotting against us and the memory of her kidnapping still fresh.
I looked up at Tairen, who was watching me curiously, head tilted slightly to the side.
“I’m sorry,” I said swiftly. “I’ll get in touch with Callum later, but for now, I have to go. My kid is missing.”
I suppressed a pained wince as I turned away. Not only had I dropped the mate bond on Callum’s family without warning, now they also knew I came with the extra complication of kids. But I didn’t have time to worry about their reaction. “I’ll tell Faris, and then we can start the search.”
I’d already headed for the kitchen door when Tairen stopped me with a question.
“You have a sprite child?”
I drew in a deep breath and spun to face her.
“Let’s get this over with. Yes, I have a child.
In fact, I have two of them—Ari and Logan.
Like me, they were born human, but now they’re a sprite and an earth elemental.
They’re my family, along with my sister, Kes, who is half fae.
” I loaded my voice with steel and lifted my chin.
“My family might not share blood, but our ties were founded in a desperate fight for survival. So make no mistake—I will protect them with my life, just as you protect your children. And if you choose to belittle or look down on them for not being shifters, I will take it personally, and I will fight you. Dragon or no dragon. Do we understand each other?”
The dragon matriarch studied me sternly for a moment from her superior height before inclining her head in a nod so regal that it was all I could do not to bow in response.
“Indeed, I believe we do,” she said slowly. “We will have more to talk about, Raine Kendrick. But for today, you should go and find your child.”
Okay. That was probably as good as I was going to get. I needed to go find Faris and let him know…
The man in question burst out of the kitchen, phone in hand. “Morghaine says she’s not at our place. Have you heard from Kes yet?”
Kira shook her head. “One of us should go down there and make sure she’s okay, while everyone else splits up to search.” She was biting her lip and looked to be just barely holding back tears.
I laid a hand on her arm. “You know this isn’t your fault, right?”
She couldn’t even look at me. “I promised I would take care of her. Now she’s lost. How is it not my fault?”
“She’s six and she can teleport out of any place at any time,” I reminded her sternly. “How could you possibly have kept her somewhere she didn’t want to be?”
It was a good reminder to me as well. Panicking and rushing around would do us no favors. Ari could be anywhere in the city, and her location could change on a whim. We needed to stay calm and be strategic, or we might never find her.
“First—we make contact with Kes. Make sure she’s safe. Then we keep one person in every place Ari is familiar with. She tends to return to places she knows when she’s upset, so unless…”
Unless someone had taken her.
I swallowed that thought. “She should turn up in one of them before too long.”
“I’ll stay here,” Seamus offered from behind the bar. “So the rest of you can go search.”
I nodded gratefully. “Kira, could you try Myriad Gardens? And Faris, maybe you could check next door? She wasn’t at The Assemblage very often, but she did have fun hanging out in the office with Angelica.”
I was just about to turn and head out the front door when I heard a flurry of curses from the kitchen, then the clang of a pan bouncing off the floor or a wall. Faris looked over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised, as all of us turned to look at the kitchen door.
Were we under attack again?
The door swung open, six pairs of eyes glued to its progress…
I let out a gasp as a monster appeared in the doorway. It bent nearly double so it would fit through the opening, then straightened partway as it entered the room.
When standing at its full height, it would probably reach eight feet at the shoulder, with gray skin, long curved horns, and a coarse dark mane falling down its back between bat-like wings.
As it was, it remained hunched over, surveying us from a craggy face, lips peeled back from sharply pointed teeth.
Claws tipped both hands and feet, while its eyes glowed a malevolent red.
And the reason it crouched low was because the pinkie finger of that enormous clawed hand was being gripped securely by a tiny girl with curly dark hair and sparkling eyes…
“Ari!”
“Oh, thank heavens.” Kira didn’t hesitate for a moment, just darted forward, crouched down, and ruffled my sprite’s hair with an expression of relief mingled with disapproval. “Where did you find her, Hugh?”
Wait. I’d met Hugh. He was Kira’s resident gargoyle assistant, who looked after her bookstore and had basically adopted her cat. His typical appearance was almost entirely human—slightly stooped and slender, but otherwise average—other than his gray skin, which mimicked the shade of his stone form.
How had I never realized that gargoyles had more than two forms?
“She was hiding on the roof,” the winged nightmare said in a deep, gravelly voice. “But she is sorry. And will never do such a thing again.”
Ari looked up at him with an adorable grin. “Because Uncle Hugh promised we would go flying again if I’m good. Right, Uncle Hugh?”
Oh my hecking heck.
“Yes,” the gargoyle said around a mouthful of fangs. “But only if you cease to be willful. Your magic is a responsibility and must not be used for such trifling things in the future.”
Terrifying or not, I could have hugged him. We’d been trying so hard to help her understand this, but she was six. And none of us had any idea what it was like to have her magic.
So if Uncle Hugh was the one who could convince her? I would be endlessly thankful.
I also wished I could take a picture. My Ari-bug was holding that clawed hand with such trust, gazing up at the gargoyle’s terrifying visage with a face full of as much mischief as adoration.
“I promise I’ll try to be good,” she told him. “But it’s hard.”
“Indeed,” Hugh said. “It is difficult not to be irked with humans and their chaotic transience in this world. But if I must persevere, then so must you, hatchling.”
Ari burst out laughing. “You make me sound like a duck.”
“Indeed, no,” Hugh said. “I prefer to eat ducks. You would not be nearly as edible.”
That only made Ari laugh harder.
“Guess we can call off the cavalry,” Kira murmured to me over her shoulder. “Should have known I could count on Hugh to save the day.”
I sent a quick text to Kes to let her know that Ari had been found, and then was nearly bowled over when my sprite let go of Hugh’s hand and rushed over to throw her tiny arms around my waist.
“Are you mad, Rainy?”
As if I could be mad at those eyes.
“I’m not mad, Bug. But when we couldn’t find you, we were all scared that something bad had happened to you. That’s why you shouldn’t disappear like that. There are so many people who care about you, and we would do anything to keep you safe.”
She hugged me harder. “You mean people like Kira and Hugh. And Faris and Callum and ‘Gelica.”
No clue why she included Callum’s uptight secretary in that list, but the gryphon did seem to have at least a tiny soft spot for children.
“Yep, all of those people. And me and Kes and Logan. We care about you because we’re your family. And family looks out for each other.”
She let go of me long enough to look over her shoulder. Right at the two dragons who’d been watching this entire drama unfold.
“Then what about them? Why do they care?”
I gulped. Tried to figure out what I could safely tell her about my two unexpected visitors.
But I wasn’t fast enough. Ari turned around and marched right up to Tairen, tilting her head back to look Callum’s mother dead in the eye.
“Who are you?” she demanded suspiciously, her tiny hands perched belligerently on her hips.
Pretty sure everyone in the room held their breath.
The former queen of the dragons looked down from her imposing height, folded her arms, and scowled.
“I am a dragon,” she said. “I have ruled kingdoms, defeated armies, and devoured my enemies. And I can devour you too if you are not respectful.”
Ari giggled. “I meant your name.”
The Devourer of Enemies blinked at her. “I am Tairen-li-Corva.”
I hastened forward and crouched down beside Ari. “This is Kira’s mother, Ari. So be polite.”
My Bug’s eyes widened. “Ohhh. You’re Auntie Kira’s mom.” Her head tilted, and one small finger tapped her lips before she burst into a delighted grin and proclaimed, “Then I’m going to call you Grandma!”
Kill. Me. Now.