Home #3
“I’ve studied photography. I know artists who manipulate their pics in a variety of ways. But this isn’t a piece of art. A member of the media snapping shots for society panes wouldn’t manipulate the photo outside contrast, touch ups, so you could see their subjects better.”
“Maybe there was a smudge on the lens,” Tanyn suggested.
That might explain it.
I looked back down at the snap.
“If it’s troubling you, sweetheart,” Tanyn said. “I’ll have someone examine that.”
“I think I’m just overreacting,” I said, shutting the tablet down and sliding it back into my tote. “I felt something strange last night too. My demon instincts suddenly rose up out of nowhere and without reason.”
I felt the acuteness of Nayden’s attention even as I watched Tanyn’s shift to the same thing.
“Your demon came up?” Tanyn asked quietly.
I shrugged. “It was nothing. I had a good look around. No one else sensed anything. And Estra was right beside me. If it was something, she would have felt it too.”
“Let me see that pic,” Nayden ordered.
He was already crossing the space toward where Tanyn and I were sitting.
I pulled out the tablet, engaged it and handed it to him.
He stared at it a long time.
“Any ideas?” I eventually asked.
He handed my unit back to me but said to Tanyn, “I’m having that analyzed.”
“Obliged,” Tanyn grunted.
Nayden returned to his seat and got on his Palm, but one could say the vibe in the cabin of the jet was now way off.
“I don’t want to freak anyone out,” I told Tanyn. “I think I’m just being sensitive.”
“We’re operating on the better safe than sorry rule, baby.”
I could see that. I even championed it.
And because of that, maybe I should have said something about last night.
“I should have told you when I felt it,” I admitted.
His face softened, and he replied, “Catty, last night, there were twenty-five dragon sentries, fifty defense bots, ten undercover RS agents along with the full details of all the royals, which is another forty agents. Adding to that, my detail, your detail, Bain’s detail, and Cormac’s, which was another thirty.
That wasn’t it. We had two squadrons of the Fallian army at the ready in a holding area.
There were three sub-vessels under the sea, patrolling the perimeter of the island, two stealth craft patrolling the sky, and an entire wing of fighters at the ready to launch at any sign of trouble.
What I’m saying is, not only would it be practically impossible for anyone to get through to join the party, if there was an attack, it would be thwarted with ease. We were in no danger.”
He was saying this to make me feel better.
I knew I didn’t have to share that, until it happened, we didn’t know there were trolls.
Until it happened, we didn’t know Tatra had spirited away decommissioned battlecraft to use for her nefarious ends.
Until we discovered it, we didn’t know there was a drug that counteracted the effects of truth serum.
I knew he remembered all of this.
And I knew this was why Nayden was right then tapping relentlessly on the display of his Palm, getting someone to analyze that pic.
So I knew they were on it.
I also understood I shouldn’t sit on the kind of sensation I had last night.
I was an heiress, former party girl, art connoisseur and future queen.
I was no warrior.
But that didn’t mean what I sensed and felt should be dismissed.
And I was a member of this team.
I had to hold up my end of the deal.
As such, without Tanyn saying anything, I said quietly, “I won’t do that again.”
He still said nothing.
But he moved in to kiss me.
So he didn’t have to.
“This is great, Yorna, thank you,” I said as Yorna and I finished unpacking my cases.
This was our final task, since we’d sorted out Laura and Aleksei’s, Aleece’s and Gayle’s things too.
The closet in Tanyn’s and my chamber was filling up.
Though, I had work to do. Especially on Tanyn’s side.
“My pleasure, Ms. Truelock,” Yorna replied, looking and sounding like she meant it (what a difference getting paid what you deserved made). “Anything else?”
“I think I’m good,” I said.
She nodded and strode out.
When she left, I moved to one of the rails and trailed my finger along my clothing hanging there.
I then hit the shelving holding my shoes at a tilt, and I straightened a red pump.
I was home.
Again.
I’d left home.
And came home.
“Yes, this is going to work,” I said to the pump right before Hurley bounded in.
I looked down at him, before I crouched and gave him a full-body rubdown.
Unsurprisingly, his daddy trailed him.
He didn’t fully come into the closet though.
He didn’t even look around.
He said, “Uly’s back. Estra is with him. They’re both staying for dinner. Cool?”
I smiled brightly at my male.
“Absolutely.”
“Ready for a drink?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” I repeated.
I went to Tanyn.
Hurley trotted beside me.
Tanyn called for the lights in the closet to extinguish.
They did that.
And together with our dog, we walked out of our bedchamber and down the hall to have drinks and dinner with our friends.
At home.