My House
LIAM
T he way my new mate’s face lights up tells me everything I needed to know.
She’s delighted by my suggestion and if her capable assistant can get the legal team to clear the girl, I will certainly have to follow through on the offer.
I’m not worried about it; in fact, we could probably use another person to assist with all the shit we have going on in our lives.
Channing is wonderful, but she’s overtaxed by doing double duty with the university duties and Thorne’s team.
If I end up hiring Dixie, she could be tasked with managing the entire household’s needs, both personal and public.
That would make keeping a calendar for six very busy people much easier, especially considering our outside interests.
I smile broadly, confident that the sentiment I threw out on a whim will bear fruit in the end.
Dixie Abernathy may not prove to be the answer, but I’ll put feelers out for someone if it falls through.
My mind is already racing with the various tasks that could be farmed out to someone in that role: from calendars to groceries to arranging all the things we need while we’re busy.
More of a… royal valet mashed with an admin, I suppose.
Whatever I call it, I’m determined to take some of the load off of my new family and give us time to settle into our lives.
“Li?”
Her voice brings me out of my gleeful planning, and I blink away the distraction. “Yes, maschula ?”
“You look like you’re plotting.” Her lips curve up when I shrug, and Morgana chuckles. “Not to interrupt, but I doubt Dixie is the type to be familiar with the shadier side of this place. How are we going to find Captain Asshole?”
Slade snickers, but Iggy covers his laughter. I ponder her question for a moment, then say, “Just because the girl doesn’t participate in anything morally gray doesn’t mean she’s oblivious. We should ask her—carefully, of course, and see what she says.”
“The other option is to pair off and roam around the crowd, but that seems like a dumb idea,” Lucas says as he yawns. “Splitting up is the worst plan in every movie, so I’m gonna go with ‘no’ on that one.”
“Right you are, cub.” I wink at him, enjoying the deep flush it gets me. “I think there are too many unknowns in Howl to wander about in small groups. We’re safer together, and though Kaspar chose to be a lone wolf, it’s not what I believe will work for us.”
“Slade’s too innocent looking, and Morgana is too intimidating,” Iggy adds. “The prince, Lucas, and I? We look as though we could patronize this place based on bank accounts alone. You two would draw the worst kind of attention, especially when people recognize you, Morgana.”
My mate sighs, tapping her nails on the table in annoyance. “Infamy is a blessing and curse, you know.”
“Indeed. People know you might kill them, but also love to gawp at a train wreck. You’ll have nosey folks staring with each step.
Not a single shady character will come within twenty feet because their job is to stay invisible.
” I lean back in the booth, rolling my eyes to the ceiling to consider other ways to find my recalcitrant friend.
I would wring his neck, but I guarantee this little jaunt is more than what it seems on the outside.
“Order up, folks,” Dixie says as she returns much more quickly than I expected.
Lucas gives her a suspicious look as he takes his drink. “How’d you do that? It’s packed in here. Even in one of these fancy boxes, I’d think you would have to wait for other servers who got there first. That’s how it works, isn’t it?”
Dixie nods as she hands out the rest of our glasses.
“It is, but the floor manager knows who my customer is. That changes a lot. Royalty an’ billionaires?
Always first in line—it’s house policy. Behind them are regular rich folks, politicians, species leaders…
on down the line. The bartenders have a screen with our names that lists who gets priority that changes as the people in the club change throughout the night. ”
“Magic runes,” I grumble. “They feed from the ID checkers to the hosts, then to the bars and kitchen, right?”
“Yep.” Dixie looks at us, waiting to see if anyone is displeased with their drinks.
Once I sip mine, I shake my head. “You don’t have to worry. They’re fine.”
“Were you worried they weren’t?” Morgana asks curiously. “Some sort of… rivalry?”
“Look, everyone here is out for themselves an’ sometimes their wallets.
Gettin’ a Fae prince shoved me up the line.
I wouldn’t put it past some random douche to ask a favorite pourer to do somethin’ stupid.
It doesn’t matter what species or gender—anyone who gets in the way of cash might be a target. ”
Restaurant work isn’t any less dramatic than our world, I suppose.
“Speaking of being out for the green…” Lucas drawls as he turns a megawatt grin on the girl. “I bet some others are working side hustles in here, mm? There’s probably… some sort of menu for that kind of request?”
Our server’s face falls, and she shrinks back, licking her lips. “Um, there is, but… I… I don’t do that. I can… find someone to?—”
“Dixie, calm down,” Slade says. His gentle calm floods the table and he looks at the girl seriously.
“We don’t want to use those services. We’re looking for one of our friends who came here earlier tonight.
He’s probably snooping around that world at the moment, and we’re worried he might get himself in trouble. ”
“Well, he will ,” she replies vehemently. “The others who work for the crooks are basically owned by them. Bein’ paid that much money makes everyone stupid, an’ they get so addicted to the excess that they can’t leave.”
“Very Hotel California ,” Iggy mutters. “Okay. If they’ve trapped themselves through greed, we can’t worry about them. We are concerned that whomever our friend is working with will find out he’s connected to us—even if he’s pretending not to be.”
“Like a secret agent?” Dixie muses. “Yeah, he’d be in deep shit if the backers figured that out.
There’s bookies, dealers, pimps, assassins…
you name it, the secret menus can connect you with the right folks.
The owners just look the other way to get whatever it is the criminals are givin’ them for lettin’ the staff sell. ”
“I told you rich people are evil,” Morgana says as she crosses her arms over her chest. “This place is no less full of rotten cockwaffles than any dive bar.”
“Babe, I didn’t argue with you. Rich kid prep school, coked out parents…
remember?” Lucas’s eyes twinkle and for a second, I marvel at how at ease he is with the shitty situation he grew up in.
Other than the money, the kid had issues and if his grandmother hadn’t been so decent, he’d be just like the morons who birthed him.
“True. I guess you guys know how crooked wealthy fucks are personally,” she admits as she leans against the bear. “I just hate inequality—it’s the gorgon, you know. She always wants justice.”
Dixie nods, her eyes wide. “I can understand, ma’am. It ruffles my feather, too. But like I said when y’all arrived… This is where I can make enough to keep myself afloat durin’ the semesters. I can’t do much more than keep my nose clean in case somethin’ changes and there’s a raid.”
Sighing, I think about how we can approach this without getting Dixie booted from our service or exposing Kaspar if he’s still undercover. “Is there a show tonight?”
“Nope. The stage is free because a dance troupe got held up on a previous stop.” Dixie frowns as she squints down at the empty space from our box. “But I’ll tell you the same thing I tell other folks I host that aren’t shitty—don’t go up there.”
My eyes narrow. “Why? Do you think I’ll bomb? I’m very powerful, you know.”
“Don’t be ridiculous , Your Highness. Of course, you’re powerful enough to be entertaining.
But calling attention to that in this place with as many eyes that are on it isn’t worth the payoff.
” The server bites her lip and shakes her head.
“I’ve seen people come off so drained they could barely move, an’ they didn’t do enough to be like that.
It’s cursed or somethin’. Bad, bad mojo. ”
That I can work with—I should be able to read the magical signature of whatever shady being put a feeding spell on it to track them.
“Liam, if you’re thinking about tracking one of the dealers through the curse… I don’t think that’s safe.” Iggy frowns at me as he holds up his fingers. “One, we have no clue what species or realm they’re from. Do you want to get stuck with something from Hell… or worse?”
Waving my hand, I wink at the mage. “I have you to help with that, right? You’re from a big shot magical family, Briarton. I don’t think you’ve shown us a sliver of what you can do yet. I’ve done most of the magical heavy lifting.”
He huffs, adjusting his collar as he mumbles under his breath.
When I don’t look away, he sighs. “Fine. I couldn’t work with the poison because of the reasons you stated, but I can probably try to unwind the curse from here.
Maybe I can break it… if the damn thing isn’t sealed with shit I don’t have experience in. ”
“Was that so hard?” Slade says as he looks at his roommate. “It didn’t look like you were in pain.”
“Ha ha,” Ignatius says as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. “Mind you… this patent is still pending and my father would murder me for showing it to you guys while it’s in R & D.”
The mage aims his phone at the stage as he unlocks the screen and pulls the camera up.
Once it’s steadily capturing the stage area, he clicks the button on the side three times, then chants in Latin softly.
The screen lights up, flashing as if he took a picture, then shows the stage in some sort of… magical infrared?
“What. Is. That,” Morgana breathes as she stares. “Holy fuck, Iggy.”
“It’s a… fuck, I don’t know the science part, okay? That’s some technomage working for the family. But the magic part? It’s basically combining with light and whatever to reveal the hidden enchantments on a space. I was using it at Lucas’s place, but I said nothing because it wasn’t working .”
I arch a brow. “Is that unusual?”
“ No , Liam, it is not. This tech is… very close to coming to the market. Perhaps only for the right customers, but it’s not half-done. I don’t have a clue why it didn’t work in the dorm.”
“No wonder you were being so grumpy,” Lucas says. “I thought I pissed you off or something.”
“Um…”
We whirl around, looking at the shocked face Dixie is making, and Morgana groans.
“We should never consider becoming spies,” she hisses. “We definitely just blew Iggy’s secret, if nothing else.”
“N-no, ma’am!” Our hostess slaps her palm on the table. “I’m no snitch, an’ I’m not for sale. I don’t have a lot, but integrity is somethin’ you can’t buy back.”
Slade gives me a knowing smile, and I sigh inwardly.
That girl just said the absolute best thing she could have and sealed her own fate.
Morgana eyes me and I finally say, “Dixie… Pending a full background check, I’d like to offer you a way out of this place that doesn’t involve giving up your morals or doing anything illegal. Are you interested?”
The squeal she lets out nearly shatters my eardrums, and I cringe at the same time as Slade and Lucas.
Guess that’s a ‘yes’.