“I still don’t understand why Gray looks like a chimney sweep fromMary Poppins,” Jay says. “Will you please tell me if I have yet another institution that I need to send money to, and if I need Margot to track down a replacement pet phoenix ASAP?”
Where does one find a magical firebird, anyway?
“Aldis is a friend, not a pet, dude. Big faux pas,” Rowan admonishes, as if he hadn’t caused the incident.
“So, turns out Rowan happened to catch Aldis on an immolation day. Ignatius was surprised, too. He said maybe it was Rowan’s magic that encouraged it. The old guy has been having a harder and harder time getting there on his own, since he’s over a hundred years old,” Nix says conversationally, and lets Rowan feed him a third sandwich in tiny bits, as if he hadn’t eaten two already.
“That was nice of you, Ro,” Gideon says with a mostly-straight face.
“Right? It totally was. I was helping.”
“So he’s standing naked in the rafters, helping Aldis self-immolate and then…” Leo prompts.
“Then he screamed like a little kid, lost his balance, and set his hair on fire, all before slipping from the rafters,” Grayson says blandly.
Jay finally notices that the hair on the side of Rowan’s head is singed, revealing his now pink scalp.
“You fell?” Finn yells, leaping to his feet.
“Yeah, bare-ass-over-tea-kettle. But Gray teleported, caught him, and then teleported back to the ground. In mid-fucking-air.”
Nix claps and bounces, making the platter tilt and dump its cheesy bounty onto the bed linens. “It was so badass. You should have seen the instructors’ faces. Epic.”
He falls back on the bed so he can kick his feet.
With his heart beating heavily in his ears, Jay lets that sink in. His eyes meet Gideon’s, over the heads of his similarly frozen mates.
“Jaybird, let’s get those plans down immediately. I think Beth should come as soon as possible,” his mate says, before he turns to head back into the kitchen.
Definitely.
“Wait.” Jay catches up with the conversation. “Pretty, you teleported?”
Grayson just shrugs, follows Gideon into the kitchen to get another sandwich straight from the pan, and rummages around in the cupboards—probably to avoid any direct questioning about this incredible Talent, or is it an Affinity?
Now that he’s finally full, Nix hands Rowan a sandwich from the now-upright platter and rests his head on Jay’s thigh.
“Yeah. Although he can’t do it through walls or doors. Found that out the hard way.”
“What he means is that Gray tried to teleport through the office doors, and they stopped him cold. It was funny.”
Grayson returns with his sandwich and a bag of chocolate chips under his arm. “Listen, Smoky-the-Were, you’re one to talk.” He mimes screaming and flailing before sitting back on the end of the bed.
“You’re okay, though?” Finn asks, pushing the hair off Grayson’s forehead.
“Yeah. I won’t say it was fun. But I figured I can already get about twenty feet in any direction. Selinde thinks I might increase it with practice.”
Nodding thoughtfully, Jay runs his hand down Grayson’s back.
“You’re feeling good about things? You look lighter.”
And he does—even better now that he’s had some food.
“It’s good. Really good. They helped me.” Grayson hesitates. “Not just with the offensive magic stuff, but with understanding how it’s part of me. That I’m supposed to be using it.”
“I’m glad.”
“Me too. I’m fucking beat, though.”
