“Uhm, okay? Ink, you good here?”
Inkiri clicked and stuffed another piece of homemade vinné into my mouth before I could leave.
“Very much so, Sadir. Do the thing with Vergis.”
“Well, you make that sound dirtier than it needs to be,” Vergis mumbled, but he was already marching me toward the house. It didn’t escape my notice that several of the bagua closer to the gazebo were tracking him with their eyes. Lissir was sitting at that end of the garden as well, deep in conversation and making googly eyes at a bagu who was about as broad as Fellisse.
“What thing are we doing?” I asked when we were in the kitchen.
Charles sat at the kitchen table with his laptop and a bowl of stew with some bread on the side.
Vergis put a hand on his hip. “How did you get out of this?” he asked his father.
Charles looked up, unimpressed. “Well, I’m the human hangu-na no one pays too much attention to, kid. What’s gotten into you two?”
“That mischievous ass has been throwing me at those…at those bagua.”
Charles looked at me, but I shook my head. “Not me. I’ll take the blame for him needing earplugs, but even that was more Ink than me.”
Vergis groaned. “Don’t remind me. Lissir is the ass in question. As if everyone is as much of a flirt as he is.”
I cocked my head. “The three guys in the living room looked more like they were throwing themselves at you though.”
Vergis glared at me.
Charles sighed and turned back to his screen. “Make good choices, and tell me if you settle on one or however many of them so I can show them my flamethrower and explain to them why I might be moved to use it.”
“Dad, are you for real? I think now is when you’re supposed to show them your flamethrower!”
I looked from one of them to the other. “We’re talking about the actual flamethrower, right?”
“Yeah, Princess, just like I will show you one of my actual knives if you don’t stop making light of this. I have been…used. For my looks.” Vergis made the last sound dirty. “On top of that, I’m not supposed to show those bagua my knives, Lissir says. What in the actual fuck kind of logic even is that?”
Charles narrowed his eyes at his son. “Huh. Showing people your knives is not a love language, son.”
I almost burst out laughing, but I held it back. Barely.
“This is serious!” Vergis turned on me. “How can you be such a hypocrite when you wanted nothing to do with your one true mate when he first brought you back from the store?”
“Bought you like a mail-order bride, did he?” Charles scooped up some of his stew with a piece of bread.
I managed to keep a straight face when I said, “Yup, and the terms of service said I’m unreturnable, especially after someone flashed their knives at me.”
“Mm-hmm.” Charles grinned while he kept finishing his stew.
Vergis fumed. “You two are both horrible.” Vergis stole a piece of bread from his dad as if that was the ultimate act of defiance.
I shrugged and peeked at the screen of Charles’s computer. It showed what I assumed was the bunker. The Koa Esher was sitting at a metal table and eating food someone had brought him. That was…kind of sad. I didn’t want to think about how we’d all had dinner under the fairy lights, and how the cola ash in the bunker was eating alone, by himself, in the dark.
I looked at Vergis. “You dragged me with you to do a thing. What are we doing?”
Charles looked up at us. “Huh. You two’re sneaking off while the party is still in full swing. So unsociable.”
“Well, we can’t stay here.” Vergis waved toward the backyard. “They’ll probably come into the kitchen at some point to look for me. Come on.”
“Good choices,” Charles called after us.
Vergis grumbled. “Not with the twink, thank you very much.”
