"Aged cheeses. A curated selection. Some charcuterie. A small gathering of close friends."
"You do not have close friends."
"I have Ali and you."
"And we simply do a nice dinner, watch one of your stupid black and white movies and smoke expensive cigars. We have never had a fucking cheese party to celebrate your birthday."
"We could start."
"Reo."
"It would come before the Fangs party, of course. There are levels. The Roar outranks the Fangs by considerable margin."
"I am going to kill you and them."
“I only respectfully request that you do not kill me before my cheese party.”
I rubbed my temple.
A dark chuckle left him.
When we got to everyone, Nyomi clapped her hands once. “Alright, everyone. Follow me.”
Nyomi walked directly under the claw.
What’s next?
The Claws fell in behind my Tiger immediately, trailing her like ducklings in tailored suits. Hiro had his fur coat draped over his shoulders again.
Every one of them passed between those gold talons without hesitating. Kaede tilted his head back as he moved beneath it.
Toma grinned. “Wow.”
The twins walked through shoulder to shoulder, heads tilted back in perfect mirror.
Daisuke chuckled and skipped forward like a damned kid. That dress rippled with him.
Reo and I followed at the back.
And then I stepped beneath the claw.
Goddamn it. This is really awesome.
My gaze went straight up.
From directly under the structure, the scale of it shifted. The talons rose around me like the bars of a sacred cage. The dragon's ivory palm curved above the table, dimpled and ridged with muscle-memory of a creature that had driven this limb through plaster and beam without yielding.
And at the center of the palm, the chandelier sparkled with cascading crystals and gold leaves.
All around us, the violin's melody swelled.
I exhaled once, slow, and forced myself to keep walking.
Further up, the Claws had already reached the other side of the table and began to spill out from beneath the claw in a loose cluster, talking over each other.
Soon, Reo and I emerged on the other side of the claw too.
Oh.
