Page 24 of Prey It By Ear

I blink. “Fuck. I was under longer than I thought, huh?”

“You ate your food and disappeared for the entire time we had left until we disembark, so yeah,” Chessie says with a grin. “But Felix said you were fine and to let you zone out. We agreed because you seemed calm and happy. I figured the growls were some fantasy—you do that sometimes at home, too.”

Of course he’d known it wasn’t a problem; Chessie has always been my constant rock of support and love, even when no one else knew.

“Thanks, I guess,” I say as I click my screen to lock it. “So we’re getting on the shitty train, and within a few hours we’ll be in Germany. That’s where the car will be waiting, yes?”

Felix grimaces. “Yes. It’s a big SUV and everyone can rotate driving so we’re not wrecked by the time we arrive at l’Academie. We’ll have a lot of airing out, unpacking, and bullshit to start before we go to bed. And tomorrow will be full of absolute crap, even though our friends should all be back and ready to debrief. We might not get to it until the evening.”

Dolly pouts. “I hate that. I miss Ru-Ru, Coco, and the crew. Coach Z will be back with them, too, and I want to see them. But I get why we have to be settled before we start plotting how everything is going to go.”

I roll my eyes and pretend to sigh dramatically. “Like, oh my god, Felix, why do you have to be such a buzzkill?”

My twin gives me a look that says he wants to smack me in the back of the head, but I’m too far away so I blow him a kiss. Dolly giggles and Chess tries to hide his laughter, but it doesn’t work. “Fitz, despite your penchant for buffoonery, we need to have you check and double-check the security of the library where we’re going to sleep. Chess and Renard will have supply orders to do for the upcoming months. Aubrey will need to get the library up and running for staff and students, plus the princess has to sort her schedule. There really is a fuckton of work to do before we add our personal and global troubles to the damn plate.”

Dolly puts her hand over my mouth so I can’t respond and smiles sweetly at my big bro. “Of course you’re right, Felix. Everything must be settled, so we feel safe to work on the dangerous things. That’s not unreasonable.”

I love this girl more than breath; at her words, my brother’s posture relaxes just enough for me to know he will not have the stick up his ass quite as bad for the next leg of our train journey.

“That train sucks and I don’t know why we bother upgrading. The premier class is shit compared to our other one.”

I snort as the dragon grumbles while grabbing the luggage for himself and our darling bunny. He’s correct that the shorter train isn’t made for people as large as him, and the more expensive tickets helped little. “Calor Chameleon, I promise you Chessie got a big ass ride for us to finish this damn trip. Right, babe?”

The cheetah nods, his eyes wide as he looks at the grumpy duo. “Fitz is correct. It’s big enough for us to spread out some, and we don’t have a huge amount of bags so some seats can go down so we can recline.”

“Merci à la déesse,⁠*” Renard says as he adjusts his topknot fussily. “I am not as big as Flames, but I admit to feeling very cramped when that space is paired with being contained in a hurtling tin can.”

This is why I want these assholes to take me flying! How can I understand this shit if I don’t get to try? Assholes.

“Don’t worry,” Baby Girl says soothingly as we all walk toward the main area of the station where we can find the rental booth. “Felix can drive first, and that will let you two sprawl out. Chessie will figure out how to make the seats fold or whatever the hell this thing does.”

“I could figure it out,” I grumble as I look at her. “I’ve driven plenty of cars in my years, you know.”

She chuckles and loops her arm through mine, smiling brightly. “Unlike me, you absolutely have. But I bet Chessie actually looked up the manual, so he knew he could make that claim while we were headed here. He’s very thorough like that.”

The cheetah flushes with pleasure at her praise, nodding. “I did. I wanted to make sure someone knew how to work the shit on the damn thing so there wouldn’t be arguments over the radio or the seating or the air conditioning.”

Of course he did—Chester Khan is the perfect mate for my girl and me, and his heart is seventy times bigger than his frame.

“While I agree Chester is very efficient and quite talented, I believe we should get our damn vehicle and get moving,” Aubrey says as he gives me a warning scowl. “Otherwise, Fitzgerald is likely to list off his other attributes, and I doubt Felix needs to hear that again.”

That makes Dolly throw her head and howl with laughter, as I got my tail whooped at least twice during our stay with the gargoyles for making Felix want to bleach his brain. I blame the Pălincă liquor they stock as if the world is going to end, and their giant barrels of wine that French relatives fly in several times a year. Put together, that shit was killer even to me and that’s pretty goddamn impressive. It’s not like I remember even half of what I did that made Felix mad either time, but the others have sworn not to tell me until I release the recipe for the former—something I sweet-talked out of Ren’s mama.

“I’m still not telling any of you, even you, Baby Girl. You’re all blackmailing me and I won’t stand for it.” I sniff as if I’m offended, but truthfully, I’m just playing along. It’s been a source of humor and fun ever since, and since I don’t actually have a damn bit of shame in my entire body, I don’t even care what I did to my uptight twin. I just like that everyone’s happy and smiley when they prod me about it and for fuck’s sake, we need that kind of stuff now.

She pats my hand on her arm, her beautiful blues dancing as she says, “Then I won’t mention how you got the black eye, except that it was not a fist.”

Pressing my lips together as the curiosity portion of my cat DNA rebels instantly, I pretend to shrug nonchalantly. “It wouldn’t be the first time I had an accidental slippage issue when seeking Chessie’s delectable dick.”

That should hold them for a bit… heh.

Felix gives me a positively filthy look as we descend the stairs, and I ignore it as always. I honestly don’t think he cares all that much, either. It’s not like I’ve ever held back in front of him, and I’ve been with Chess much longer than we’ve been with any of the others. He just likes to piss me off and this is that whole twin thing I mentioned earlier, yeah?

“Ahem.”

The clearing of the gargoyle’s throat brings me out of my head again and I notice that he’s stopped catty-corner to the booth where we pick up our shit. “Perhaps we can put this on hold until after we’re out of the public area? I am no prude, mes amis, but there might be bebes wandering.”

Dolly’s eyes widen and she looks around in a panic before she hisses at me, “Fitz! We do not corrupt children. Only monsters do that shit.”