Page 5 of Fatality on the Field

I roll my eyes. This is getting messy, so I’m going to⁠—

“Guys, this is silly. Everyone needs to clean up, and we need food to keep working on breakfast.” Kat waves from her spot on a stool at the island across from the panda, her voice loud as she continues. “Dottie can play with Javi, the group can go get food with Jasper, Rogue and the twins can shower, and the rest of us will help Salem. After that, the kitchen and bathroom people can switch.”

There we go, girl! Tell these fuckers what to do.

“I agree with Kat,” I blurt. “Rogue, take your demons and get clean. We’ve got your birdie, and those of you who are supposed to lug shit, get moving. I’m hangry, and I get mean when people don’t fucking feed me.”

“Gorgons get snakey when they’re hangry.”

My head whips around to see Iggy and Slade in the doorway, and I have to suppress the urge to squeal when the siren cuts in. Instead, I smile gently and hold my hand out to him. “That’s right, baby; we do. I will not be held responsible for anyone turned to stone because they wanted to measure dicks.”

“If I’m supposed to go, then I am heading for the elevator,” Kaspar says from behind them. “There’s way too much… sass… in this room right now.”

Rogue chuckles as he immediately nopes out of even entering the dorm room, turning to Damon and Angelo. “Come on, boys. Princey-poo is stealing our lion, so we need to fuck off before you get manual labor duties.”

“Sounds good to me,” Damon says as she tugs them to the door. “Especially if it involves naked, wet⁠—”

“Behave!” Kat says sternly. “Everyone has to use that room!”

My eyes fly to Liam’s, and he’s holding in a snicker as our new friend huffs at the counter. We definitely did a good job of cleaning our mess up, but I’m not sure Rogue and her men will listen or even attempt to do so. Once they’re gone, Kat hops down from the stool, bringing her kinkajou over to sit with the grumpy-looking baby phoenix. I chuckle when they make competing indignant sounds for a moment before settling in.

“Kinda glad I don’t have an animal to wrangle and men to deal with,” I say to her. She grins and shrugs up at me before her eyes dart to the kitchen. “Though, I suppose you’re figuring it out, so I would, too.”

“Life is full of situations you have to adapt to, and you can surprise yourself,” Kat says as she rolls back to her feet. “That’s one thing I’m very sure of.”

You and me both, sister.

It takes a bit more arguing to get the ‘exploratory food committee’ out the door, but once they’re gone, the room is quiet again. Kat walks over to a cabinet and pulls a step-stool out and then rummages until she finds an apron that I guarantee did not live in this kitchen before her arrival. It’s black with flames along the edges, but it’s obviously sized so as not to swim on her. I’d bet the panda sourced it and just slipped it in where she’d find it without saying a thing. From the look on the long-haired pretty demon’s face, they’re where it was sourced from, too.

These dudes have been pampering my friend for much longer than she’s been aware of it.

“Okay,” Salem says as he claps his hands again. “There are still more people than I prefer, but everyone can do stuff. KK will get some bowls and spoons out for Slade, Iggy, and Morgana to mix batter. Prince Liam, if you will help get the batter ready with Zav, that would be good. X, if you and Anton would set out dishes and flatware, plus… do something about the table?”

I grin as everyone seems to move more quickly now that their prince isn’t sticking his royal nose in. “I hope you don’t expect a lot out of me, cooking-wise. I can cook a bit, but I prefer ordering out. You should have kept Lucas instead if you want skill.”

Slade smiles as he and Iggy follow me to stand on the living room side of the island as we wait for whatever we’re mixing to be ready. “You’re fine, Morgana. Mixing pancakes doesn’t require a Cordon Bleu certification.”

Elbowing him a little, I lean in and whisper, “Just like getting what you want doesn’t always require a big demand, I’d wager.”

His face turns red, and Iggy harrumphs next to him, so I let them be weird and secretive as I go back to watching Kat as she steps up to get the bowls. This kitchen was built for people taller than her, but the panda clearly made certain she could get to the things she needed without feeling defeated. She brings the bowls and spoons over, looking almost chipper as she hands them over.

“You like cooking with him, hmm?” I ask quietly. “I can see it, you know.”

The young demon clears her throat before she replies, “It was one of the first things I did in Hell where I didn’t feel like I was going to fail because Salem was so nice to me. And we do it all the time for the guys, and they like it, so… Yes, I enjoy it a lot.”

“Your apron is cute,” Slade adds as he pushes his glasses up. “The embroidery is very detailed.”

Suddenly, his words seem to click with her, and she whips around to look at the blond demon swirling magic around behind us. “Oh, shit. Salem must have gotten X to make it for me. I complained I was getting my very often destroyed clothes dirty while we cooked.”

“It wasn’t hard,” Xerxes interjects as the big chairs disappear and a long table appears, along with chairs for everyone. “That’s why I didn’t say anything.”

Kat’s jaw hangs open as she stomps over to the demons. “You’re really not showing what you can do very often, are you?”

“Nope,” Anton says with an adorably smug smile. “Really not. That has to change, though, because I guarantee the Games will start in two weeks’ time when the holiday is over.”

Liam frowns as he asks, “We’d better get this book done then so we can head home, and the Bay City folks can head for the Capital. That’s not a lot of time for you guys to prepare.”

“There’s really no preparing for them, honestly,” Zavida says as he hugs his tails by the sink. “They say we’ve been doing it, but everything I dug up says we’ll either survive together or die alone. It’s really just a free-for-all, and the hosts will do what they can to knock out as many of us as possible. That’s why our parents were the first ones to bond together as a team to defeat the damn things.”