Page 74 of Fatality on the Field

I flip open my own battered notebook to jot a note about that, and then look up as Liam finally sets down the paper.“Kimiko and the hospital team—did you hear from them?” he asks me directly.

It’s not an interrogation, but it’s a start.

“Kimmi’s running the greenhouse recovery now that they cleared the quarantine. The docs headed back to the Hollow, but she said they’re staying on-call in case the students backslide. So far, everyone’s holding steady,” I reply. “The poison thing is mostly under control.”

Lucas’s mouth twitches, and the silence that follows is full of words he’s not saying. I feel the urge to nudge him, but Slade covers it better than I ever could.

“You could go visit, you know,” Slade says. “If you want to check on the students. Or, you could go visit the statue in Morgana’s office of what happens to assholes who trip her gorgon’s vengeance vein. That thing is going to be famous pretty quickly, so going early is a good idea.”

That gets a rare sound from Kaspar—a very amused laugh from the depths of his soul “She’s not moving it until after the Bowl, guaranteed. Remember, she said the stoning was a ‘pressure valve’ for her rage. No way she gets through this week without needing to see it to help her calm down.”

Liam smirks. “When she does, I promised to help her create a beautiful garden around her collection. It will be a ‘must-see’ for visiting supes and dignitaries in no time, I’m sure.”

Lucas manages a half-grin at that, but I can see the wheels turning behind his eyes. He’s thinking about what he can do to join the prince in helping our mate with her new ‘legacy item’ and hasn’t figured out what to do yet. To be honest, I don’t know either, but I will come up with something eventually. Maybe we should brainstorm with Slade; he’s much better at the decorative stuff than me and probably the bear as well.

The dragon grunts again, changing the topic slightly as he says, “I wrote that down in my notes for the Hell allies. I’m supposed to pass their prince information about earth and Faerie shifter training. I think they need it and their hidden girl absolutely does. I’m surprised how little the demons work to train hybrids, honestly, but not as little as here. It’s fucking bizarre.”

Liam sits up, folding his hands in a tidy triangle. “Agreed. Faerie is much less shrouded in mystery when it comes to shifting and magic. The moment you show any hint of ability—doesn’t matter what—your parents or your court push you to use it until you gain control. No one cares about keeping up appearances, because we don’t have humans to hide from. Hell doesn’t either, though, so it’s just baffling how much they focus only on demonic powers.”

“Must be nice,” Lucas says, a tiny trace of bitterness in his tone. “I was sent to supe-only boarding schools specifically so I could learn early and not accidentally give it away to humans. That’s because we had money, though; imagine having to wait until puberty or whatever, because your family can't afford that stuff.”

Liam gives him a sympathetic nod. “I actually believe that’s why so many surface supes are shit at managing their own strengths and weaknesses. The whole system is designed to keep them from understanding themselves, so they don’t scare the humans. Even the teaching is aimed at suppressing, not developing, and it means the kids are missing a large chunk of their lifespan not living up to their potential.”

Kaspar snorts. “That’s what I figured. The Hell kids don’t have any of these restrictions, so they know what they’re good at and how to compensate for what they’re not as demons. However, the hybrid thing is questionable there in terms of acceptance, so it works a lot like supes up here, I’d bet.”

“The suppression here—which only happens to suspected lost ones—means those kids don’t even know what their upper limit is. Enclaves have to work very hard, as do Guardians, to manage those folks. As for normal, non-wealthy supernatural children? They’re taught at home or in schools, but it just depends on where they grow up. It’s pretty mishmash,” I agree. “I constantly see the difference between those who had strong training and those who did not in my classes.”

Liam nods, the look in his eyes going a little darker. “Exactly. It’s the same with magic and anything else, I’d wager. Because of the humans here, the governing bodies keep the reins far too tight for far too long. According to what I’ve read, there are more supernatural prison and reform schools here than in Faerie or Hell. Probably more than other realms, too, and it's because the dummies running this shit are either complicit or being very heavily influenced. Why? I do not know yet.”

“Maybe that’s why my Nana sent me to supe-only schools my whole life,” Lucas says. “She wanted me to learn better than I might have been allowed to in regular schools. She prefers public education, you know, and my dad definitely went to a public school. Probably my mom, too.”

Liam thinks about it, his face softening as he murmurs, “Perhaps, cub, but it was probably also about safety. Given her position and your parents’ notoriety and addictions, she may have wanted to place you somewhere she could guarantee you’d fit in and be secure. It’s what my father has done for my siblings, even in our own court.”

The kitchen settles into a kind of companionable hush, the clock’s countdown ticking off seconds as we all breathe and eat and metabolize the reality that we are, in fact, living on borrowed time.

I take a final sip of my coffee and glance around. Here we are, five men with diverse experiences at the table, not a murder plot among them. Just before the clock flips to the next minute, Morgana appears in the doorway and pauses my rueful thoughts. She pauses in the doorway, her hair and clothes perfect as she looks at us. It only takes a moment for her lips to curve up, though, and she clicks into the kitchen on scary heels as she sighs in content.

Slade is already in motion to be at her side with a mug, a muffin on a plate, and a spare napkin to catch the crumbs before she’s halfway to the table. The choreography of his offer is so smooth, you’d think he’d rehearsed it, but really I know he’s just that excited to see her again. My siren loves that woman, whether he’s said it or not, and he would dive right off a cliff if it made her smile. Luckily for both of us, Morgana would never ask that, so I don’t worry about it.

The hybrid wraps her hands around the mug, and gives Slade a bright smile. “Thanks, babe.” Her words are soft, but they hit their mark. After her first sip, she turns to the rest of us as she makes her way to the table to sit. “Channing just texted me, which is why I ran late coming down. The last four Bowl sponsorships just went at triple the usual rate. Before you even ask, I can tell you exactly who to thank for it.”

She turns to Liam, who’s gone completely still. The prince looks up from his annotated clippings, eyes wide as he tries to pretend he doesn’t know at first. He even manages a little gasp, like he’s stunned by the news. “That’s remarkable,” he says, “but I didn’t buy them.”

“Are you sure about that? Because the Midnight, Harvest, Reaping, and Daybreak courts all decided to drop seriously intense money on our Bowl overnight. As far as Chan and I knew, they hadn’t made a peep about this prior to last night. So where did these insane bids come from?”

For a second, it’s so quiet you can hear the blood moving in your own ears and I keep my eyes on the prince so I’m not drawn into it somehow. I wasn’t involved, but I sure as hell don’t want Morgana mad at me over this kind of shit.

Liam holds her gaze for a brief moment and then breaks into a slow, self-effacing grin. “What can I say? If you plant a rumor to the right person’s ear, the Courts will chase each other over the cliff every time. It’s less about the money and more about making sure they win and look good doing it. I simply… provided incentive indirectly.”

“You’re an idiot, and you don’t need to fix things to be special,” she says firmly. “But I appreciate the thought and the effort, Liam.”

He nods, eyes softening. “I know that you hate when I spend money on you, so I thought I’d get others to spend it this time. It’s just a bonus that they’re people I dislike and of course, my jackass father.”

She makes a face, torn between being touched and wanting to murder him. “Touché,” she says, “but don’t make it a habit. We don’t want to be beholden to more bad guys, you know?”

Slade makes a pleased little hum. “This is honestly kind of beautiful to observe from the outside. You two could run a Fortune 500 before breakfast, if you ever got bored of the academic thing. There’s so much business acumen and ethics in one place, that you might even invent a corporation with a conscience. Fascinating.”

The rest of us snicker at the thought, but Morgana just rolls her eyes. “Okay, everyone laugh at me and then get over it. Time for the daily calibration. If we’re going to survive the next four days, we need to keep the wheels on, which means not getting caught tits up.”