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“Come in before you frighten the neighbors.”
The apartment smelled like food, and somewhere beyond the entryway, Keegan was arguing about wine. It was all so aggressively domestic that I became even more suspicious.
Doryu sat at one end of the couch with a laptop on the coffee table in front of him. Ignatius occupied the other with a glass of red wine and the air of a man who’d never once entered a room without immediately becoming the most important person in it.
He looked up as I approached and greeted me warmly enough that some of my suspicion shifted into confusion.
“We’ve never actually been introduced properly.”
“We’ve been in the same room approximately thirty times.”
Ignatius appeared completely untroubled by that observation. “Being in the same room isn’t the same as being introduced.”
Before I could point out that Keegan could’ve arranged an introduction at the arena without making it resemble a summons, Drake pressed a beer into my hand and suggested I drink it before I got any more sarcastic.
“I’m French-Canadian. This is me being restrained.”
Doryu murmured something about being grateful he hadn’t met me unleashed, which made Ignatius laugh.
Nobody looked worried.
That should’ve reassured me, but it didn’t.
I sat opposite Ignatius and took a drink before asking the question that had occupied most of my drive over. “Am I here because of the council?”
Keegan immediately assured me I wasn’t, and some of the pressure between my shoulders finally eased.
“Then next time, you might want to mention that before telling a dragon your uncle wants a private drink.”
“I’ll remember.”
Ignatius looked entirely too entertained by the exchange, but the humor faded when Doryu closed whatever he’d been looking at on his laptop.
“I heard Ash on the phone today.”
For a moment, my brain refused to make the adjustment.
I’d spent the drive preparing for Melanie, dragon secrecy, or some other council problem. I hadn’t prepared for Ash because I’d already spent every other fucking minute of the day thinking about him.
“What happened?”
Doryu explained that he’d been coming down the corridor to meet Keegan when he heard the end of Ash’s conversation. He hadn’t caught enough to identify the person on the other end, but he’d heard Ash tell someone to stay the fuck away from a man, followed by a demand for payment.
“He saw me and almost immediately ended the call. I asked if everything was okay, and he said it was family shit.”
The beer suddenly felt too cold against my fingers.
Family.
Ash’s voice from earlier came back with uncomfortable clarity.
I have my own shit to deal with.
I’d said Your father, and he’d denied it without ever actually denying it.
I set the bottle on the table. “His father.”
Keegan leaned forward, his expression sharpening, and I explained that I didn’t know for certain but I’d put money on it. They waited for more, and for a few seconds, I considered telling them the rest was none of their business.
