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He laced our fingers together before leading me from the room, using his free hand to brush the wet strands of his hair out of his face. We were supposed to meet up in the meeting room, but I’d already been in our room when he’d sped in to grab a shower, so we decided to just walk together.
“No kidding,” I groaned, being reminded of my sore limbs. “They’rebrutal.”
That earned another chuckle from my mate as we hurried down the street. Of course, the meeting wouldn’t start without us, but it would suck to get the grouchy glare from Atlan over holding them up. Thankfully, we made it before Reese and Neo, so we weren’t the ones getting glared at.
Kiyomasa started us off with a grim look, and I knew from how he glanced at Sariel that things were about to go sideways from the jump.
“There are rumors that Lucia has conceived.”
Auren doesn’t even flinch, just nodding like this was all as he’d expected. “Credible?”
Kiyomasa nodded, pursing his lips. “Unfortunately.”
The twins watched my mate with an uncomfortable intensity, and I rubbed his knuckles when his fingers twitched between mine.
“Do we have an extraction plan yet? Have we reached out to Grel?” Auren asked.
As I reached out to Sariel, the conversation became a low buzz in the background.Are you okay?
He didn’t respond right away, and I wished I could help him process this. His eyes flicked to mine and softened marginally; he squeezed my hand.
I will be, he said.
Nodding, I decided that was the best I could hope for at the moment.
Sariel kissed my forehead, and the meeting flew by.
From what I gathered, we were still at square one with getting Michaelson and Lucia free of the Free Kingdom’s clutches, but Azazel had hit them where it hurt and destroyed one of their doorways into the States. Naturally, the public was declaring him a hero, never mind that he started the war in the first place.
“How many of our agents have we collected from the Upper Council?” Auren questioned, sounding thrilled at the prospect.
This was more cheerful news, and Zuzanna was beaming when she started reading off names and numbers, explaining that some of the older members who’d been captured returned without any intervention on their part. Most of it made no sense to me, but I guess that’s the point. The average person wouldn’t be able to decipher the locations or times she was rattling off, so the agents would be safe when they finally got to them.
In the end, Sariel hugged Auren—publicly, to everyone’s shock—and murmured something in his ear. The youngest Ambrose returned it a bit more hesitantly, leaning into the embrace a lot like how I imagined a person would handle a venomous snake.
What did you tell him?I asked when we left, and Sariel shrugged. In my opinion, that reaction had been a bit delayed, but what did I know? He’d been all over the place lately.
Just the truth. Life is too short for us to carry on as we have been. I missed my brother. All that sappy shit.
I giggled despite my best efforts, covering my mouth with one hand.
He mock-glared at me, pink tinting his cheeks. “What?”
“You’re just cute, that’s all.”
His disdain for the term trickled down the bond, and my giggles built into full-on laughter.
Sariel left me in the kitchen to help with lunch. To my shock, Reese and Neo were both there to help today. Neo gave me a brittle smile, and I tried to return it despite the uncomfortable vibe it radiated.
Reese rolled her eyes at our antics when I gave her a questioning look behind his back, smirking a bit.
I wanted to ask her about her and Auren’s pet project, but I figured there was really no point. She’d tried before to give me a vague answer, but the spell she’d agreed to had flared and nearly choked her out. Neo had been furious with us, even though he was equally furious that Auren had asked her to comply in the first place.
“I’m so sick of salad,” I confided when we saw the heads of lettuce piled up on the counter.
Neo chuckled. “Us and everyone else. You should petition your brother-in-law to feed us something else—or at least have a takeout day. I miss Thai food.”
Snorting, I shook my head and got to work slicing and dicing. We threw it into the clear bin that our salads would be scooped out of in near silence, though it wasn’t uncomfortable.
