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Zac shakes his head incredulously. “Did you just clap your hands like we’re babies?”
“Act like babies, be treated like babies. Also, Garrett does it and I’ve picked up the habit. Come on. We don’t want to piss him off again.”
“Do we need any gear?” Zac stands and goes to grab his coat off the hook by the back door.
“No, everything’s still in the cave.” Micah’s watching me, his expression back to demon-blank. I wish I knew what he was thinking. He holds a hand out to me as Zac rejoins us, buttoning his coat, and I take it.
The familiar whirl of teleporting is welcome. It gives me a valuable second away from Micah’s gaze. What am I going to do now?
The teleport room at the post office is exactly as I remember it—boring. We step out so Zac and Asher can follow, and we’re just in time to see the door to the council meeting room open.
“…show them the cave, and then go from there,” Garrett is saying. He steps into the hall, sees us, and mouths, “Help.”
Damaris’s voice carries out to us. “I really think it would be more comfortable for Ronan and Fabian to stay with me.”
“What now?” Asher murmurs from behind us, and I look over my shoulder.
“We didn’t hear it all, but Garrett wants help.”
Sighing, he ducks around us and strides forward. Garrett is still loitering right outside the meeting room door, and I can see half of Wil too.
“Sorry to interrupt, but we need to get going,” Asher calls. “Ready?”
“No.” Damaris is standing firm. “We haven’t decided where our guests are staying.”
“We set up a house for them,” Asher tells her. “Remember? The pantry is stocked and everything.”
“That’s not very homey or welcoming, though.”
“What’s she up to?” Zac whispers. “She doesn’t ever invite strangers to stay with her.”
“Grandmother,” Asher begins, a note of strained patience in his voice. “I’m about ninety percent certain that we can make our guests feel welcome and at home while also allowing them the privacy of their own accommodations. What if they came to family dinner tonight?”
There’s a moment of frigid silence, during which we all know Asher is now on Damaris’s shit list. “Very well. If you think that’s the best path. I would hate to make anyone feel bulldozed or uncomfortable.”
I wince. “Poor Asher,” I whisper to Micah, who shrugs.
“He’ll survive. She still loves him for marrying Garrett.”
Garrett and Asher manage to extricate all the dragons and firmly close the door, then hustle them toward us. “This is Zac,” Garrett introduces. “Have any of you ever been teleported before?”
Three heads shake, but Fabian nods enthusiastically. “Sure! There was this demon, and—”
“Just a yes is enough, Fabian,” Wil interrupts. “Especially if this is from before you met Rhys. Nobody needs to hear about your sex life.”
“Yes.” Fabian nods again. “I’ve been teleported.”
“Did you feel sick after? I’m not sure if teleport sickness affects dragons,” Garrett frets.
“I was a little nauseous, but that could also have been because of the… uh. Because of other stuff we were doing.”
I’m so curious now. I make a mental note to ask Fabian about it when Wil’s not around.
“So you might feel a tad unwell,” Garrett warns. “One of my delightful demon in-laws will take hold of your shoulder or arm or something, and a moment after that, we’ll be in the cave.”
Steffen frowns. “Why can’t we fly up there?”
“You can if you’d like to, but we don’t have any markers outside the cave. So you’d need to wait until we get up there and can wave at you.”
