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“I have better manners,” he deadpans, unfazed by her default sarcasm.
I can’t stop my snort. He barely bats an eye at Madigan’s attitude, but then again, she’s not as feral as I was the first time I met him. Rin flat-out cackles at his comment, swiping at her cheeks as if Imryll has brought her to tears.
“Why is that funny?” Madi asks.
“He’s as much an animal as the rest of us,” Rin tells her. “He likes to pretend that he isn’t, but—”
“Imy keeps himself on a tighter leash,” I say, interrupting her, though my statement only makes her laugh more. “He does have better manners than Ecaeris, though.”
“That’s not saying much,” Madi mumbles.
Imryll furrows his brow, his intense stare fixating on Rinya. “I’m not an animal.”
“Oh?” she hums. “Did Ada tell you about that handsome Mongrel from the butcher shop asking her—”
“Rin,” I chastise, palming my forehead to stop the incoming headache.
“What Mongrel would that be?” Imy asks, his eyes now narrowing into slits as his fingers cool against my skin.
Rinya shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“No Mongrel,” I declare with a huff. “I haven’t even been in the butcher’s shop. She’s just stirring shit up with you to prove her point.”
Imryll glares at Rin. Not that it does him any good. In fact, it does the exact opposite.
“Animal.” The pixie of a guard smiles unapologetically. “Thanks for breakfast, though. Now, you can stop freezing Ada and go back to the clinic so we can have our girls’ day.”
He chuckles to himself before pointing at her. “We’re going to talk about that. It’s not nice, and we’re trying to show the future Shade queen that we’re—”
“No, we’re not,” she confidently tells him. “I’ll do what I do, and you can do what you do. It’s kind of sweet when you’re possessive over Ada. But take it somewhere else, want you? We’re in the middle of something.”
I sigh. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?”
“No,” Rin and Imy answer at the same time.
Madigan’s lips tip upward like she wants to smile. “Your guy?”
“One of them,” Imy responds before I can fumble through an explanation. “When you ladies finish your girls’ day, stop by the clinic. I’m not sure how comfortable you are with the conversation, Madigan, but we have a doctor from Earth here, and he was concerned about Ada’s previous birth control. It’s something to consider while you’re visiting with us.”
She furrows her brow, casting a glance at her arm. “I didn’t think about that, but thank you. We’ll stop by.”
Imy tips his head at her, then leans in to kiss me on the cheek, before he takes his leave. And Rinya gawks at me like I’ve suddenly grown a second set of eyes.
“Since when does he do that?” she asks a little too loudly.
The lady from the bakery drops three mugs of tea at our table, and I smile politely. She does a double-take when she sees Madigan or senses her elemental power, but she doesn’t say a word.
“Uhm, I’m not sure,” I tell Rin. “They all do it now. I don’t know when it started happening, though. Am I supposed to track those things?”
“Yeah, but Imy?” She shakes her head, trying to get her point across. “He’s not exactly a public kind of Mongrel. Connak, I could understand. Maybe even Ecaeris and Talodus… But Imy? No.”
“So, how many guys have you collected?” Madi teases. “I’ve seen three, I believe.”
“Four,” Rinya answers on my behalf.
I sigh with exasperation.. “I’m not collecting them.”
“No. They were a collection before you got here,” Rin divulges. “But you can’t have one without the others. Could you even pick just one?”
