“Why does no one ever ask me that?” Mac grumbled.
“Oh my, no.” Patty was back in front of him, squeezing his cheeks again. “You’re much too nice and kind and uninterested. Aren’t you uninterested? You seem so. In the business we’ve discussed, at least. You’re interested in the weird mage, though, right?” She released him so she could tap her finger to the side of her nose. “Aunt Patty notices everything. And why did the family decide to stop by?”
“Dad thought it would be nice if we visited Uncle Auzzie,” Mac answered. “We haven’t seen him in a while. Except for the other night, but some of us didn’t act properly.”
Patty surveyed Aurora immediately. “Ah, love, that’s okay. Of course it is!” She bent to lightly touch Aurora’s cheek, making the young woman freeze. “I heard all about that trouble in the past. You still looked up to him anyway, of course, and then he left.” She tsked. “It must’ve been very hard for you. Good for you for not keeping it bottled inside. Maybe just don’t…incite the gargoyle, hmm?
We’re a prickly breed, all of us. Very unpredictable.”
“Don’t be alarmed,” Nessa said. “This woman has the real estate for the gossip mill.”
“Well.” Patty straightened up, looking around again. “Good.” She drifted toward Tristan, smiling up at him for no particular reason. “And how are you finding things? Quite the change from ordinary cairn life, hmm? Gerard is gleeful about what is going on here. When he’s not too drunk to fly, that is.
I’ve heard he was bragging to some of his closer cairn leader friends about all the training and the upcoming battle and all that. His gargoyles positively revere him for joining the fray—getting to work with you and two powerful and very advanced alpha shifter leaders…”
She nodded as though to herself before looking everyone over.
A moment later, she leaned into Tristan again, lowering her voice. “I think this convocation idea is a wonderful way of including the gargoyles, don’t you? It isn’t a cairn; it is a collection of various creatures and leaders all working together. Gerard can be a part of this without jeopardizing his cairn.” She put her finger in the air. “He’s not in Jessie’s cairn or Austin’s pack—he is part of the whole.”
She leaned away again, her brow furrowed.
“No, no,” she said, clearly having a conversation with herself. “That explanation is too confusing.” Back to Tristan. “But you see what I’m saying, don’t you? The convocation is an umbrella, see? Other cairn leaders can be under it, too, but they all keep their current cairn status in the gargoyle world. Because a convocation is a large, formal assembly of people.” She tapped his arm. “I looked it up. It isn’t gargoyle, it isn’t shifter, it isn’t mage—it’s a meeting of the minds led by a faction of each.”
“Oh I like this,” Nessa said softly, throwing a grape at Sebastian. “Are you listening? It won’t be the shifters taking on the Guild and Momar, it’ll be a convocation. Not one species against another, but a group of us trying to establish a sort of governing power for the magical world at large.”
Kingsley blew out a breath. “When you go for something, Austin, you really go big.”
“Go big or go home,” Austin replied.
“Go big. Yes!” Patty poked Tristan this time. “We’re onto something. Okay, let’s let that stew for now. There is no sense in getting ahead of ourselves. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Get some rest.” She pointed at everyone in turn. “No sleep for the wicked was said by people who did not do a good job at wickedness. Remember that.”
“What?” Mac asked as she bustled down the hall.
“You really just need to roll with that woman.” Nessa started laughing. “I love her.”
Austin’s family stayed for a little longer, Kingsley wanting more details about the weapons exchange. Then they left, Kingsley muttering about the need to tell Earnessa about the barbecue.
Apparently none of them thought she’d be thrilled to not have planned a pack event herself.
I didn’t mention that it was definitely better this way. Otherwise she would’ve gotten steamrolled by Patty and the other garhettes, and her frustration level would probably have caused her a coronary.
“What are we thinking?” Nessa asked after they’d all said goodbye. Aurora had barely made eye contact with Austin, but Mac and Kingsley had both given me a hug. “Should we make food? I’m hungry and still very stressed. Austin, what do you think? Want to have a small cookoff?”
Austin’s hand drifted down to the small of my back. He kissed my temple, and I could tell his heart was full. Kingsley was making a big effort to heal the hurts of the past. To bring Austin closer into the family fold and accept me as one of them. It was touching and sweet and made me feel all gooey inside.
“Are we going to talk about the whole going-dark situation?” Austin asked, pulling open the
fridge.
“Whoa, whoa, no way.” Nessa slid across the floor, bumping into him and shutting the fridge door.
“You can’t just decide what we’re going to make. And no to your question, too—we’re going to ignore it for tonight. Otherwise no one will get any sleep and our wickedness will suffer. Patty said so.”
My stomach twisted. I hadn’t really let myself process the news with everyone else here. Now, though, the implications increased my heartbeat. The unknown was bearing down on us.
“We’re ignoring it!” Nessa pushed me to a cutting board. “We’ll get you something to chop.
Austin, what are we making?”
“Something with salt,” he responded, waiting next to the fridge.
“Har har. The chicken the other night wasn’t that bland.”
“It was so bland I wondered if you had taste buds.”
“God your jokes are terrible,” Nessa said, shoving Austin a little farther away so she could get at the fridge.
“You know,” Sebastian said, looking off into the nothing. “You guys were worried Nessa and me would get picked on when we came here. Instead, the alpha, the alpha’s mate, the shifter beta, and some of the gargoyles all got picked on. Not us. Not once.”
I picked out a knife, grateful for something to occupy my mind, even if it involved cooking.
“Maybe on some level, they knew how much we’d need you.”
“Or maybe they didn’t think we were enough sport,” Sebastian murmured, still looking away.
“Maybe they are going to be entirely blindsided by what a group of powerful mages can do.”
THIRTY-ONE
Jessie