Page 13 of My Salvation

Priest grinned. It figured Ari would know he’d update Gage. “As soon as Zoe is done with today’s spell center, they’re heading home to help the guys prep.”

Ari turned to his mate. “What’s our next step?”

Brie pulled out a small notebook from her back pocket. “I’ll be touching base with Ben later since he took over at the morgue. I handled our first batch of confirmed names from Noctem Falls, but I can’t do them all, so I want to go over some ‘breaking bad news’ basics I learned on the force with the guys.” She looked around, then paled. “I’m sorry, we were doing good news just now.”

The Queen sat down next to her mate. “In a way, it is good news, Brie. We can finally lay them to rest.”

Brennus wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

“Yeah, it’s not like they’re more dead because you’re talking about them,” Meryn added.

Everyone turned to stare.

She looked up from her phone. “What?”

Amelia closed her eyes and slumped back in her chair. “Tact, Meryn. Do you remember talking about tact?”

“Yeah, but then it seemed like a pain in the ass to keep track of conversations and people’s expressions and stuff. It’s too hard.”

Thane winced. “She’s technically not wrong.”

Meryn looked confused. “They’re still people even if they’re dead right? I don’t think they’d get pissy if we talked about them.”

“They’re still people,” the Queen whispered, then stood. “She’s absolutely right. We’ve been focusing too much on their deaths, not their lives.” She rushed over and hugged Meryn tight. “Thank you!” She hurried from the room, calling for Portia.

Brennus was frozen in shock for a moment, then practically sprinted from the room to keep up with his mate.

“Huh?” Meryn asked, looking at her squire.

Ryuu simply patted her on the head gently. “As usual, denka, you see things clearly.”

“I guess.”

Aiden stood, then stretched. “Meryn, did you want to come with me to meet the Vanguard?”

She leered. “Does a bear shit in the woods?”

Around the table, everyone began to crack up.

Aiden scooped up his mate, then turned to her adopted brothers. “What do you boys want to do?”

Pip exchanged glances with Nigel and Neil, who, in return, shrugged. Pip looked back over to Aiden. “Can we go to Dav’s and help with decorations?”

Aiden nodded. “Good idea. We’ll meet you there later.”

Priest also stood and fell in step with Aiden. When Aiden looked down and raised a brow, Priest simply pointed to Meryn. The pleased expression on Aiden’s face told him he made the right decision. With so many new warriors about, Ryuu and Pierce may need help keeping the Menace in line.

As they were leaving, Meryn popped up to look over Aiden’s shoulder at her cousin. “Amelia, we may need to add a Vanguard section to our database.”

A loud smack had Meryn’s eyes nearly popping out of her head as she rubbed her bottom. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

At the table, everyone was having a hard time breathing as they were laughing so hard.

“Rude!” Meryn yelled as Priest shut the door. Laughter from the Queen’s chambers was heard for a while as they walked down the hallway toward the front gate.

*****

It was nearly two hours later before the main portal lit, and squad after squad began to come through.

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