Page 4 of The Umbra King

“I would have helped if you’d asked,” Dume said from the other side of the bar.

She shot her oldest friend a glare, and he stared right back.

Dume became her best friend the moment she and Cora met him in grade one. Before long, the three were attached at the hip, including after school and weekends. They might as well have been siblings.

“I’ve told you a million times I will not ask you to work on your nights off,” Rory called from her position on the floor. “You worry too much about everyone else.”

Dume’s short, dark hair, and small, light horns appeared in her line of sight. “And I have told you—helping you is not working.”

He was a handsome man with a muscular build, dark skin, and big, innocent eyes. His good looks might have swayed the other women, but not her.

She stood and wiped her hands on her jeans before testing the tap. “Sit back down. Your next drink is on me.”

He shook his head. “You know I don’t drink.”

“One day you’ll say yes,” she quipped as she looked over Dume’s shoulder and rolled her eyes at the man approaching the bar. “Hey, Keith.”

Keith flashed his perfect teeth and winked. “If it isn’t my favorite bartender.”

Her eyes took in his finely tailored suit, and she shook her head. Keith was aShifterand one of the biggest playboys in Erdikoa. His tall, fit build, hair Kordie called sandy blonde, and light eyes Kordie said were blue, had men and women from across the realm flocking to him in packs.

Rory wiped down the bar in front of her. “Whatever you say, wolf.”

He frowned. “Why do you always say that like it’s a bad thing? I could be a squirrel instead of the magnificent beast I am.”

Dume grumbled something under his breath, and Rory twisted her mouth to the side to keep from laughing. Keith drove Dume crazy, but she knew he would drop everything to help the wolf if he ever needed it.

If Keith was off work from the bank, then that meant Kordie would be here soon. Rory had known Keith and Kordie for about five years; the two would come into the bar after work, as would Dume, and it wasn’t long before Kordie forced them all to be friends.

Kordie was three years older than Rory and Dume, one year older than Keith, and had always been the peppy one of the group despite being the oldest.

“Hey, bitches!” Kordie’s loud voice came from across the room as she bounded through the door. Rory had no idea how that loud of a voice came out of such a small body. Rory waved to her friend. Kordie’s hair was a different color today than yesterday and cut off at her shoulders. It changed often.

“What color is your hair today?” Rory called across the bar.

Kordie picked through the after-work crowd. “Purple. It looksfabulous.” She waved her hand in Rory’s general direction. “It would go great with your eyes.”

Rory shook her head as her mouth suppressed a grin. “Never going to happen.”

Kordie was anAlchemist, and sinceAlchemistswere the only mysticsable to perform spells and create potions, she had an affluent beauty salon across the street.

Her spells could make a bridge troll look like aRoyal. Not that bridge trolls were real; they were creatures from children’s bedtime stories Rory had been convinced lived under her bed as a child.

Her friend huffed and planted her hands on her hips. She had a petite frame, and her light skin flushed from head to toe when she was angry, and it took all Rory’s strength not to laugh. She was as far from intimidating as one could get.

Kordie was the exact opposite of Rory, who was five-foot-eight with a lean, rectangular body shape. Her boobs were small, and she had to work hard in the gym for what little ass she had.

“I should do it anyway,” Kordie mumbled. “You would thank me.”

“Beer, liquor, or wine?” Rory asked her, changing the subject.

Kordie sighed as she slid onto the barstool next to Keith. “Make it liquor.”

“I’ll take the same,” Keith added. “Since you forgot to ask me.”

Rory slid Keith’s bourbon across the bar. “I keep hoping you’ll go run with a pack and leave me alone.”

He glared over his glass, taking a long drink as Kordie laughed.Shiftersdidn’t have any animalistic qualities other than being able to turn into one, and Keith hated it when the girls insinuated otherwise.

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