Page 103 of House of Mages and Raven

“You can’t be serious, Rowan,” Louis said.

“I second the vamp,” Silas added.

Rowan posed for a fight, and Louis and Silas put down their drinks, unfazed. The trio were about to come to blows.

“Wow, cool off, guys!” Cade called, inserting himself between Rowan and the other heirs. “Didn’t we swear that we’d never fight over a female when we were kids? That’s a gentlemen’s pact! Come, sit, have a drink, and be cool.”

Rowan held my hand tightly and led me to a cushioned seat. Other supernaturals were eyeing us, but without an heir’s invitation, they wouldn’t dare come over, even though those women seemed like they really wanted to introduce themselves to the heirs. They resorted to glaring at me in envy and hostility.

Cade poured two fingers of whiskey into a round of glasses and offered a drink to Rowan first to calm him down, then distributed a glass to each heir. I got one too.

“Shaken.” The mage prince lifted his glass.

I registered the catchphrase fromDiamonds Are Forever. Barbie had binge-watched the James Bond movies when we tried to survive in the mortal realm.

“Not stirred,” I responded, even though Cade hadn’t exactly made James Bond’s cocktail with gin, vermouth, a slice of lemon peel, and four olives.

He nodded at me with a smile.

The heirs lifted their glasses and shook before emptying them.

I drained mine as well, loving the burning down my throat. I could get used to this fast-lane living. Barbie didn’t view me as sophisticated, but I fit in with this crowd just fine.

While I was having a good time, the tension remained thick between the heirs. With an exasperated sigh, Cade gestured to the bottles on the hard glass table. “Killian will charge us an arm and a leg for all the fine booze. Where the hell is he?”

He was using the chaos prince as a distraction to reduce the high testosterone level in the room when four alpha males were together.

“Where else?” Silas shrugged. “With his betrothed. He’s pussy-whipped now.”

“I met Prince Killian once,” I chimed in. “I was supposed to fetch Barbie’s stuff that she left behind in the House of Chaos, but he refused to let me pack her thing. He was rude to me.”

“He’s a control freak,” Rowan growled in displeasure. “He doesn’t know who you are to me, but I’ll make sure Killian gets the memo and won’t be rude to you again.”

“When is he evernotrude to anyone?” Silas added. “Don’t worry about that jerk, Sy. I’ll have a harsh word with him and make him return Barbie’s stuff tomorrow.”

I nodded my thanks, then said, “I heard that this is his infamous haunt.” I needed to ease the sexual tension between me and the three heirs by keeping myself talking, as the attraction started to become so much that I had a hard time thinking straight.

“It is,” Cade said. “Killian is a billionaire with a different persona in the mortal world. Humans would shudder if they knew there was an immortal shark among them.”

“How much money does he need?” Silas said. “Talk about greed.”

“Greed or not, my stocks plunged,” Louis said. “The human world is unstable now with political unrest and global wars.”

“Just don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Rowan advised, nearly dragging me into his lap while he watched Silas and Louis like a hawk.

“What’s happening in the mortal world will reflect on our realm,” Cade said. “The time for change has come. We either roll with it, or get left behind. I don’t want to spend so much time watching the market. It’s tiresome. I’ll just buy whatever Killian is buying. He almost never loses.”

The princes calmed down after the business talk. It might be boring, but at least they weren’t talking politics.

A hostile energy rolled toward me, and the corner of my eye caught Barbie in a red gown heading toward me.

Shit!

Wait, it wasn’t Barbie. Barbie detested red attire. It was Grace. Of course, the Princess of the Underworld would gun for me and remind me of my place. She just had no fucking idea where my place was.

The heirs watched the princess approach, flanked by her minions. Some of them used to be Barbie’s geek friends. No one stopped Grace due to her status. And when it came to a catfight between the bride candidates, the princes usually stood by and let the girls run the show. I wasn’t a candidate, but I was qualified as a superhot chick, which would draw fire.

Rowan tensed beside me, but he was sitting it out for now. The only one who hadn’t given a fuck about any rules or his own reputation was Killian, when he tried to stop the duel between Medea and Barbie to prevent his stepsister from killing Barbie. Even if the chaos prince were here, he wouldn’t protect me. He only cared for Barbie, but she was too blind and vengeful to see it.

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