Page 56 of Asher

I feel the tingle of a teleport. “Zac?” I call.

“Yeah! Gimme a hand with this.”

Handing the eggs to Garrett, I head for the teleport room. Zac’s there with a long rectangular box almost as tall as he is. “What’s that?”

“The other half of the portable winch.” He glares at the box. “It’s so damn awkward to carry.”

“Yeah, sure,whydo we need a winch?”

The glare transfers to me. “Those crates were stacked five high, Asher. How were you planning to unstack them?”

I… had not thought of that. My face gets hot. “Well, you can barely balance your personal accounts,” I retort. It’s weak but true. Zac’s talent doesnotlie in numbers.

Just like mine apparently doesn’t lie in planning treasure retrieval adventures.

“Help me get this to the rest of the stuff,” he orders, and I pick up one end of the box. The motherfucker isheavy.

“Why didn’t you just take this stuff straight to the cave?” I huff as we maneuver out of the room and down the hall.

“Two reasons,” he says, barely panting. Damn him for being so fit. “First, I didn’t trust myself to just drop everything off and leave.”

“And the other reason?” We make it to the living room, where the rest of the gear is stacked, and set the box down with a whole lot of relief.

Zac dusts off his hands. “I was pretty sure if I went there without you all, one of you would hurt me.”

Hmm. “Possibly.” Definitely.

We go back to the kitchen, where it smells like the eggs are nearly done and Micah is looking marginally more awake.

“What’s the plan?” Garrett asks, getting plates out.

Zac sits at the table and steals Micah’s mug. “Joke’s on you,” Micah gloats. “It’s empty.”

Rolling my eyes, I pour coffee for us both and top off Garrett’s cup.

“Hey,” Micah whines. “What about me?”

“Can you revert to childhood another time?” Garrett interrupts. “What’s. The. Plan?”

Zac shrugs. “I just sent texts out to everyone who was with us last night to see who wants to come back with us. They have half an hour to decide and get ready, then we’re going.”

Garrett cheers and does a little happy dance. “Just wait until I tell Alistair I helped discover a treasure cave. He’s going to be so devastated.” The vicious glee in his voice makes me laugh as I help him dish up our breakfast.

“The first thing we’ll do,” Zac continues, “is set up the lights. Nobody touches anything until we have sufficient lighting to see what we’re dealing with.”

Garrett forks some egg into his mouth and gazes thoughtfully at my cousin. “I’ve never seen you be so authoritative before.”

Zac shrugs. “Normally it’s just me and the mountains. There’s nobody to boss around.”

Micah and I laugh so hard, I nearly choke, and Garrett passes me a glass of water with a raised eyebrow.

“Ignore them,” Zac says. “They think I was a bossy kid, but it’s not true. Asher was the bossy one.”

“I’m the oldest,” I protest. “I wasn’t bossing; I was leading.”

“Please stop,” Micah gasps. “I can’t breathe.”

Garrett turns back to Zac. “Are you sure you want to bring them along this morning? Treasure discovery is serious business.”

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