Page 71 of The Demon's Discovery
He reached out and punched my arm. “Knock it off. She’s half stone kin, I doubt she’s in much trouble here. Us on the other hand…” He playfully threw a suspicious look at Magnus.
“I’m offended, demon. Does our friendship mean nothing to you?”
“It means plenty to me, it’sthemI’m concerned about.” He gestured widely with his hands.
“You’re welcome here. And just hug, the pair of you. Or fight. Whichever it’s to be, have done with it so we can move on with our day,” Magnus grumbled playfully, pushing us both at the shoulder.
I found myself smiling and did indeed embrace my brother. No matter how cross I pretended to be, it was always good to see him in the flesh.
“Are you here to satisfy your damnable curiosity?” I asked.
He chuckled as we followed Magnus back the way he’d just come, toward the meetinghouse that was now buzzing with activity. “I’m here because I was invited to the conclave for a celebration.”
“So, this has been in the works a while,” I said, looking accusatorially at Magnus. The three of us were quite the curiosity as we walked through the stone kin settlement. People stopped what they were doing to watch us pass.
“He was only summoned last night,” Magnus admitted.
“Quite a trip on such short notice! How did you travel?”
“I flew us, as you had my carriage,” he said, theobviouslysilent but heavily implied. “Anyhow, you have a magic problem.I can help with that. Not to mention you brought up having made a very rare elixir as though it were an unimportant sideline detail.”
“So … yes?”
“Yes,” he grumbled. “I’mintenselycurious about several things we’ve discussed lately. So here I am.”
“Wonderful.” I smiled widely as we joined the chaos that was unavoidable in front of the meetinghouse.
As we assisted with moving around tables, stringing up lanterns and other manual labor, the stone kin seemed to become less and less apprehensive about our presence. Having Magnus there with us certainly helped, but once they decided we weren’t there to sow discord, most became cautiously friendly.
A group of women began to gossip in frantic whispers at one point, and they set off on a new project without a backward glance, leaving us to finish up the tasks we’d been directed to do. As we were finishing up the last strand of lanterns between tall trees, d’Arcan’s carriage came back into the square.
Magnus tilted his head, a roguish smile spreading across his face as Grace climbed out. He immediately jogged over to greet her and collect her single bag. He leaned in and kissed her soundly, lifting her off the ground with one arm around her waist as she squealed in surprise and laughed.
“Would you look at that,” Rylan muttered, an amused grin on his mouth.
“You’ve missed quite a lot of that sort of thing,” I admitted, dusting off my hands.
“They look happy.”
I nodded. “Seem to be.”
Magnus gestured around, Grace tucked protectively under his arm, as he led her back toward us. She brightened but seemed uncharacteristically nervous as she glanced at all the stone kin who were now watching her instead of us.
Rylan opened his arms wide. “Hello, Grace.”
“Archmage,” she greeted him, returning his hug. “Mr. Feland,” she said, head inclined my way.
“We’ve talked about this,” I reminded her, one eyebrow raised.
“Habits.” She smiled back, but I knew better. Her formality was a dead giveaway that she was nervous. Couldn’t say I blamed her, she was a lone human amongst dozens of monsters. Friendly ones, for the most part, and she was involved with one of the largest and oldest, but still.
“We could have just brought you with us, you know. Saved Clem a trip.”
“I wasn’t planning on coming,” she admitted. Her furious blush and glance at Magnus told me that he’d done something to convince her.
“I was going to fly you here later either way,” Magnus growled, the serene smile still plastered on his face. He was enamored by her. A fool in love. But still afraid to see the scowl of disapproval she wore.
It suddenly occurred to me that we all might look like that, and all the levity left my body. Rylan certainly did whenever Calla was in view, and Magnus did at even the mention of Grace. The thought that I did as well made me sputter on my own breath. Two demon princes and a gargoyle knight all struck silly with hearts in our eyes over our mates? It was ridiculous. Laughable even.
