Page 61 of Micah

“Because he’s antisocial, or because you’re not dragons?” Arne asks. I scramble with my mouth open to think of something to say, but there’s nothing. He pats my hand. “You’re a good sort, Cam, and you always want to think the best of everyone. But not everyone is as good as you.”

Fuck.Fuck. If people complain to the council about Ronan, there’s every chance they’ll ask to have him replaced. Rejecting non-demons from the village because of personality clashes isn’t a great way to tell the world we want them to come here.

Unless… could Ronan be speciesist? I think back over every interaction I’ve had with him, and I really don’t think that’s it. I’ve touched him casually a few times in conversation, and he’s never shied away. He looks unhappy to be here, but not disdainful or antagonistic.

“How many of you feel this way?” Zac asks, and Arne shrugs.

“Pretty much everyone he’s spoken to more than once,” he says. “They elected me to say something about it. We don’t want to make it official and cause trouble, but if you could have a word with him, maybe he could ask to be transferred? It would make everyone happy.”

“I’ll definitely have a word,” Zac promises, and something in his tone makes me pull my phone out of my pocket and text Garrett under the table.

r u home? Problem

“We don’t need to be dealing with this kind of attitude in our own home,” Arne is saying. “We don’t want to cause trouble, but we will if we have to.”

My phone rings in my hand, and I answer it with relief. “Garrett! Hi.”

“What’s wrong?” he asks frantically. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” I assure him, smiling big at Zac and Arne. “But actually, Zac and I might come over. We have something to talk to you about.”

“Zac? Why… oh that’s right, Micah’s in Milan. Okay, come over. Can you give me a hint? Do we want coffee or something stronger?”

“Something stronger, for sure.” I end the call on his moan. “Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Arne. We’ll discuss it with Garrett and make a plan.”

He doesn’t look convinced, so I follow up with my brightest smile and push back my chair to stand. Unfortunately, I somehow get my foot tangled in it and nearly fall.

“Are you okay?” Zac asks as my chair goes flying and I catch myself on the table with my forearm. Ouch.

“All good,” I declare, looking around for my chair and gratefully seeing that it caused no damage. “We better go. Garrett’s waiting.”

Hopefully, he’ll have an idea to fix this.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

Micah

Asher wasn’tclear in his text about why I needed to get home as soon as possible, but I still didn’t waste any time. Luckily, my meeting was wrapping up anyway. I got the client’s signoff on the new drawings, shook hands, promised an update soon, and got out of there.

Now, as I step out of the teleport room at the house I share with my cousins, I wonder what could possibly have happened in just a few hours. At least Cam’s okay—Zac would have been the one to message me if something had happened to him.

Raised voices lead me to the kitchen, where Cam and Zac are facing down while Garrett and Asher watch. I may have spoken too soon.

Is… is Garrett recording this? I can’t think why else he’d have his phone pointed at them.

“Hello?” I call, pitching it to cut through Cam’s shout that Zac’s a stupid, intolerant shit-for-brains. All heads turn toward me. “What’s going on?”

Cam, Zac, and Garrett all start speaking at once, the words jumbling together in a wall of nonsensical sound. Asher just sneers.

I dump my folio on the kitchen table and fold my arms across my chest. “One at a time. No yelling. Cam?”

Zac scoffs, and I shoot him a glare. What the fuck is wrong with everyone?

Sniffing in disdain, Cam says, “Everybody in the village thinks Ronan is speciesist and wants him out. But he’s just unhappy, Micah, I know it. We can’t let him think he’s not wanted.” He sounds on the verge of tears, and I have to wonder if maybe this has hit a sore spot for him. He doesn’t know Ronan well enough to be so emotional otherwise.

Before I can ask for details, Zac interrupts. “You don’t know that he’s unhappy.” He sounds exasperated, like he’s said this a few times already. “All we know is that he’s being an ass.”

Cam immediately starts yelling again. I meet Asher’s gaze, and he raises a brow as if to say “See?”

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