Three werewolves, two dragons, two vampires, a telepath, a skinwalker, and Bryn lounged around the sleek gas fireplace at the far end of the bakery. Plus me, of course. Two empty bottles of champagne and a white china platter dusted with cake crumbs had been abandoned on a low table nestled between the couch and a close grouping of chairs.
I was pretty sure that Bryn was asleep. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have minded snuggling up to Warner and napping myself. The werewolves were busily plotting something nefarious — judging by their chortling — in the corner by the window. Hopefully not my bachelorette party.
Though before that became an issue, I still had to get through the bridal shower my mother was hosting the following afternoon.
To the disappointment of more than half of the gathered Adepts, the elf hadn’t made another appearance. Even the three werewolves hadn’t been able to pick up any trace of her magic. All the hunters had showed up just as the bakery closed, Warner settling on the couch, thoughtfully quiet. But Kandy, Lara, and Drake had happily drowned their sorrows in chocolate and cupcakes while exuberantly trading outrageous tales of their skiing exploits.
Jasmine had been coaxed out of the upstairs apartment, but as always, she was more interested in communing with her laptop than in conversing. With her eyes perpetually glued to the low-lit screen, her long, dark-blond curls formed a barrier between her and the rest of the bakery’s occupants. But at least she’d decided to join us. I knew what being surrounded by this much magic was like for a person who felt out of place — and I didn’t have to worry about accidentally biting anyone if I got overwhelmed. Unless stabbing someone with my jade knife counted as an equally inappropriate reaction. If so — been there, done that.
At a table next to the fledgling vampire, Drake and Kett were engaged in a chess game. Judging by Drake’s increasingly determined grunting, I was fairly certain the executioner was beating him handily.
Snow had begun falling in earnest about an hour earlier. It was accumulating so quickly that the windows were already edged with tiny drifts, and the cobblestones had been completely covered despite the foot traffic that had remained steady throughout the evening. If we were going to get back to Vancouver, I was going to have to leave the last of the cleaning to Bryn and Maia. Conveniently, though, the Whistler bakery was going to be closed Sundays and Mondays for the immediate future, so they wouldn’t have to polish every surface that night.
Warner shifted off the couch to settle on the coffee table in front of me, grabbing my calf and shucking off my sneaker. He began to massage my foot with the focus he usually reserved for gutting demons … or for sex.
I stifled a pleased groan, but there were way too many people in the room — including an actual telepath — for me to let my thoughts wander. Though Peggy seemed otherwise occupied, engaged as she was in some interaction with Maia that included a lot of references to their phones and taking pictures of each other. The telepath had spent the entire evening studiously avoiding any and all conversation that included Drake. A smart move on her part for multiple reasons, including the fact that Drake appeared to be more intrigued by magic than people. As such, if Peggy misread his intentions, it might easily lead to her having her heart broken.
With the lone exception of my mother and father — who had created me in the mix — dragons didn’t seem to have relationships with anyone but other dragons. Assuming they even had those kinds of relationships at all. I expected that had a lot to do with simply being stronger, faster, and more powerful than every other type of Adept — and the fact that unbalanced relationships didn’t have much longevity. Even an eighteen-year-old dragon thought of future plans in terms of decades, not years or months.
“What am I being buttered up for?” I whispered to Warner. I didn’t want to disturb Bryn, who was lightly dozing beside me.
He chuckled quietly as he continued to work on my foot. “Kett wishes to continue with his elaborate plans for my bachelor party.”
“Okay …”
Warner leaned forward. “And if I’m about to leave the country, I’d like a moment alone with you. Upstairs, perhaps?”
Placing a hand on his chest, I pushed him slightly away. He accepted it with a grin that told me he was content to be compliant. For the moment, at least. “You’re leaving the country? With Kett?”
He shrugged. “We’re bringing Drake. And your father and Qiuniu are joining us at some point. So what could possibly happen?”
I said nothing, just letting my mind momentarily boggle at all the craziness that might occur under those exact circumstances.
Warner removed my other sneaker, digging into the tender muscles of my left arch. “Don’t fret. We’ll be back in time.”
“I should hope so. The wedding isn’t for five days.”
He chuckled, then sobered thoughtfully. “But you’ll text Kett if the elf surfaces again. I’m not a fan of games. I’m only a portal away if you need me. And your father would be happy for an excuse to visit Vancouver.”
I glanced toward the windows, eyeing the snowfall. “We need to take off soon if we’re going to make it back to Vancouver ourselves.”
A sly grin slipped across Warner’s face. “I’ll help you pack.”
I laughed quietly, downed the final sip of my hot chocolate, then nudged Bryn awake. “Hey, babe. Good opening.”
She laughed, blinking her dark-brown eyes sleepily. “Yeah, I think the bakery is going to do okay.”
“We’re going to have to abandon you, though,” I said. “I’m concerned about the roads.”
She nodded, stretching. “I’ll tally the sales in the morning and send you an email.”
“Boo-yah!” Drake crowed, slamming down a chess piece on Kett’s side of the board. Possibly his queen? I wasn’t exactly an aficionado of the game, so a lot of the pieces looked the same to me.
Peggy and Maia both flinched.
Drake pumped his fists in the air, holding them aloft as he looked at all of us, silently declaring his victory.
Kett eyed the fledgling guardian. Then he slowly and deliberately lifted his hand and slid his castle across the board with a single finger. Or maybe that was a queen as well? “Checkmate.”
“What?” Drake cried. “No …”
Kandy started guffawing. She sprang out of her seat, catching Drake in a headlock. Warner threw his head back and laughed. Then Kett joined in with a warm chuckle — a thing I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard from him before.
Jasmine looked up from her computer, shocked. Then, smiling softly, she closed her laptop to watch Drake and Kandy playfully tussle.
And for just that moment, I felt completely, utterly blissful. I breathed the feeling in. Soon, we’d be splitting up and racing the snow back to Vancouver. Then all the annoying bits of the final wedding prep would intrude on my life, including my grandmother’s disappointment over every choice I made — from the tiny guest list, to the color of the flowers, to the fold of the napkins.
But for right now, Bryn and I had just opened a second bakery that appeared to have been well received, and the evening was filled with friends and laughter, chocolate and cupcakes. I was surrounded by the family I’d chosen, for love and friendship. Not the one that had been foisted upon me by the circumstances of my birth. Though obviously, I loved Gran, Scarlett, and Yazi as well. But this was a gathering of people I would die for. People I would never, ever willingly hurt.
And it was perfect.
Then someone rapped their knuckles on the glass front door.
Every predator in the room fell into silent alert mode. So, like, all of us, excepting Bryn and Peggy.
A group of people stood huddled in the snow outside the bakery. Surrounded by so much potent magic within the storefront, I hadn’t tasted the separate tenor of the newcomers’ magic as they’d approached. But I could taste it now. Sorcerers. And —
“Who’s that?” Bryn asked.
“Oh,” Peggy cried, flinging herself off the couch. “I was supposed to text when I was done work. We’re staying the weekend. Skiing!”
Yep. Another Talbot — most likely Angelica — had just knocked imperiously on my bakery window. What other Adept would have had the courage to startle the amount of power lounging around the fireplace?
I sighed, regretfully tugging my foot from Warner’s grasp and pushing myself up off the couch. I was going to have to be pleasant to sorcerers. Especially these ones, who were not only under my protection but partly in my employ. And although he wasn’t currently with the rest of the family members gathered on the other side of the glass door, Liam Talbot had proven to be a more-than-useful associate over the past three months, using his connections with the city police and the RCMP to try to track the elves by nonmagical means in and around Vancouver.
Liam was currently investigating an odd series of break-ins around the city, during which nothing appeared to have been taken and the property damage was so minimal that it would normally barely rank as a police matter. It seemed likely that the events were nothing more than teens goofing around, but we were all wary enough that we would grasp at any straw.
All the magical means we’d used to try to find the elves — including the witches’ grid — had come up with zilch. This was especially and utterly annoying to my grandmother, since identifying and tracking magic was the primary reason the grid had been created. I had overheard Gran and Scarlett frostily trading words on more than one occasion about my mother’s insistence that Burgundy take my place at the Kits Beach anchor point three months before. Gran insisted that tying in my dowsing abilities would have increased the sensitivity of the grid. The argument never went anywhere, mostly because my mother refused to engage. But also because no one else agreed with Gran, including me.
I didn’t bother with my sneakers as I followed Peggy through the seating area to greet the rest of her family. Her twin sister, Gabby, was among them, so I assumed they’d left Vancouver as soon as the amplifier’s shift had ended at Cake in a Cup.
Peggy unlocked the door, letting in a frigid gust of air. “I’m so sorry. I forgot to text!”
“It’s all right, Peggy.” Stephan Talbot pushed back the hood of his ski jacket. “We knew where to find you.” The telepath’s adoptive father was dark-haired with medium-brown skin, but he spoke with a brash French Canadian accent. It was an interesting combination.
I hadn’t spent much time with the patriarch of the Talbot family, though he’d come to the bakery to introduce himself when he’d arrived in Vancouver about a week after I met the rest of his clan. He ran a business that had something to do with technology, but what exactly he did had immediately gone over my head. Whatever it was meant he needed to travel a fair bit. He was also a former member of an American chapter of the sorcerers’ League, which he had declared emphatically alongside introducing himself. And he’d worked with Henry Calhoun multiple times in that capacity.
Why he’d quit the League likely had everything to do with why he’d moved his entire family to a different country. But I didn’t pry for details that weren’t any of my business.
Vancouver had always traditionally been witch territory, which should have made it an odd place for sorcerers to settle. But it was apparent that the Talbots put their family above all the dreary, obsolete politics of the Adept. Another reason to like them.
Except for Tony, that was. I saw the dark-haired junior sorcerer trying to get a look at everyone hanging out in the bakery — but without actually stepping out from behind his parents. He met my gaze and hitched his backpack up on his shoulder, no doubt unconsciously concerned that my magic would trash the tech within it. Then he looked away, which was fine by me.
“Jade.” Stephan cleared his throat, smiling hesitantly. “We are well met … yes?”
Right. I was pretty much blocking the door … and eyeing their son like I was thinking of leaving him outside in the cold and denying him cupcakes.
I smiled, stepping back. “Of course. Peggy mentioned you were planning a ski trip. I forgot in the … bustle of the day.”
As they tamped off their boots and brushed off their coats before entering the bakery, I was reminded that the Talbots originated from somewhere where snow was more common than it was in the Pacific Northwest. Then the entire family minus one invaded the storefront.
I smiled and started making introductions, rather than sighing heavily and being pissy about the delay.
See? I could be a grown-up. Well, on occasion.
“Would you like to take a look at the kitchen?” I asked Angelica, with a pointed look Stephan’s way. The Talbots had started putting their jackets back on as part of making a move toward the door and an early dinner out.
Angelica nodded, though she didn’t look particularly pleased to follow me through the swing doors into the kitchen. Bryn’s kitchen, really. My business partner had chosen white granite with thin veins of gray over stainless steel for her workstation. To our immediate right, the industrial dishwasher was piled high with muffin tins and mixing bowls.
“Very nice,” Angelica said, quickly scanning and dismissing the entire kitchen — her tone polite, but still frosty around the edges.
I swallowed a nasty retort. The kitchen was freaking gorgeous, and it didn’t make anyone the lesser to admit that.
“The double ovens especially,” Stephan said, much more earnest in his praise.
Tony slipped through the double doors, settling his back against them so they wouldn’t continue to swing. He cleared his throat, darting a look toward his parents, then addressing me. “This is about the elves?”
I eyed him before I nodded. “Yep.” I wasn’t the youngest Talbot’s biggest fan, even though Tony was helping with Liam’s investigation into the elves. I had actually carried a slash of red across my chest for a couple of days after he’d hit me with some sort of electricity-based sorcerer spell in the Talbots’ basement. And sure, his magic had been seriously amplified at the time. But still.
“What?” Angelica’s tone suggested that she clearly thought I’d actually asked if she wanted to admire my kitchen, rather than having some other reason for pulling her and Stephan away from the group.
I leaned back against the main counter, talking to Tony since he was apparently more in tune with the situation. “An elf skilled in illusion made an appearance this morning. Then disappeared.”
Tony grunted, pulling out his phone and applying his thumbs to it. Presumably taking notes.
“Disappeared?” Stephan asked. “Or left town?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“We obviously don’t have the same information you have.” Though her outward demeanor remained dismissively judgemental, Angelica’s brown-sugared shortbread magic churned around her, as if agitated. Perhaps being offish was a coping mechanism for the sorcerer.
“The elf appeared to be trying to make contact, rather than setting up an attack. As best as I can tell, anyway. Peggy can fill you in with the details when you’re away from Bryn.”
“Peggy?” Angelica gave me a look suggesting she was considering strangling me.
I knew that feeling. But I simply waited, giving her the time to articulate her displeasure. She chose to keep her complaints to herself instead.
“We were planning to stay through Sunday, returning in the evening,” Stephan said.
“The bakery will be closed, and I seriously doubt the elf will return. She seemed focused on me. But I wanted to give you a heads-up.”
“Thank you.”
“I’d appreciate it if you kept in contact with Kandy through the weekend and let her know of any unusual activity.”
Stephan gave Tony a look. The younger sorcerer nodded, acknowledging his father’s silent directive without even looking up from his phone.
“I’ve been doing some research for Liam,” Tony said. “Compiling and comparing elf myths. Searching for fact within the fiction.”
That was news to me. “And?”
“Nothing really lines up with what you’ve told him. There’s a lot of elf lore, but nothing that feels legit. I’d guess that no firsthand accountings have made it online yet.”
I glanced Stephan’s way. “And the talk among sorcerers? Within the League?”
“Nonexistent. As far as I’ve heard.” He glanced at Angelica for confirmation.
She nodded. “Mythical creatures. Just like the guardians themselves.”
Tony snorted as if Angelica had made a joke. If she had, she had a wickedly dry sense of humor. To me, she sounded more chastising than jovial.
“I know you came to Vancouver for protection,” I said. “And the elves weren’t part of the deal.”
“No.” Stephan waved his hand. “You cannot control who threatens your territory. And we’re glad to help if we can. It is a … blessing to live somewhere where we are … valued. And the girls …” He looked over at Angelica.
His wife nodded, her expression softening slightly.
“The girls have never been happier.”
A sweet warmth bloomed in my chest in response to that. “I’m not the best role model. But I … like having them around. Gabby and Peggy fit in well at the bakery.”
Stephan laughed, as if I was now the joker in the group. “They have never been so focused, so eager to be social, to be among other Adepts. They feel safe in Vancouver. With you.” He reached over, offering me his hand. “You and Kandy.”
I was surprised at his offer to touch me. Adepts often didn’t like to make contact with other Adepts. But I wrapped my hand around his in response. His buttery, nutty magic — a smoother, creamier version of Liam’s peanut butter punch — tickled my senses, making me crave honeyed peanut butter cookies that I hadn’t baked in years.
He smiled, patting the back of my hand. “Thank you.”
I cleared my throat, suddenly and oddly emotional. “Please be careful this weekend.”
“We always are.” Angelica was back to being a little stiff around the edges, but she slipped her arm through Stephan’s and gazed up at him sweetly. The Talbots had sacrificed a lot for their adoptive children, though I knew they might have disagreed with that observation.
“Enjoy your dinner,” I said.
“Enjoy your wedding festivities.” Then Stephan turned with his wife, wandering back through the swing doors to the storefront.
Tony turned to follow his parents, but I called him back quietly. “Tony.”
His shoulders stiffened, but he paused, looking back at me.
“You might want to discuss your findings and how you’re gathering information with Jasmine.”
“The vampire?”
“Yeah,” I said, heavy on the sarcasm. “The vampire is a tech wiz.”
“Okay … cool then.”
“Right. Cool then.”
He offered me a crooked smile, then stepped through the doors.
Leaning back against the counter, I listened to the excited murmur of voices beyond the swing doors, thinking once more back through the encounter with the illusionist elf. If she’d been laying out clues or taunting me somehow, it had pretty much gone over my head.
The door swung open and Maia poked her head inside the kitchen. “Hey, Jade.”
“Maia.”
“I’m going for dinner with the Talbots.”
“Great.”
“And, um, thanks for today.”
“Thank you for today. I think it was a great success. I’m glad Bryn has you to help her out.”
Maia frowned. “Not that. I mean, yeah, selling cupcakes is cool and all. I meant, thanks for not, you know, being pissy about the elf thing today. Thanks for including me.”
“Right … about that …”
“Don’t mention it to my grandmother?”
I laughed. “Actually, please do mention it. Then maybe pick her brain about elves? Or any creatures from First Nations history that might have actually been elves?”
“Cool, yeah. There’s none I can think of, but Grandmama might have ideas.”
“Thank you.”
She nodded, retreating back through the doors.
“Oh, Maia?”
She poked her head back in.
“But maybe don’t mention it to anyone else.”
She snorted, as if I were an idiot to even think she’d gossip about facing off with an elf. Apparently, I was the only one with the big mouth in this group.
Warner, true to his word, helped me pack. Problem was, he apparently thought the clothing I was currently wearing belonged in my overnight bag. And no matter how quickly I might move on even my best days, he always moved quicker.
I didn’t manage to find my voice … or my breath … until we’d made it into the shower and my dragon proceeded to soap up every inch of me. Then he brought me through and over the peak of pleasure a second time while I was pressed against the tile wall.
“What did I do to deserve such tender treatment?” I murmured, relaxing into the aftershocks of my orgasm.
Warner didn’t answer. Instead, he angled the showerhead perfectly so that the hot water cascaded over my shoulder and across my chest, streaming over my belly and between my legs.
I laughed shakily, opening my eyes to find my fiance gazing at me intently. He traced the path the water formed over my collarbone, around my left breast, between my lower ribs … then dipped lower through the slick curls at the apex of my thighs.
“I might need a minute.”
A smile teased his lips, but the shimmer of golden dragon magic across his eyes let me know he was feeling serious. Running my fingers through his hair, I gently massaged his temples, then down the back of his neck.
He groaned, letting his head slip forward to rest on my shoulder and grant me better access.
“What is it?” I whispered.
He shook his head slightly, brushing off my concern. But then he reached up and hooked the tips of his fingers into two of the wedding rings attached to my necklace hanging between my breasts. His parents’ rings. Dragon magic stirred at his touch. The instruments of assassination remained dormant where they were also attached to the necklace’s thick-linked gold chain, as they always did until I called them forth. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to make love to a dragon without removing the necklace. And I never, ever took the magical artifact off.
Originally crafted to simply be a pretty trinket I could hang around my neck, the chain now contained so much power that some days I worried it wasn’t safe even with me. The treasure keeper had wanted the necklace locked up in his chamber for safekeeping, along with my knife and my katana. And maybe he was right. But the instruments apparently had their own ideas.
Now, claimed by me and adhered to my necklace with my own alchemy, they were my responsibility. And though he had never expressed any concern over my becoming the wielder of the instruments, Warner being the sentinel of the instruments meant that I was his responsibility.
“I’d prefer not to leave,” he finally said.
I stroked my thumbs lightly down his throat, then firmed my touch across his shoulders, trying to loosen his tense muscles. “Because of the elf?”
I had shared more details about the illusion with everyone earlier, when Bryn slipped away to the washroom. Maia and Peggy had chimed in with their observations as well. Which was good, because we needed to have any and all information on the elves we could accumulate. I was seriously done with blindly barreling into dangerous situations. I had too much to lose.
Warner just made a noncommittal noise, though, lifting my left hand from his shoulder and sliding the smaller of the two rune-carved wedding rings up to the first knuckle of my ring finger. We had discussed using his parents’ rings for our own nuptials, but Warner had preferred that they remain around my neck, for the power they brought to the collective whole of the necklace. Instead, we’d ordered stacked rings from a goldsmith on Granville Island. Three bands, each with a slightly different shape and width, of twenty-four carat white, rose, and yellow gold. Gold that would be perfectly receptive to my alchemy for whatever ‘extras’ I chose to add to the wedding bands.
Warner was to pick the rings up on Wednesday morning, and his custom-tailored suit that afternoon. I had a final fitting for my dress on Monday, and the flowers were being delivered on Wednesday afternoon. The ceremony was scheduled for Thursday at sunset. I’d opted for getting married at Gran’s. Yes, under some duress. In all honesty, I’d really wanted to use the bakery, because that was where Warner and I had first met. Well, technically, we’d met in the alley behind the bakery. And sure, he was unconscious at the time. Then we met again inside the bakery when Warner trashed my safe, got pissy about me having the dragonskin map that led to the instruments of assassination, and sneered at my cupcake pajama pants. But still.
In the end, getting married at the bakery had been seriously kiboshed by my grandmother, who’d wanted the complete opposite — a large church wedding and a huge party in a grand hotel ballroom. So we’d compromised.
“I’d prefer to never leave,” Warner murmured.
“Tell me,” I said. “Just tell me whatever you need to tell me. Did you open Rochelle’s sketch?” I was referring to the drawing that was still tucked beside the bed in my apartment, and still in the art tube in which it had been presented to me. An engagement gift from the oracle that I hadn’t found the right time to open.
Okay, fine. I hadn’t found the courage to open it.
Warner lifted his gaze, still lightly stroking his thumb across the wedding ring at the end of my finger. His expression was still too serious despite the mutual pleasure we’d just shared. “Of course not.”
I smiled. “The gift tag has your name on it as well.”
He brushed his lips across mine. I lightly nipped at his lower lip, which finally resulted in him smiling. Though it was fleeting.
“I have no doubts about you, Jade Godfrey. You will open the oracle’s sketch when you wish. But I will be marrying you in five days, no matter what is pictured within.”
I darted my tongue into his mouth, indulging in the taste of his dark-chocolate-cherry-and-whipped-cream magic.
Pulling back from me slightly, he kissed my hand, tugged my finger from the ring, then allowed the necklace to fall back between my breasts. “I simply do not like the game the elf played today. Deliberately drawing you away when the rest of us were otherwise occupied, and you were away from your power base.”
“Do you think something else is coming? Like whoever sits on the throne she showed me?”
Warner shrugged, feigning casualness while meeting my gaze earnestly.
Yeah, I knew that look. And every time I saw it, I tried to not react childishly. And failed. Sixteenth century needed to say something to me that he knew was probably going to get his head torn off.
He grimaced ruefully. “Will you renew your request for an audience with the treasure keeper?”
I squelched my instantaneous instinct to lose my mind. Pulou had ignored my last two requests. Other than vaguely acknowledging — to Haoxin, who’d then informed Warner — that he had, in fact, dropped three elves into Vancouver without anyone’s knowledge. Confirming that it wasn’t some other mixed groups of Adepts.
“You think I should update him about the elves? The illusionist and what she showed me?” See? I could keep my cool.
“He might have some insight.”
“But is he willing to share it?” I asked caustically. “With me?” Okay, so … still not completely petulant, but …
I took a deep breath, reaching for the stillness I’d been cultivating. A peacefulness that allowed me to coexist with the instruments without charging off into battle at the first hint of confrontation. Well, most days. “Fine. I’ll ask Blossom to carry another message.”
With a satisfied grunt, Warner grasped my hips, lifting me up until my legs were wrapped around him. “Just because I trust you to handle the situation, it doesn’t mean I like running off with the vampire. You know he tries to be friendly with me only because he loves you.”
I gasped as Warner slipped inside me without renewing the foreplay. All my nerve endings were still sensitive from my earlier orgasm. So much so that all I could do for a moment was cling to his shoulders as he pressed me back against the tile and settled into an achingly slow rhythm.
“Kett does things for many different reasons,” I finally managed to say.
“The almost-immortal always do.” Warner darted his tongue teasingly into my mouth. “But you aren’t some passing fancy. Some pretty little magical thing for him to collect in the moment. He’s afraid of losing you.”
“To you?” I asked, honestly confused.
Warner laughed huskily. “No. He doesn’t appear to be jealous. Of anything.”
“And you, sentinel? Are you jealous?”
Warner trailed kisses down my neck instead of immediately answering. Then he lightly sucked and nibbled his way back up along the same path.
I lost track of the conversation.
“I am jealous,” Warner whispered against my ear. “Jealous of every moment I’m not with you. Yes. Every moment I don’t get to have you in my sight, by my side. Can you blame me?”
I groaned. “Take me to the bed. I want to feel your weight. I want to be underneath you.”
He chuckled. “You’ll want to dry off first.”
“The bathroom floor then.”
He turned the water off with a slap, then stepped out of the shower. Somehow, he managed to settle me down on the shower mat with the very cores of our bodies still connected. Looming over me, his hair was darker when wet, dripping across my face, neck, and chest. He tugged a towel down from the counter, setting it under my head to cushion it from the hard floor, and all the while continuing his slow pace.
But I wanted to be crushed, to be consumed by his touch and his magic. Pressing my feet to the tile, I sought out the leverage to match his, then increased his rhythm with my own upward thrusts.
I cinched my arms around his shoulders and neck, pulling him tightly against me so I could bury my moans in his warm, wet skin. “I love you, Warner.”
He groaned, then allowed himself to finally give in to the pleasure building swiftly between us.
And there weren’t any more words spoken after that.
I jotted a note to the treasure keeper on the back of the take-out menu that had come with the dinner we’d ordered the previous night, after everyone had gathered in Whistler. Yes, there was a helpfully lined section on the final page, where the restaurant encouraged potential customers to make note of their favorite dishes. It was also just enough space to inform Pulou about the illusionist and the throne in concise, just-on-the-edge-of-pissy prose.
Sealing the missive with one of the Cake in a Cup stickers Bryn had printed for the opening, I tucked it into my overnight bag. Seemingly an odd choice for a letter I intended to have delivered. Except that Blossom’s newest favorite activity was cleaning and obsessively ironing my clothing. Yes, including my jeans and T-shirts. Not that I’d ever caught her with an actual iron.
But I had no doubt that sometime later that night while I was sleeping, the brownie would unpack my bag, find the letter, and deliver it to the treasure keeper. Just as I had no doubt I wouldn’t hear anything in return.
Still, just because Pulou was a huge jerk, it didn’t mean that Warner wasn’t right about keeping him informed. The elves were his freaking escapees, after all. And in truth, before the elf sighting that morning, part of me had begun to think the guardian had simply scooped the last two elves up and locked them away somewhere — snickering to himself all the while at my ineptitude, then conveniently forgetting to mention it to anyone.
But apparently that wasn’t the case.
The elves were still at large, and that both thrilled and worried me. I mean, who wouldn’t crave a fight where you didn’t have to hold back? But there were a lot of people I cared about who might get caught up in the tussle and be seriously hurt. Again.
So I wrote the note, wishing I had time to order spring rolls, and grinning while I imagined the treasure keeper’s confusion over my choice of paper.
I could be a jerk too. I was just more playful about it.