He grinned. “You’ve got a tell.”
“I don’t have a tell.”
“Want to know what it is?”
“Not taking the bait,” I said automatically. Years of practice resisting the demon had made it reflexive.
Caspian laughed and pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose. “Cute.”
I flushed. “No one’s ever called me cute.”
“There it is.” He grinned wider, and just like that, my shoulders relaxed. “Come on. It’s just dinner. Like the one at the outpost.”
He pushed the door open, and the foyer reached out and took me.
Their scents came first, layered and unmistakable, each its own thread. Aelindor: pine and winter turning to spring. Nikolai: wood and dark spice. Caspian was already wrapped around me, warmth and wild green earth. And under it all, banked low, was Drakken and his dragon-heat with a hint of brimstone.
The back of my throat went dry the way it did near an open forge. Their voices threaded together, three different tempos, and then trailed off.
All four powerful alpha males packed into one room. It should have set every survival instinct I had screaming to run. Instead, something in me purred, traitorous and sure, like I was coming in out of the cold.
Yet I couldn’t help wondering whether Drakken would walk out on me the way he had at the outpost. What he’d pulled in the library still made me seethe every time it crossed my mind. The man was an asshole who grated on my nerves at every turn and enjoyed every second of it.
The smell of food cut through my thoughts and my mouth flooded before I could stop it. My stomach gave a low, embarrassing growl, and Caspian let out a chuckle. I made myself stand still and take the place in instead of bolting for the table like the half-starved savage some part of me would always be.
This was Aelindor’s home, and it told me so much about him. The Fae prince didn’t care for luxury. He didn’t need to show off or impress anyone. He was pure-blooded immortal royalty.
I might have been born a miner, but the demon in me had taste, and it approved of this room: everything spare and deliberate, pale wood and clean stone, a few rare things set out where they could breathe and nothing crowded against them.Through the window, a walled garden held the last of the season, late blossoms going amber at the edges, a stone path running off into the dark of the trees.
“Max is here!” Caspian announced.
Captain Obvious. The others had already felt me, the way I’d felt them. An unseen cord ran from my sternum to each of them and pulled, gentle and absolute.
The dining room was spacious, low-lit by Stormglass lamps. A long table of pale wood ran down the center, set for five. Plain good plates, simple silver laid clean, a line of candles burning down the middle. Five chairs. One empty, kept for me, between Aelindor and Nikolai.
Caspian still had my hand as he walked me in, and every eye in the room dropped to where our hands were linked. Heat crawled up my neck. I didn’t pull away. I was comfortable being put on the spot, but I wouldn’t reject any of them in front of the others, except Drakken, and it wasn’t in me to humiliate him outside this circle either.
So I left my hand where it was and let them make of it what they would.
Aelindor smiled at me. Nikolai scowled at Caspian. Drakken glanced at me once, then went back to ignoring me. The best I could hope for.
Caspian started around to pull out my chair, but Aelindor and Nikolai were already rising. Aelindor gestured for Nikolai to sit; the vampire prince obliged without a word. Then Aelindor drew out my chair and held it, a total gentleman.
“How was your day, Max?” Aelindor asked.
“Good, sir—Aelindor.” I caught the slip. “And yours?”
“Busy.” He took his seat. “I’m glad you came. Nothing fancy. Just a family dinner.”
Family.
The word knocked against something I kept locked down tight, and my pulse stumbled over itself. No one had used that word for me since the mine, and even then, it had meant Missy after my parents died.
“Just as I told Max earlier,” Caspian said, dropping into the seat beside Drakken. He gave his companion a look. “Hey, dragon. How’s the progress?”
Drakken scowled, knowing it was bait and unable to resist anyway. “What progress?”
“Closing the gap between you and me. Long road, though. I’m a ten.”