Chapter Two
Mori
Crilus thought himself a sneaky elf but almost every single omega in Moonscale London knew what services he offered. Magic had long been the tool that omegas welded against unfair systems and jackasses of all varieties. Jon the Cheetah wasn’t capable of this sort of magic, or he wouldn’t have asked for Crilus’s help. He and Preston thought they kept the meeting a secret, but my twin brother and I are never truly disconnected. We know everything there is to know about each other and have never bothered with secret keeping.
Clarence Moonscale landed, his big bat-like wings stretched out from his human form, looking not so thrilled to be pulled out of his bed in the middle of the night because a bar exploded.
“If this was caused by homebrew----” he started but stopped when he realized it wasn’t only the glass keeping the patrons inside the bar.
“Crilus,” he sighed. “You have to let them out.”
I waited for my cousin to hiss at the leader of the Moonscale Dragon Flight but at the end of the day Clarence Moonscale looked a bit too much like Teal and his brothers. The triplets might’ve been some joint venture first true love for my cousin but for practical reasons. He and Teal could’ve ruled Moonscale London, getting away with whatever they pleased. It was true but fate knew better than to wrap them up together. In the end, they would’ve hated each other because while Crilus’s morals were bendy like a willow reaching out for a drink of water Teal was a redwood tree firm in what he believed, and his opinion couldn’t be bought or nudged. All the triplets were like that more or less.
“I’m waiting for my crow to calm down. This isn’t elven stuff, Clary,” Crilus said, dropping onto his butt to sit on the mailbox properly. Technically all the mailboxes had signs strictly prohibiting folks from sitting on them, but Clarence had bigger shrimp to batter.
“What does he need?” Clarence asked.
“His nest not to be attacked,” Crilus said. “You know that side of my family has all this protection magic.”
“Bird? Can you hear me?” Clarence spoke to Crilus’s chest, and I found myself silently relieved that Crilus did not have breasts. “They need to get out of there. It’s safer out here away from the glass.”
“The crowd’s handled,” Morvan strode up and leaned one elbow on the mailbox.
“The glass,” Crilus said his eyes shifting to the pitch-black eyes of his crow.
“I’ll grab a broom,” Morvan said.
“And watch out for Preston,” I said. “He’s running around with his knitting needles somewhere around here. You don’t want to get shanked.”
After Morvan was out of earshot, Clarence leaned in and asked Crilus if he wanted him to call Teal. My cousin shook his head, wings fluttering behind him like he might fly away to safety. Clarence sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as guards ran around like headless chickens, checking all the places my brother had already checked. My parents were poking at me over the family link and others were starting to chime in.
I stepped away to call and assure them that Preston and I were unharmed and when I returned Morvan had managed to sweep up most of the glass and he and Clarence were helping people climb out of the broken glass window. I frowned. Whatever or whoever came after us, nearly broke through Crilus’s shields. Maybe we should call the triplets and use themas big scaley shields while we figured out what the hell was going on.
My phone rang and I sighed.
“Speaking of scaley people.”
“Teal?” Crilus asked.
“Ni and Teddy,” I shook my head.
“You can take it. I’m okay. Really. More pissed off than anything.”
“You need to call your parents?” I asked him.
“Only if I want the Raven Hollow army to descend on Moonscale London and demand answers,” he sighed.
“You three can stay at Moonglow until I get the windows fixed,” Clarence said as the medics looked over those who had just exited the bar.
“Thank you but I can get them fixed and I can’t just leave my home open like this. You should take the twins, though,” Crilus said.
“We’re not leaving you alone,” I said, trying to text Ni one handed that I was okay and would call him back when things calmed down a bit.
“I’m fine—” Crilus started but Morvan cut him off.
“Either Clarence can deal with it or Teal’s going to come do it. You’ll tell him no, but he’ll come anyway. You know how he is. I’d offer but Cutter is now the size of my arm. We’re certain he’s going to flesh out any day now.”
I did my best not to shoot Morvan a dirty look. I was a nosy wolf who wanted to know everything the world could teach me but Morvan’s gargoyle mate, Rho, was a private person and not very forthcoming with information about himself. I tried not to let it hurt my feelings because it wasn’t any of my business, but at the end of the day, I was sad that Rho didn’t trust me.
