“You buying me a beer wouldn’t pose a problem,” Austin told Tristan as the bartender, Carla, ignored a customer and headed their way.
“Here? No. In another pack?” Tristan lifted an eyebrow as Brochan settled in. “They wouldn’t look down on a beta buying an alpha a beer?”
Austin barely kept from rubbing his eyes, and then did it anyway. He’d been loosening things up in this territory to compromise with the gargoyle culture. While he didn’t often relax this far, with his two betas sitting here, he figured it couldn’t hurt.
“You’re right,” Austin admitted.
“Then I’d better get it in while I can.” Tristan gave his order to the bartender, followed by Brochan and Austin. “Keep it open,” he instructed, and handed his card across.
“What’s up?” Austin asked him.
“Jessie tasked me with two things—one was to send a connection request to the new cairn leader of Nikken.”
Austin inclined his head. She’d told him.
“Patty will send that out tomorrow, priority mail,” Tristan continued. “I know for a fact he’ll agree to a meeting—the sooner, the better. I’m sure we can negotiate a date. If we show reasonably well, we have a real shot at an ‘in’ with him. I know you have a packed travel schedule planned, but we wouldn’twant to lose sight of the gargoyles. We need to start putting ourselves out there if we want to have better status. With better status comes more support for the convocation.”
“Jess explained about the short window he has to feel us out.” Austin inhaled deeply, then let it out slowly. It could never be one thing at a time. For them, everything seemed to always happen at once. Last time, mages had interrupted their plans. This time, it was the gargoyles.
Hopefully, it wasonlythe gargoyles.
“Most of my plans aren’t set in stone,” he admitted. “We can rework the schedule in some places. It’ll mean we’ll have to alter our travel, but it’s doable.”
Their drinks landed, and Austin took a greedy sip of beer.
“It’s a pain in the ass, I know,” Tristan said, and that small acknowledgement went a helluva long way for camaraderie. “The other thing is Gimerel. Jessie doesn’t want to destroy his production cairns because she’s worried about his people.”
“Noble,” Brochan said.
It was. Jess had a kind heart, and in this situation, that was damned unfortunate. Hitting Gimerel quick and dirty would get him off their backs and get them moving on to the next thing in an ever-growing list.
“She wants to humiliate Nelson, I know,” Austin said. “Assuming we can’t just kill him and be done with it, that is. He deserves it.”
“Or I do,” Tristan murmured. “But no, we can’t just kill him. That’s not how things work. But wecanhumiliate him, as she requested.” His smug grin spoke volumes. “He had no choice but to leave his bracelet here after his cairn’s visit. Do you remember?”
Austin’s head barely dipped. “The connection gift with all the gems, made by one of their productions cairns, furnished in part by one of their mines.”
“Correct. The cairn’s pride and joy. The envy of the gargoyle world. It’s a symbol of status and elegance and beauty.”
“That’s a lot of weight for a bracelet,” Brochan said. “Especially one without the value one might see in the Dick and Jane world.”
“That’s exactly what I thought when I first saw it,” Austin replied. “But I haven’t given it much mind since. Where is it?”
“Mr. Tom has it in his closet, hiding it from Niamh.” Tristan laughed. “I was thinking, what if we fashion a matching necklace and earrings out of Ivy House jewels? We’d hire the best jeweler and choose the best stones—larger stones, obviously—to improve upon the design and quality and expense, but still have the pieces complement each other.”
Austin furrowed his brow, then sighed when he felt the healing magic curl through him. Jess had clued in to his fatigue and was making it better. He loved that woman.
“And then, what, give it as a gift?” he asked dubiously.
Tristan’s smile grew as he shook his head. His glowing eyes glittered. “Not even remotely.”
Austin listened with growing respect for this gargoyle. Even Brochan started nodding, his posture full of mirth. The plan was simple, yet the effects would be extravagant if they pulled it off.
“I have a jeweler,” Austin said. “We can pick the stones and leave them with him. He’ll ship it to us when it’s finished. I’ll make sure it’s a rush order.”
“Yes, sir,” Tristan said, leaning back with his drink.
Brochan’s bearing changed to expectant. Apparently, he had something to discuss as well.
