“My guys brought me to meet your mates, back when I was struggling to accept things,” she tells me. “They wanted me to hear Flint’s story and how he came around to accepting the role he was called to.”
I look over at Delta with surprise in my eyes. He mentioned before that he didn’t want the Guardian job, but he never went into detail about how he came to terms with it.
“I never did hear his story though. There was an attack, and then we left to go back to our own gate to make sure it was okay.”
I look back to Flint and make a note to ask him about what happened. Rafferty counts down, and then as fast as a viper, Jerif and Flint go at each other. Jerif’s body language seems to indicate that they’re gonna wrestle, but Flint has his elbow cocked back, and then his fist smashes into Jerif’s face so fast that I don’t even have time to squeak out a warnin’.
“What the fuck was that?” Jerif bellows, a hand swipin’ over his cheek.
“Oops,” Flint says casually, obviously not in the least bit sorry.
Delta and I shoot up from our seats as both groups start to merge, shouts and accusations flingin’ this way and that all over the trainin’ area.
“If you want to really go, Nacre, then let’s go!” Jerif challenges, callin’ Flint by the type of demon he is.
“My fault,” Flint half-ass apologizes. “I just thought you should know what it feels like to get blindsided by a world of hurt because no one clues you in on what’s really going down,” he accuses.
I groan as I close the distance. Called it. Flint and Alder were just bidin’ their time.
“You think we knew any more about what was going on with Delta when we first met her?” Rafferty asks, steppin’ between them with a frown.
The big blue demon has had an even temper up until now, but I can see it’s startin’ to wear thin.
“Do you think we hadanyidea what was coming for her, what we’d have to protect her from? We apologized for not clueing you into everything that occurred, but you have to stop blaming us for what happened,” he snaps at Flint, frustration curlin’ his words. “We were doing the best we could. We had no idea that Delta had sisters. We couldn’t even fathom that any of the other Guardians needed to be alerted after the battle. We thought Morax was solely after Delta.”
Echo moves in to stand beside Rafferty, and Flint’s hard glare flicks over to him. “We get that you’re pissed,” Echo declares, his shadows moving over him jerkily like they’re equally as agitated. “We were pissed too when we realized that Delta was a target. But cheap shots and harbored grudges aren’t going to change anything. We need to work together.”
Flint grinds his teeth, and Alder moves up next to him, murmurin’ quietly like he’s tryin’ to talk him down. Worry claws over my gut. I don’t want my mates to hate my sister’s mates.
“Okay, let’s take a break,” Delta announces, walkin’ over to step between the two sides. She holds her arms up as though she’s about to herd a bunch of feral cats. “Jerif, you owe me a massage, and Rafferty, if you don’t come too, Strut won’t feed me edible food, so let’s go,” Delta says, offerin’ them a smile.
“What about us?” Crux asks with a playful pout.
Desire heats Delta’s gaze as she looks over. “Well, I’ll need you and Echo to help me scrub my back in the shower,” she purrs, and her other two mates perk up with anticipation.
Delta starts herdin’ them toward the doorway before turnin’ back to me. “You’ll be sore,” she tells me, gesturin’ to the wings at my back. “We have a sauna down the hall to the left that will help loosen up your muscles. Go take advantage of it and talk with your mates about cheap shots that piss off their sister-in-law,” she teases, but there’s a flash of warnin’ in her gaze.
I nod and give her a smile that she quickly returns before focusin’ on gettin’ her mates out of here. I can see clearly in that one look that Delta is sympathetic with Flint and Alder’s anger, but she’s not gonna stand by and let them take shots at the demons she cares about. Flint just got aget out of jail freecard, but there won’t be another one from her.
I sigh and look over at Flint. “Got that out of your system now?”
He just shrugs.
“Come on, you two,” I huff as I reach for their hands. “Let’s go talk about how to play nice and forgive others.”
I pull them in the direction that Delta indicated and hope I can talk some sense into them—Flint in particular. We have enough chaos goin’ on all around us, and we don’t need to add to it. I just hope I can get my mates to get on board with the wholemake love not warplan I’m about to pitch.
32
This is the biggest sauna I’ve ever seen.
Okay, it’s theonlysauna I’ve ever seen except for the ones on TV, but still. Even though I’m not a girl accustomed to goin’ to spas or maintainin’ a gym membership with a ritzy sauna, I can still spot fancy when I see it.
These four cedar walls smell divine. I settle back against the hot wall, lettin’ my wings slump behind me as I breathe in slowly. The softwood bench beneath my towel-clad body is just as warm as everythin’ else, immediately soothin’ the worry and aches from my body.
There’s a long shelf of river rocks that takes up the entire right side of the sauna, the smooth stones resemblin’ the ones hangin’ on the chain around my neck. Alder leans forward and picks up the stainless steel shower hose set on the wall behind it. The second he does, trickles of cold water come out of the single spout, and he douses the stones, makin’ steam plume up in the space. Even more cedar and somethin’ that smells faintly of jasmine fills the air.
“Damn, this thing sure is nice,” I muse.
