“Oh, yeah!” Elian perked up. “Bacon, egg, and cheese.” He motioned proudly to the sandwich resting on a plate. “We’re almost done!”
“That’s okay,” Zara said quickly. “I’ll eat while we walk.”
She wrapped the sandwich in a napkin, grateful for the distraction, and even more grateful to shut down the teasing, then followed her siblings out the door.
The three of them had decided to get their own apartment in the neighborhood, close enough to the office that they could walk to work. Zara finished the sandwich by the time they reached the building, brushing crumbs off her dress as they walked through the door.
Another day. Another adventure.
She walked down the hall and paused at the glass wall of their conference room. And there he was—Hektor—sitting with his arms crossed, somehow managing to take up half the room just by existing. The sight of him sent a small thump through her chest. She still couldn’t read Drakkon expressions well enough to tell if he was bored or…something else.
“What is that?” Elian whispered, leaning in beside her.
“Oh, that’s Hektor. He’s a Drakkon,” Zara said, trying to sound casual.
“You know him?” Elian asked.
“He’s the one who burned Perseus’s desk,” Liora reminded him before Zara could answer. Zara had told them the story, well, most of it. She’d left out the part about finding his ridiculously broad shoulders far too appealing.
“I guess he decided to be part of the team,” Zara said.
“This should be interesting,” Liora murmured, eyes bright with mischief.
They stepped into the conference room, and Zara cleared her throat, doing quick introductions. “Hektor, this is Liora and Elian.”
Hektor gave the triplets a single, low grunt that might’ve beenGood morning.Hard to tell with Drakkons.
Liora and Elian sat and immediately pulled out their phones like synchronized swimmers of distraction. Zara shot them a look but let it go. She took the seat across from Hektor, studying the way he somehow made a standard conference chair look undersized.
“So,” she ventured, “you’re going to be part of the team?”
Hektor lifted his gaze to hers. “Yes.” Then, after a beat, he added, “Medusa said she and Perseus will be here shortly.”
“Oh. Good.” Zara straightened a folder she didn’t need to straighten. “You made that decision fast.”
“It was an easy decision to make,” he said simply.
“Well,” she said, trying for light and not too obvious, “we’ve only been here a couple of days, so it’ll be nice to have someone from Vale Crossing to work with.”
Hektor inclined his head, steady and unreadable, and she pretended that his attention didn’t make her pulse skip.
“As long as I don’t have to be a babysitter, wrangling you and your siblings,” Hektor said, voice flat as stone.
“Rude,” Zara heard Liora mutter without looking up from her phone.
Zara ignored her. “We’re not children,” she shot back. “And our powers make this search way easier.”
Hektor snorted, a low, dismissive sound that made her want to throw her pen at him.
She rolled her eyes. “How old are you that you think we need babysitting?” Another thing she didn’t know about Drakkons, she couldn’t even guess his age. Hopefully nottooold.
“I’m thirty-two,” he said.
“Is that the same as in human years?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” She blinked. “Well, you’re not that much older then.”
