Zander growled low in his throat. "I'll go through the staff and look for any known dissenters, too."
Roan took Alex from me. "More sleep for you. It's my turn with this little guy."
“No,” Doryu said. “My turn isn’t done.”
Roan waved him off. “After all that drama you need a break. I’m happy with him.”
After Doryu and Zander gave Alex a kiss, then each gave me one, and they left the room. “Come,” Zander said. “Let’s work out a suite of rooms for you. I think it's important you have access to living here, and we may set up one of the apartments at the school for us.”
Their voices drifted down the hall, but they were happily discussing how we would blend into one another’s lives.
If that didn’t make the heart swell, nothing would.
Roan blew a kiss my way, then went to the nursery.
It took me a lot longer to calm down and fall back asleep, but exhaustion rode heavy. Eventually, I managed.
9
In the morning,Roan was back out in the nursery with Alex. "Hey," he said. "Zander needs you in his office."
After pecking his cheek and Alex's, I dressed quickly and left my room to follow a sound coming from down the hall. It sounded like shouting. When I got close to the office, there were murmurs as Doryu spoke to someone inside.
When he saw me, he motioned for me to come over and opened the door wider so I could see who he was talking to.
Mr. Buckner glared at me from his seat across from Zander's desk. The office had been cleared of all the baby-birthing implements. "You," he seethed.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest defensively as Doryu came to stand next to me in the doorway. As I got closer, I realized Zander was there as well, standing by the window.
The old man sneered, his eyes sharp and cold. "I came to demand the babies be killed immediately." He stood up with a scrape of chair legs on the floor, gesturing towards Roan's open window in fury. "And you'll release my grandson. I am on the council. You shouldn't have had that meeting without me. The entire core council wasn’t there."
"No," I shouted, anger coursing through me as my fire writhed under my skin. It wanted out, but I reined it in with an effort. This was the first time I'd felt like maybe I could've done what Riley had told me was possible. “We won’t release him.”
“And we did attempt to notify you of the meeting,” Zander said. “It’s all in the records. You did not see our notifications. We cannot help that.”
"What do you propose we do with the babies?" Doryu asked calmly. "Do you think they should be handed over to their parents? Because we believe their donor fathers are Leyak."
"If we don't save the babies, they'll be raised as soldiers," Zander said. "It's as simple as that. They'll be raised to kill us all."
"Precisely," Old Mr. Buckner said. "So, kill them. Now! While we have the chance."
Roan growled behind me, and I spun around. He'd been holding Alex in his arms the whole time. I hadn't heard him follow me from the nursery.
"No," I said firmly, narrowing my eyes at the man who was so vehemently trying to take away our babies for no other reason than he wanted them gone. "This won't happen."
They would not take these children from us. We were going to protect them at all costs, and that meant keeping Old Mr. Buckner away if we could manage it.
"You're soft," he spat, glaring at Zander. "You've been soft since the moment you were elected."
Zander turned. "I'm going to hold a special council and vote to remove your seat. You are no longer in proper control of your facilities."
"You started going downhill when you wouldn't let us imprison that dragon bitch."
He was talking about Riley. My blood boiled.
"Don't you dare talk about her like that," I hissed. "You don't know how close you are to being fried alive."
He sneered at me. "I've got more magic in my finger—"
