"Well, Reynard is a trickster at heart. He's a fox shifter, yes, but I've always said he must have a trickster ancestor in there somewhere. It's just who he is. He always has to be in some sort of mischief. No one is quite sure why he took it, but I'm pretty sure he'll figure out a way to use it for good eventually."
"No," I said glumly. "The alchemist took it."
Bran tapped the side of his nose. The smile that had left his face returned. "Or did he?"
Holy crap. It hadn't been the real stone the alchemist had found in Rey's pocket. How long might it take them to figure out their snafu?
A new respect for Reynard budded deep in my heart. He might've been a tricky sort of man, but Bran had been sure he'd use the stone for good. My research also mentioned foxes as often being tricksters, along with coyotes and ravens. Though he hadn't been sure about filming his altruism last night, he had still stopped a robbery and taken the extra money to a place that sorely needed funds. He hadn't had to do any of that. All of those were points in his favor, even if I still wasn’t super happy about having to be in the middle of all the drama. But Bran was right. I’d already agreed to help with the Others, and I wasn’t going to back out now.
Besides, all of the men I had met and gone on dates with had seemed nice enough, even if they weren’t exactly my type; well, except maybe Reynard, although I was doing my best to ignore that for now. Still, they’re being a bit odd didn’t mean they were monsters.
"Back to this video idea." Roma tapped her finger on the table to get our attention. "It's human nature to think being attractive is a good thing, right? Beautiful people are to be trusted."
Bran's eyes lit up. "You are right. Everything I've learned about Gaia points to attractive people getting ahead. We need someone very attractive to spearhead the coming out."
Roma winked playfully at her boyfriend. “Well, you’re gorgeous.”
Bran waved her off and said, “Thank you, but while I’m a leader, I’m a warrior king. I don’t have that natural charisma Rey does. He’s good on camera. He charms. He woos, he wins. He’s talked people into doing things they would never have dreamed of on their own.”
I couldn’t help but agree internally. He’d been captivating last night. It had been easy to talk, to share details about myself that I typically liked to keep close to the vest. At least until the alchemist turned up, and I had clammed up hard enough to make my teeth squeak.
Roma puckered her lips, staring at the ceiling in thought. "Rey also already has a social media following. Quite a large one. We could get that boosted." She winked. "We have ways."
"Yeah, and this would be a good opportunity for you to teach me those ways," Cassie pointed out, not missing the chance to bring the conversation back to her wanting to be more involved in the business side of things. "I'm in."
"I thought you all wanted the goblins to come out first?" I asked. "Reynard is a shifter."
Bran screwed up one side of his mouth. With his human glamour, he really was handsome, though I wasn't attracted to him in the same way Roma was.
Reynard, on the other hand, had been breathtaking. It was a miracle I'd been able to form words at all.
"Well," Bran said. "There’s no reason our plans can’t change. If the shifters need to come out first, so be it. We are nothing if not adaptable."
Roma's face lit up. "I think we can make it work with Rey. Can you get him to come over?"
Bran got busy on his phone while Cassie and Roma started talking social media. I pulled up a couple of big social media accounts and started looking at the artistic side of things. How were these videos shot? What kind of backgrounds were popular? I found the account of the altruistic guy and watched a video where he offered someone a thousand dollars, or they could give ten thousand to any other person in the store, but they only had thirty seconds to give it away.
Very very cool videos and they had millions of views. If he was getting paid per view, then no doubt there was plenty of money coming in from that, and if he gave that away also, that was a lot of charity happening. "I think I can do something with this," I muttered.
My creativity had the strongest urge to flow, but when I opened a word doc to begin to let ideas spill out of me and get them written down... Nothing.
Rage followed frustration. That damn muse.
I agonized over it for a while, staring at the screen, until the door to the office opened again. My throat closed up a little when Reynard walked into the room. His Lego gift had been such a sweet gesture, and holy shmow he was an attractive man.
"Cathy," he said softly. Ignoring everyone else in the room, he walked around the table and sat in the chair next to me. "Did you get my flowers?"
"Yes." I choked on the word, then cleared my throat to repeat, "Yes. I got them and it was a very sweet gesture. But, um..." I motioned toward Roma. "I think they have something to ask you."
He took my hand and squeezed it before moving down the table, where he clapped Bran on the back and sat down. "What's up? Whatever it is, I'm in."
Roma chuckled. "I hoped you'd say that. Essentially, we need to bring you in as..." Her voice faded as I watched Reynard listen to her. He immediately brightened up, clearly enjoying the idea of being the face of the monster revolution.
After a few minutes, he glanced my way and smiled, and after that, no more than ten seconds went by before he looked at me again. He had to ask Roma to repeat herself more than once.
I was distracting him.
If that wasn't a shot of flattery straight to the pride. He couldn't stop looking at me. And it wasn’t in a creepy way, either. Just like he wanted to make sure I knew he was aware of me. As if I wasn’t battling the urge to crawl into his lap at every moment.
