“Tempest here says that she was coming to babysit, but she wants me to take her and Miranda for stew. Do you want to come and have your discussion with Mercury at the cafeteria, or do you want to stay here?”
Kami raised an eyebrow at his big mate. “I’m having a discussion with Mercury?” Then he grinned at Mercury and winked.
“He says he would like to speak to you. I think that you should believe him, considering that Talon is your best friend and this is Talon’s mate, clearly. So, there or here, hailee?”
“Here, I kind of feel like I want fish soup. What do you think, Mercury?”
“Can I have chicken noodle instead? I ate a lot of canned tuna when I was in the tower.”
Kami’s face took on an expression of extreme sympathy. “Of course you can have chicken noodle. That sounds awful. I like a nice tuna salad with onions and celery and all the yummy goodness. But just canned tuna? Ew.”
“I’ll let you two work that out.” Reno took the baby to the back and came out wearing a pair of shoes and a sweater. The baby was tucked into a warm zipper suit. “All right, come on, kiddo. Let’s go get stew. We’ll be back, babe.”
“Be good, you two. If you can’t be good, don’t get caught.” Kami winked broadly. Tempest and Reno laughed on their way out the door.
The humor between all of these dragons was something he was completely unprepared for most of the time. It had been unheard of at his keep. No one ever laughed there, he thought. Then again, they lived in the frozen northern ocean, so perhaps there was not much to laugh about.
“Have a sit. I’ll order us some food. I have the app on my phone. I don’t have to call down like Talon does. He’s kind of hidebound.” Kami waved to the couch and pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket and started tapping things. “What do you like besides chicken noodle soup?”
“I can have more than one thing?” Talon had told him that all the time, but he thought it was only his mate indulging him. His braaken liked to spoil him.
“Sure you can. You could have a salad or a sandwich or you could have dessert or you could have all of it.” Kami paused, fingers hovering over his phone.
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly eat all of it, but I could absolutely have dessert. Do you think they’d have that cheesecake that doesn’t have the crackers on the bottom? The one with the top that is black?” Talon had ordered that for him one night, and he thought it was the most delicious, fluffy, amazing thing he’d ever eaten.
“Ah, you mean the Basque cheesecake.” Kami nodded sagely. “That shit is stunning. Of course you can have that. I’ll order it now. They always have it on hand because we’re all addicted to it.”
He actually clapped his hands; he was so pleased. He loved that cheesecake.
Kami finished tapping out his order and then turned to stare at Mercury. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”
“Talon says you’re a stone singer.”
Kami’s eyes narrowed and he tilted his head. “I am. What about it?”
“When I was in the tower, they took my stone away from me and they crushed it. Then they threw the pieces into the sea. I was sad about that, but I knew they would never let me out of the tower, so it didn’t matter. But now I’m here.” He stared right into Kami’s eyes, trying to impress upon this dragon how he was feeling. “Talon is my braaken. I don’t want to die and leave him alone. I want to be with him.”
“You’re saying you don’t want to die. Is that it?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” His hands clenched into fists. “I’m really angry about it, in fact. I don’t want to go. I want to be with Talon.”
“Good.” Kami nodded once sharply. “That’s damn good.”
Mercury blinked. “That I’m angry, or that I want to be with Talon?”
“Both. You deserve to be happy. I was worried you were going to be a little wishy-washy for Talon, but I can tell you’re building up a head of steam.”
“Can you help me? Everyone says you’re the one who can help me because you can sing stones right out of the rock for people.” Hope was a terrible thing, and he had not allowed himself to feel it for a very long time, but it rose in his chest on the wings of what felt like a dozen small birds.
“I can’t promise I can help you, but I’m sure as shit going to try.” Kami squeezed his fingers. “So far, I’ve got a great record. There’s only been one omega I couldn’t help, and to be honest, she was so far gone by the time we got her, I don’t even know a stone would’ve helped. She was unconscious the entire time. We never even got to know her name.”
Mercury shook his head. “I don’t want that. I want to be alive and happy and with Talon and making him happy. I can do that. I know I can.”
“All right. We’ll eat, and then we’ll go, and we’ll find you a stone.”
Mercury saw why Talon and Kami were friends. They were both so direct and cocksure. “Just like that?”
“Well, it’s a little lessjustand a lot likewhoa, but it can happen. Luckily, Talon comes with me to do these things anyway, and so you know it’s nice because we’ve got my assistant and your braaken all in the same dragon. It’s very handy.”
