“Absolutely not,” Talon barked. “We are not involving my hailee in this.”
I can help.
Talon gave him a look.We haven’t even gotten to make love!
“There is a problem with this idea,” Lake murmured, and everyone blinked over at him.
“Problem? I think there’s more than one problem.” Talon sounded absolutely frustrated.
“Right, but there’s an absolutely practical problem.” Lake rolled his eyes. “Mercury, sweetheart, you said that someone else has to know where you’re going. You don’t get to decide, right?”
He nodded his head. “Yes, that’s correct.”
“Right, then none of us know where this is. None of us have seen it. None of us can ask you to take us. So none of us, including Mercury, can go.”
“Lake’s my new favorite.” Talon sounded utterly satisfied by that answer.
“That’s my hailee. No wonder I can never beat him at chess.” Boone grinned at him, and Mercury had to admit, very privately, that he was sort of glad because that had been an awful idea.
He didn’t even want to remember, even for a second, all of the destruction and horror that he’d seen. It had only been for a few moments, but he’d never experienced anything so terrifying. And it had been overwhelming—the smells, the filth, the horror.
He would go back if it would help.
But if he couldn’t go, he couldn’t go.
That suits me, my love. Talon gave him a smile that lit him up inside.
Me too. I was so scared.
I want you to be happy and get strong enough to love on me and have my babies. Not go sliding off to find dead keeps.
I want this as well.
“One way or the other, discreet inquiries from me is all we need right now,” Cain was saying. Somehow he’d missed part of the discussion. “We are already a target. Let’s not make ourselves a huge target. But I do think that we should make inquiries.”
“I think we need to make allies.” That was Cerran, who very rarely spoke up in these meetings and who he’d known very little about, which was weird given that they were literally family.
Triton looked at his mate. “Go on.”
Cerran took a deep, almost cleansing breath. “We’re a very powerful keep. But no single keep can stand against the world. We need allies. Genuine allies, trade partners. A place that is as free as we are. We need to find these keeps and create diplomatic relations with them.”
“That sounds so formal,” Cain said, and Jack was the one who snorted then.
“Formal. Cain. You have more seers in this one keep than I’ve ever seen in one place. You have a Rock Singer. You have warriors. And now you have him—” Jack pointed to Mercury. “Cerran’s onto something here. Fortunately for all of you, I have a list.”
“Of course Jack has a list.” Durango rolled his eyes. “He always has a list.”
“Don’t make me beat you.”
Boone looked at Jack and snorted. “You could try… Do you even remember how?”
Fire flared in Jack’s eyes, and the tension seemed to ratchet up.
Mercury curled into Talon’s side, nervous. This was a lot of big dragons.
A lot in a very small room.
“Guys, if you’re going to have dick measuring contests, you’re going to have to go outside and do it in the salle. There’s just not enough room for everyone to throw down in here.”
