Jax arched a dark brow. “Teams?”
Eli nodded. “You and me against the three of them seems fair.”
Darion chuckled. “Bring it, if you think you can.”
“You four go ahead,” Nathan said, a glimmer of amusement in the former assassin’s eyes. “I’ll take on the winning team.”
They walked over and set up the first game. As the balls cracked and a familiar banter filled the room, Micah felt himself relaxing for the first time in what felt like forever. He’d trained hard from the minute he was old enough to join the Order. Longer than that, in fact. For nearly as long as he could remember, he’d had a weapon in his hand and a mind set with determination to be the best damned warrior his father had ever seen.
For a while, he thought he’d actually gotten close to achieving that.
Then it all blew up in the Deadlands, along with the men who’d put their trust in him.
His self-directed anger still boiled inside him. When it was his turn at the table again, he sank the striped ball into the pocket with nearly enough force to crack it into pieces.
“Take it easy, brother,” Eli chuckled from his post on the receiving end of the table. “This is supposed to be a friendly game, not a death match.”
Jax smiled from his place at Eli’s side. “Friendly’s not exactly his strong suit.”
Micah slanted his comrades a wry look, then drove another stripe home. “You ladies gonna yammer the whole time we play? If you’re trying to distract me, it won’t work.”
“Nah,” Jax said. “There’s only one person here who seems able to distract you, and it’s not either of us.”
Micah sank a third ball and lifted his narrowed gaze. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
Eli nodded in Phaedra’s direction on the other side of the large suite. “You two looked pretty cozy back at headquarters tonight. Something we ought to know?”
“No.” Micah scowled, then went back to running the table. Except the next shot he took banked too hard and the ball missed the pocket.
Eli chuckled. “Nope. Clearly, she’s not a distraction at all.”
Jax moved in to take his turn, grinning along with his teammate. Even Darion looked amused when Micah backed away from the table to join him and Nathan while Jax quickly sank a pair of solid balls in one shot.
“Something funny?”
“No,” he said, a smile still tugging at his mouth. “I’ve just never seen anyone rattle you before, least of all a female.”
“I’m not fucking rattled,” he snarled under his breath, swiveling his annoyed glower from Darion and Nathan’s smug faces to Elijah and Jax. “There’s nothing going on between Phaedra and me.”
Nor would he allow there to be anything going on, and not only because she would be gone from his life tomorrow.
Eli nodded, looking anything but convinced. “All right, man, whatever you say. I guess you won’t mind if Jax or I step in, then.”
“Like hell you will.” The idea alone made Micah’s eyes blaze with amber fire. As much as he liked and respected all of his fellow warriors and friends, none of them were going near Phaedra if he had anything to say about it. “She’s way out of your league. She’s out of all our leagues.”
As he muttered the words, he couldn’t help thinking about how incredible it was to see her with the crystal, limned in a silver glow, a look of longing, comfort, and profound love on her beautiful face.
Phaedra was unique from anyone he’d ever known. She was something extraordinary, evidenced not only earlier tonight in the archive room, but also in the kind, selfless work she had devoted herself to back in Rome.
“Micah makes a good point,” Darion said, humor gleaming in his eyes. “That on its own should be plenty of reason for you knuckleheads to stand down when it comes to Phaedra, but if it’s not, you’ll also have destiny to answer to.”
“What are you talking about?” Eli asked.
Micah’s low growl of warning didn’t deter his friend from explaining the highlights from the debriefing they’d sat through together with the Order elders and Zael earlier tonight. Darion summarized the whole thing, from the recurring dream of the white doe to the fact that Micah and Phaedra were apparently cosmically, inextricably connected.
“Soul bonded,” Jax said, staring at him as if he just grew a pair of horns.
“It’s ridiculous,” Micah muttered, glancing toward Phaedra and finding her engrossed in conversation with Jordana.
