“This is Wren. He’s a cursed animal specialist from Slatehollow’s team.”
“Oh?” Heir asked. “And what brings a Slatehollow cursebreaker to Arcstead?”
“He’ll be consulting on one of my cases,” Saint said, sitting next to Eerie and scrunching his nose when Eerie smoothly pushed his glass of green juice into his hand. It was unnerving how similar they looked while being completely different at the same time.
“Wren,” Teddy said, “This is my team. Eerie, our bonds specialist. Heir, nuisance curses; Echo, objects; Trace, deadly curses. And you’ve already met Saint.”
“Hi.” Wren looked at each of them warily. Teddy knew that look. He was memorizing their faces, their names, and their jobs. He was making sure all the information stayed in his mind in case he ever needed it. It was a safety measure for him. He’d always done that.
Always aware of his surroundings. Always careful of those around him. Just in case.
“Why would you need a consultant on a case?” Heir asked Saint, not looking away from Wren, barely blinking. “I thought you had a million leads.”
“We consult on cases all the time, Heir,” Trace said, and Teddy noticed he’d opted to stand facing the rest of the team with his shoulder brushing Teddy’s. Intentionally or not, he had placed himself at Teddy’s side, and it meant a lot.
“But we don’t ask for consults. We’re the best team out there,” Heir said.
“Hardly,” Eerie said coldly, pinching one of his feathers between his fingers and dragging them up until it slipped from his grasp.
“We are good,” Echo said, sipping their green juice.
“We are good,” Teddy confirmed. “But teamwork is the essence of cursebreaking.”
“Are we now outsourcing teamwork as well?” Heir asked with an edge to his voice. “Last I checked we were your team.”
“You are. And if Saint and I thought we could handle this alone, we would have. But we can’t.”
“Why not?” Echo asked.
“The case crossed city borders. Slatehollow has reports of cases exactly like ours. Wren was working one when their PUMA branch reached out to us. We need to cooperate to get this thing sorted to stop more people getting hurt.”
“Can’t he consult remotely?” Heir asked, and Teddy almost felt Wren stiffen next to him.
“No,” Teddy said, his voice turning sharp. He rarely exercised his authority because he truly believed they were all equals in the team, but the truth was he was the one essentially running it. And sometimes, in moments like these, he just had to embrace that. “Saint and I have hit several walls. We can’t drag this out while people and animals are getting hurt. Slatehollow’s PUMA team has information we can use and Wren has experience none of us here have. He’ll be an asset.”
Heir held his hands up at his tone. “Fine. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, just double-checking.”
“Well, double-check complete,” Teddy said. “Like I said, this will be a multi-team operation. We might have to bring other teams into it as well, since it seems to be spreading faster than we can keep up.”
“Shit,” Trace said. “Is it as bad on your end?”
Wren startled slightly at being spoken to directly but quickly composed himself. He gave a short shrug. “PUMA had a few that were a bit worse in terms of destruction. And I’ve had one so far that might be related. But I’ve had cases in the past that started simple enough and grew into nightmares. This has that potential and I’d rather not let that happen.”
“Agreed,” Saint said and Teddy noticed Wren’s posture stiffening at the agreement. The look he’d given Saint at PUMAflashed before his eyes. The words he’d said before turning his back on Teddy and leaving echoed in his mind.
He glanced at Saint’s clothes. Beige, knitted, worn, and comfy looking. Echo’s. Something akin to relief flooded his chest and he didn’t want to dwell on it in front of everyone.
“Is he staying here?” Echo asked.
“Yes,” Teddy replied before Wren had the chance to. “He’ll be staying in my room. My couch folds into a bed so it won’t be a problem.”
Wren’s stare bored into one side of his face, Trace’s and Saint’s on the other.
“Yes, but does he have any allergies? Any health issues? I heard there was a pretty severe case of the flu in Slatehollow, so he might have brought something…”
“He’s healthy, Echo,” Saint said.
“You don’t know that.” Echo reached over to the side table for their glass of green juice and a few boxes of different supplements and vitamins they’d been taking in the past couple of months.
