Audrey’s eyes watered at the rims seconds before she wrapped me in a hug.
“Thank you.” Audrey sniffed as she pulled back to release me. “I really don’t deserve you as a friend.”
“Touching,” Hush muttered. She didn’t sound touched at all, actually. “However, I must leave soon. Before I can, we need toform a plan to address the headache your latest adventure is surely going to cause me.”
“My sister is already starting to believe the rumors that it’s Audrey, and not Ilia,” Liam spoke up. “As soon as Audrey developed her second gift, Ada didn’t need much convincing either. She’s mostly been waiting for Audrey to continue fulfilling the prophecy.”
Audrey frowned at that.
“What about the people with gills?” I asked.
Hush gave me a disturbed look and clarified, “You mean the nereids?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “The mermaids.”
“Nereids,” all three of them corrected in unison.
“Whatever.” I flicked my hands in a gesture that looked like shooing the terminology away. “Where are they leaning with all of this?”
“Entirely neutral at the moment.” Liam scrubbed his chin with his words. “However, if we can talk to Fergus, he might be able to sway his parents in our favor. Which would help us keep the gates open regardless of Ilia’s temper tantrums.”
“Fergus is…?” I asked, sliding my gaze over to Audrey.
“The First Prince of the Nereids, next in line for the throne,” she replied. “And also one of my favorite people in Hyvenmere.”
This was good. Liam being the exception to the rule, if Audrey liked this Fergus fellow, I probably would, too. Later, though, I wanted to chat with Audrey about how she casually befriended several princes in Hyvenmere as if she were collecting them like baseball cards.
“Let’s go talk to Fergie.” I sat up from my desk, rolling my shoulders back. “Just give me a couple of days to enjoy the mundane routine of running a coffee shop, and I can tag along.”
“He does have his birthday celebration this weekend.” Liam lifted a brow at Audrey, who grinned with excitement.
“Oh, that’s perfect. It’ll be a more casual setting,” Audrey said.
Hush nodded and added, “I’ll let you know how Ilia’s mood is after learning about Audrey’s solvyrn…disposal.” She shook her head and stared at the ground. “He’s getting more unsettled each day that passes; just this morning, he announced that he’s considering banning siren females from leaving Lyndoruun without a member of the king’s guard to escort them.”
I still couldn’t get over how Hyvenmerian’s referred to people as males and females. Did they not have nonbinary Hyvenmerians? Did gender and sexuality really stay so strictly within the bounds of a person’s genitalia? But instead of voicing these questions, I stayed silent while the conversation, thankfully, started to wrap up in my office.
“Once we can guarantee that Audrey and the other halflings are safe to travel to and from Hyvenmere,” Liam said to Hush. “We will do everything we can to help you find them. And stop whoever is hunting them.”
Hush nodded at him before turning to me. “Thank you for hosting.” She bowed with a flourish, and even though I was still learning about Hyvenmerian customs, it felt a little mocking. As if Hush was bowing sarcastically.
I smirked and bowed back to her. I thought I caught her eyes crinkle in amusement, but it was hard to tell with half her face covered up. Then, without saying another word, she froze a second before I heard Shane’s voice on the other side of the door.
“Is this all, Van?”
My heart started racing as I replied in a panic, “Yup! Just that box!”
Hush was unnaturally still, her eyes on the door that separated her and my employee. The sound of Shane’s heavy footfalls echoed down the hallway, and she only waited one moresecond until we all heard the thud of him dropping the box on the countertop, before she vanished into thin air.
I gave Audrey and Liam a wide-eyed look and said, “She just teleported out of my office.”
Liam rolled his eyes and said, “Shelyskiftedout of your office.”
I immediately mocked him in a ridiculous voice, “She lee-shifted out of your office.”
“Enjoy your mundane routine the next couple of days,” Audrey interrupted our bickering. “Because this weekend, I’m taking you back to Hyvenmere.”
Chapter 8
