“Food for thought.” Austin pulled his arm from behind me and stood, reaching down for my hand. Tristan stepped forward at the same time as Sue, ready to go.
My first inclination was to hesitate and smooth this over, but I’d tried that the first time with gargoyle cairn leaders, and it didn’t work out. It didn’t help even a little. So, I took Austin’s outstretched hand and gracefully stood, offering Evan a disarming smile.
“Thanks so much for the snacks. I look forward to dinner. Your home is beautiful. Truly a work of art.”
Evan stood with us, and so did Gerard.
“Tristan does have a very solid point about stepping in and being handed status for someone else’s work,” Gerard mused, following us. “I hadn’t thought about it like that—or at all, actually.” He clapped. “Anyway, where did that puca go? I might be able to sneak in one or two before dinner.”
At the frontof the house, and after Gerard gave us a wave and headed off in another direction, Tristan made a subtle movement I couldn’t decipher.
“Sound proofing, Jess,” Austin murmured.
I nodded when it was done, covering the four of us as we headed to the last remaining van at the front of the property. Gargoyles lurked against the stone house, invisible to everyone but gargoyles, but surely felt by Austin. Our shifters were well trained in detecting presences.
“He was trying to be delicate,” Tristan said, his gaze scanning the surroundings. “He wasn’t trying to offend you or say you weren’t valuable in the daily life of the territory, but he’s trying to figure out if it is wise to align with you. He has very little room for error when taking over a cairn this prestigious. Withor will be watching Evan’s every move, wanting to step back into his role, and so Evan has to be smart. He’s not sure you’re a good play. I was simply…helping him think a little more realistically about the situation.”
“They were good points.” Austin reached the van first and pulled open the sliding black door, stepping back so Tristan and Sue could climb in first. “I wouldn’t have thought of them.”
“I’ve spent fifteen years studying gargoyles and cairn leaders,” Tristan said. “I’ve had to manipulate a few from time-to-time. Evan is one of the easier situations because he’s new, he’s green, and his rise to cairn leader isn’t usual. He probably thinks it was too easy. And it was, made so by you. He’ll be easier to impress because he won’t be inclined to stick to tradition. But he’s still a gargoyle. He can’t be pushed into it, and if we try, he’ll dig in his heels, and it’ll be months or years before he’ll come around.”
I climbed into the van, followed by Austin. He closed the door and the driver nodded, putting the van into drive.
“It was also a good speech by…Sue now, is it?” Tristan asked. “Are we officially switching all our names or what?”
Sue huffed. “Fred is working on John now, but yeah. I’m not lost, and I’m not broken. Not anymore. I hurt, that’ll never go away, and I will always miss what I had, but…it’s time to liveagain. My mate would’ve wanted me to keep living. Indigo has really helped me work through things, if I must be sappy about it.”
“Oh, yes, that is incredibly sappy—work through things,” Tristan said dryly. “I’m nearly bursting into tears here. Put all that emotion away, big guy.”
“You sound like Niamh.”
“Someone has to.”
Sue huffed again. “Becoming Sue made me official in this crew, both because it was the first foray into danger with everyone, and because it is weird. Now it fits.”
“It does fit the weird, that is true,” Tristan murmured. “Anyway, Jessie, keep being you. Austin, you, too. I bet you got him thinking with that business proposal. He’ll probably want more information, but he’d be a fool not to entertain it. I’ll step in as I need to. I’m respected among the guardians again, ever since the raid. I have sway here. I’ll use it to help steer.”
Austin nodded, taking my hand and entwining our fingers.
“He’s right, though.” I chewed my lip. “I’m so often a passenger with all this stuff. Idon’tdo all that much in the day-to-day.”
Sue’s hand covered my shoulder. “Did you not hear Tristan? You have an incredible amount on your plate. We don’t need you walking around playing mayor, and your time is not well spent opening businesses and learning how to operate them. We need you learning your magic and training for battle. After the threat is extinguished,thenyou can be an entrepreneur. Not before.”
“Not to mention I no longer have time to do those things, either,” Austin said. “Mimi is stepping into the managerial role. She’ll take over and that’ll be that. Even if I wanted a say, I won’t get one.”
Tristan chuckled. “Exactly. This is something Gerard understands and no one else seems to. He saw the battle. Heknows what we’re up against. No one else does, and it is blinding them.”
“How do you think we can enlighten them?” Sue asked, pulling his hand away. I appreciated the gesture. He didn’t often use touch to connect with others.
“We’re going to train,” Tristan said, “and we’re going to dazzle them with a female gargoyle and how natural it feels with her leading. We’re going to make the gargoyles beg to be included in our reindeer games, and we’re going to include the garhettes in our fun. Evan won’t be able to stay practical for long. He’s going to have to take a risk, and he probably already knows it. That is the only way forward in a changing world. We’re going to push him to it. And right now, Niamh is very likely working on that.”
I sighed and leaned into Austin. “All she seems to do is needle people anymore.”
“She is prodding people who need it,” Tristan said. “Aggressive types. They respond well to these tactics. Or so I’m inclined to believe because it’s working.”
“She hardly glanced at John.” Sue shifted in his seat as the van pulled in front of a long two-story structure that lacked the architectural finesse of everywhere else. This seemed like a late addition to the city, and I guessed it was to accommodate more guests. Cheap and cheerful. “She stayed well away from him. She sized him up all right, but the moment he clued in that she was assessing him, she found somewhere else to be and something else to do. She knows what she’s about, even if the way she goes about it can be horribly annoying.”
Tristan barked laughter as we climbed from the van. “Very.” He paused for a second as a gargoyle stepped forward from beside the door. “Why is that do you think? I’ve heard his story, and I know he’s a legend in the shifter community—or was, back in the day—but why would Niamh avoid him?”
