I scoff. “More like the advice that keeps Grace from figuring out you’re an idiot.”
“Hey!” Harvey protests. “She already knows I’m an idiot. Your advice just helps me show it less often.”
He folds his arms across his chest, and suddenly I see why Hazel loves teasing him. He’s built like a tank but grumbles like a kid. The guy is packed with muscles like my son is with sugar.
“I’m here to announce a guy’s day out.” Seiji declares, plopping into a chair next to Harvey. “We’ve been training our asses off for weeks. We’ve earned a break. If the girls get a day to themselves, I want one too.”
“Let me guess, they refused to let you tag along.”
Harvey covers his snort with a fake cough when Seiji shoots him a glare.
Naturally, they both start grumbling when I list out everything on my agenda today. But when Seiji starts riflingthrough my office, I cave.
I can’t have him messing with my alphabetized filing cabinet. It took me years to perfect that system.
“All right. What’s the plan?”
Harvey leans over my desk to close the open file while his partner in crime locks up my office and drags me out the door before I can blink.
“Party in my backyard!”Oh boy.
Seiji announces we’re eating at his favorite diner first, then heading to the cliffside behind Famine Castle. Unlike other waterfalls in the kingdom, that spot is off-limits to the public. Seiji doesn’t let anyone near his sanctuary.
When we reach the diner, we’re surprised to find a celebration already in full swing. The owner invites us to join the festivities in honor of the adorable little earth fairies in class five, who just completed their first plantation project with flying colors.
We devour the food like it’s our last meal and congratulate our future food providers.
Thanks to the previous leaders who welcomed other supernatural species into the kingdom, we’ve never had to look elsewhere for essentials. Earth fairies handle our food supply, centaurs manage construction with flawless precision, leprechauns run the banks, and elves bless us with their sinfully delicious desserts.
Unsurprisingly, when the idea was first proposed, my father opposed it, claiming we were “muddying our bloodlines” by inviting other species in. He detests the idea of inter-species mating. Thankfully, Seiji’s dad has always been the loudest voice in the room when it comes to pushing for equality.
After we stuff ourselves to the brim, Seiji warns me to buckle up for an adventure. And sure, his adventures are fun, but they always come with a sprinkle of danger.
Last time, he wanted to dive off a cliff… in his car. For a while, Grace was convinced Seiji was suicidal, but we eventually realized he’s just a reckless knucklehead with zero self-preservation.
Seiji slams the car door shut, retrieves a massive picnic basket from the trunk, and dumps it on a blanket way too close to the edge for my liking.
So… an innocent picnic by the cliffside?
That’s completely safe. Nothing to worry about, Anxo.
He opens the basket to reveal dozens of sugary and spicy snacks, like we didn’t just eat two days’ worth of food an hour ago.
Seiji fishes out a packet and hollers, “Who’s ready to smoke some pixie dust!”
I narrow my eyes on the fool. “Did you pay the full price this time?”
Last time, he forgot to mention he didn’t have what the Pixies wanted in return for this stuff. Let’s just say I had to clean up that mess real fast before they started bombing the Tetrad kingdom with their tiny, glittering grenades.
I ignore the food but accept the roll filled with pixie dust. One deep inhale and I can feel the magic settle in my lungs. It’s been a while since I’ve had a real break from the stress of our reality.
“You know,” Seiji muses, “cannibalism could solve both hungerandoverpopulation among humans.”
“Oh wow. You would make a fantastic Famine on doomsday.”
If Harvey agrees with Seiji, then these fools arehigh.
I glance at my friends, wobbling on the edge of coherence, and realize I’m probably putting too much faith in them to sit on the edge of a cliff andnotjump.
