I giggled. “Let me clean up the other one, Marcus. I promise I won’t take it off.”
Kallie handed me the wax bowl sheepishly, and Marcus’ nose scrunched up grumpily.
As I worked, a shifter nearby said, “What a fucking loser. Waxing his face like some kind of girl. You really are a fucking peacock.”
Marcus flushed red, and Kallie jumped right up off of his lap. She lunged for the shifter and punched him right across the mouth. The shifter went flying to the floor. His jaw dropped open as Kallie towered over him, raising another fist.
“Hey! No one’s allowed to pick on the warlock butme, got it?” Kallie snapped.
“Got it,” the shifter whimpered. He scampered off. Kallie’s outburst had made the crowd scared of her, so they wandered away.
Marcus sat up. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”
“These assholes need to know not to mess with what’s mine,” Kallie growled under her breath.
“Huh?” Marcus blinked. This time, Kallie was the one who blushed.
Charlie sensed the awkwardness, and spoke up to put a stop to it before it got worse. “What did you guys want to talk to us about? It sounded important.”
Marcus and Kallie searched Charlie’s face. They appeared shocked by his ragged appearance, but thank the ancestors, didn’t mention it. They glanced at each other.
“Not here,” Kallie whispered. “We should go to the Lair.”
My eyes widened, and Charlie nodded. “Good idea,” he said.
We headed out that way. We got into the prison yard and turned toward the trees, but before we reached the forest, a booming voice cried out, “Kalina!”
Kallie’s face went pale. “Fuck,” she mumbled under her breath. She turned around.
A big man was walking in our direction, a visitor’s tag clipped to the front of his suit. He looked like a very important person, an official of some sort. His black hair was mussed, and there was a spark smoldering in his dark eyes. If I had to guess, he was a dragon shifter, and he knew Kallie.
Kallie turned toward the dragon shifter with clenched teeth. “Hello, Uncle Stefan.”
This guy was Kallie’suncle? Weird. I thought she said her family didn’t care about her. But by the cheery look on the shifter’s face, he seemed happy to see her.
“What? No hug for me?” Stefan said playfully. “That’s fine. I onlyslaved awayto get here.”
“You took a portal,” Kalina said flatly.
Stefan grinned. “So what if I did?”
He glanced at us. “Are these all your new friends? Huh. Didn’t know you’d taken to hanging with a warlock.”
“What are you doing here? Checking up on me?” Kallie asked accusatively.
“Your parents sent me,” Stefan said, crossing his arms. “They just found out about the Darke Games, which you failed to inform them about. Neither of them are very happy.”
“Funny. I thought they didn’t care what I did anymore,” Kallie replied sharply.
“Oh, please.” Stefan rolled his eyes. “Someone’sbeing dramatic. You’re the one who didn’t want to come home for Christmas.”
That was a surprise. Kallie had all but implied her parents didn’t want her around. Was that a lie? Marcus’ eyes narrowed.
“If they wanted to lecture me, they could’ve come here to do it themselves,” Kallie complained.
“They thought I’d be a good… go-between.” He shrugged. “Your father doesn’t think you want to see him.”
“Seehim? He doesn’t want to seeme!” Kallie burst.
