Her hands tremble as she signs. ‘You were… They can’t have… No…’
Fuck, this is why I didn’t tell her before. I sign the first thing I can think of that might refocus her on right now, not something from the past that none of us can change.
‘Can you believe this guy presented me with a colour-coded spreadsheet?’ I jerk my thumb at Milo.
She snorts, a tiny puff of smoke escaping her nostrils before she lunges and grabs me tight around the waist, hugging me with all her strength. I put my arms around her and stroke her hair until she stops shaking.
When she pulls back, she has the same determined expression that she always used to get when she was little and was about to convince me to let her stay up late for an extra bedtime story. I was always annoyed that I didn’t get paid to babysit her and Milo, but those nights when I got to sign stories to them were more special than I admitted to myself at the time.
‘I want to train with you,’ she signs, her hand movements decisive. ‘It’ll help me for my exam. Let’s practice together.’
Maybe it’s not the worst idea to all fly together, and at least I’ll get to help her practice, even if it’s not in the same way as I’d have originally liked to. ‘Sure. Milo can make you a spreadsheet too.’
She laughs, but he shrugs. He absolutely will.
‘What do you mean they just came out of nowhere?’ Lance’s hand movements are jerky, his dark wings fluttering with his irritation.
I lean back in the chair in the small room used for meetings and workplace training, trying to hide how much this fucking fae is getting on my nerves. ‘What I said. I was in the middle of a snowstorm. Visibility was poor. I didn’t know the other dragons were there until they were literally on top of me.’
Ember, one of the other supervisors here, frowns. ‘Why didn’t you fight back? Dragons are supposed to be strong.’
Ember is small for a fae, with ebony skin, severely faded black and orange wings, and long copper hair. She looks permanently exhausted, probably at least partially because fae are weakened by iron, and the warehouse is full of it due to the steel frame of the building and the steel racks the boxes sit on. It can’t be good for them to work here day after day, but I don’t give enough of a shit to warn them if they don’t already know.
‘It was six to one, I was carrying cargo, and I was exhausted from flying a thousand miles without stopping. How exactly was I going to fight back?’ My hand movements are sharp, my frustration bleeding through despite my best efforts not to show it.
Lance leans forward on the stool he’s perched on, his wings snapping. ‘Your incompetence has cost us dearly. No amount of docked pay can make up for this. To have lost such a valuable shipment…’ He shakes his head, his opinion of me crystal clear.
Whatever was in that shipping container is clearly more important to them than my life. It’s not a surprise, but the fact that I’m forced to work in a place that puts me in danger feels like a punishment I didn’t earn. Wasn’t serving my time enough?
I take a deep breath and remind myself that this bastard will face justice. His shitty attitude today simply reaffirms my commitment to being part of the team making that happen.
I should probably leave it there and not push, but I find my hands forming the words before I can stop myself. ‘What I don’t understand is why dragons would want to steal books and clothing intended for the fae? Surely they’d be no use to them.’
Ember darts a glance at her boss. Lance simply narrows his eyes at me. ‘Get out.’
I get to my feet and leave the room, allowing myself a small smile. Out on the warehouse floor, the racks are looking far more bare than usual for this time of day. I assume it’s because therewere people working overtime this weekend and they haven’t been restocked yet, but even so, the supervisors are normally on top of that.
When I reach the loading bay, there’s no shipping container being prepared, no harness being got ready. Ember beckoned me to the meeting room the moment I arrived, so I wasn’t aware I wouldn’t be flying today. It’s a relief after Friday’s disaster, but what am I supposed to do instead? Pick up a scanner?
Oddly, there are no supervisors around. I’m not about to go back into that meeting room to ask Ember what to do when Lance is still in there, and I’ve got no idea where the rest of them could be. Something must be going on, because we’re never without a visible fae presence like this.
I head over to the wall slots, most of them empty, and pick up a scanner. I log in and sure enough, there’s a job list waiting for me.
I spend the rest of the day lugging boxes around, and I swear they’re heavier than usual. Nothing I can’t handle, of course, but between that and the uneasy atmosphere, it feels like something’s about to go down. The end of the day takes forever to come.
‘What a weird fucking day.’ Harley catches up to me as we walk out, his shoulders tense.
‘Something happen with your delivery?’ I ask.
He was due to drive to Plymouth, so I hadn’t expected to see him for a couple of days.
He angles his body so that his back is to the warehouse, his hands out of sight of the security spells I told him about after my first day here. ‘Yeah, I was sent on four trips to the airport instead. They’re loading cargo planes now.’
My blood runs cold. As thrilled as I am that Lance seems to be done with using me for transport, everything about today feels like they’re accelerating whatever they’re doing.
I glance over at where Raj is talking to Felicia and the other catshifters. There are a lot of serious faces, so it’s probably not just us picking up on it. It feels like the most helpful thing I could do for Raj at this point is to discuss this more with Harley, somewhere we won’t be in danger of having our conversation watched.
‘Fancy a pint?’ I ask.
