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Thorne snorted again. “That’s a lie.”

Samuel waved his words away. “You know what I mean. When you have a problem with someone, it’s easier to just go to them and talk than to do anything else. There’s no one talking behind your back, no one gossiping about you in a bad way. I actually like that about this place.”

“Even though there are fewer people?” Matthias asked.

“Especially because of that.” Samuel glanced at Thorne, then back down at the centerpiece he was creating. “But I guess that with so many more people living around me, I got used to certain things, like leaving my stuff around. No one cared because everyone did it.”

“I don’t want to imagine what kind of mess that created,” Thorne murmured. Just thinking about it made him want to scream.

“Yeah, it’s a bit messy on the best of days. We were used to it, though.”

“Well, we’re not.”

“Which is why I’ve been trying hard not to make a mess,” Samuel said. “I think I’m doing a good job.”

“You’re not doing a bad one, but I wouldn’t call it good.” Not yet, but it was good enough that Thorne had noticed someone was making an effort.

Samuel was here to stay. There was no denying that, and it was something Thorne needed to accept. Before, he might have had a hard time with that, but now?

He couldn’t deny that he and Samuel had grown closer. Thorne wouldn’t say they were friends, although they might become friendly over the task of decorating the castle for Penley’s birthday. But Samuel was part of his family now, and he was making an effort to make it work. Thorne should do the same.

He would.

* * * *

SAMUEL KNEW WHAT THORNE had been doing when he’d goaded him into helping. He didn’t mind. In fact, he was pretty happy about it. There was only so much flying, reading, and doomscrolling he could do every day.

Living with so many other people in his birth clan, there had always been something to do, some task to accomplish, places to be. The same couldn’t be said about this clan here at the castle. The castle was big enough that all of them had their own spaces. They weren’t on top of each other, and they didn’t need each other to do jobs like cooking or things like that. That had left Samuel at a bit of a loss, especially initially. Really, he was grateful for the distraction this party was providing. The fact that he got to work with Matthias also helped with that.

He could also begrudgingly admit that he enjoyed working with Thorne. When the man wasn’t snapping at him for leaving his training gear around, he was kind of funny in a snarky way. He also clearly knew everything there was to know about the mages and even their dragons. He’d been here for a long time, and it was obvious that he wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Since Samuel wasn’t, either, it meant they needed to get used to each other.

They were doing a pretty good job of that now.

But he couldn’t deny how much work Thorne was putting into the party, and it made him realize that Thorne had been putting a lot of work into the castle every day. He wanted this place to be home for everyone who lived in it, including himself, and Samuel had been making that harder. He hadn’t done it on purpose, and he hadn’t realized what he was doing, but he did now, which was one of the reasons he’d started cleaning up better after himself.

That, and he hadn’t wanted Matthias to think he was a slob.

But he could admit that he kind of was. It wasn’t easy to let go of that habit, which meant that his personal room was a bit of a mess, but it wasn’t like anyone came in, anyway. He cleaned up when the cleaning crew told him they were going to come to clean windows and things like that, but the rest of the time, it wasn’t very neat. It definitely wasn’t as neat as the rest of the castle, but that was okay. It wasn’t something he wanted or needed to change.

But it was his personal space, something he hadn’t had a lot of before. In his birth clan, every family had their own rooms, but he’d had to share his bedroom with two of his brothers since he was a child. Everything he’d owned had also belonged to them. That was just how things went.

Not here. Here, he had privacy and no one touched his stuff. It was one of the reasons he’d decided to stay when Jarvis had offered him the opportunity. Why would he go back? As much as he loved his family, between the lack of privacy, the lack of personal space, and his mother who kept pushing him to become a mage’s shield, he felt better keeping his distance.

He truly thought he might find a home here. He was making an effort because he wanted people to like him, and that included Thorne.

Samuel glanced at him. He was talking to Matthias now, giving him pointers on whatever Matthias was doing. Maybe Samuel should ask for pointers about his centerpiece, too. It was sliding to the side, and Samuel was pretty sure it was going to collapse. He would rather that not happen during the celebrations.

Thorne had revealed himself to be a much nicer person than Samuel had expected, and Samuel felt guilty about having made his life harder for a while. Thankfully, he’d realized he was being an asshole, and he was working to correct that. He couldn’t say he was perfect, but he didn’t think that Thorne needed him to be perfect. He just needed Samuel to try, and he was.

* * * *

MATTHIAS TOOK A STEP back from the table and proudly looked at what he’d created. A bump from the other table made him turn, and he had to keep himself from laughing when he saw that Samuel’s centerpiece had collapsed. It wasn’t funny, but Matthias had been able to tell that would happen since Samuel had started working on it. He’d tried hard, but it had been obvious that it wasn’t structurally sound.

“Well, that’s no fun,” Samuel said, glaring at his centerpiece. “What did I do wrong?”

“I just think that this kind of decorating isn’t in your wheelhouse,” Thorne said cautiously. “I’m sure you excel at other things, though.”

Samuel glared at him, and Matthias held his breath, wondering if they were going to start fighting.