No one replied, everyone too busy staring between my mates and Gina.
“Um…,” Aflora hummed by way of greeting, then glanced up at the tall Midnight Fae beside her—Guardian Zephyrus. “We’ve clearly missed something important.”
Aflora had mentioned joining us a little later for dinner, saying she needed to take care of a task. She hadn’t elaborated, but then, she rarely did. The Royal Earth Fae I once knew had blossomed into a powerful queen-like female with peculiar magic that many other fae feared.
But she was exactly why an Interrealm Fae Academy needed to exist—so we could better understand abominations and the matings of power.
“Are you causing trouble?” Aflora asked, her blue-black eyebrow arching upward at Gina. The two of them had history. Something about a coffee shop. So I wasn’t surprised that she immediately suspected the Fortune Fae of playing a word game. Her kind was rather notorious for it. At least she hadn’t taken out her infamous card deck.
“Why does everyone assume I’m always to blame?” Gina demanded.
“Because you usually are,” a Paradox Fae drawled from the bar.
“No one asked you, Kali.”
“Pretty sure you just asked the entire realm,” she tossed back.
Gina huffed a breath. “All I mentioned were trials,” she muttered.
“Trials?” Aflora repeated, her cerulean blue eyes locking on Zephyrus.
He lifted one of his broad shoulders. “Fuck if I know.” He wrapped his arm around her, then bent to whisper something in her ear. Whatever it was caused her cheeks to flush scarlet. I didn’t know the Midnight Fae male well, but Cyrus and Exos enjoyed his directness. It seemed Aflora did as well, because her eyes flashed from whatever he’d said.
I stopped looking at them and stared Gina down. “Explain.”
“Ask your mates,” she replied. “They know what I’m talking about.”
“Have you seen who wins?” Titus asked suddenly, causing Cyrus to growl at him. “Oh, come on, you’re wondering the same thing I am.”
“I don’t want to know,” Sol put in. “I want to play the game, fair and square.”
“What game?” I asked. “What the hell are all of you talking about?”
“I don’t need Gina to predict the winner,” Cyrus replied, his focus on Titus. “We already know it’s going to be me.”
“Bullshit,” Titus tossed back. “I beat you just the other night. She totally screamed louder for me.”
I gasped. “Titus!”
Cyrus just chuckled. “Keep telling yourself that, Firefly.”
“Call me that one more time, Royal Jackass.”
“Firefly,” he repeated, smirking.
Titus made a move to stand, but Sol clamped a paw on his shoulder to shove him back down while Vox released a long, drawn-out sigh.
Exos merely shook his head. “We want to have a baby, Claire,” he said. “And we’ve devised a series of trials to determine who gets to do the honors.”
I blinked at him. “I’m sorry… what?”
“And that’s my cue to go,” Gina said, pushing away from the table. “You’re all welcome, by the way.”
“Pretty sure none of us thanked you,” Cyrus replied.
“Yeah, totally not invited to Thank You Day,” Sol added.
“It’s Thanks Day,” Vox corrected.