Page 2 of Harbinger

The owner ofOccultahad her elbow hooked around Zach Mooney’s arm.

The Aqueous demon made a face. “Morgan screwed up again?”

“My bet is on the imp,” Bailey Green murmured, piqued.

The wizard had still not forgiven Loki for the hell he’d put Morgan’s team through when he’d been recuperating from the injuries he had incurred fighting a Nephil in London.

“Reuben and Jasper had to go to New York at short notice. They send their regards.” Charlie Lloyd marched briskly past Cassius, a white carton in hand. “Is there space in your fridge?”

“Yeah.” Cassius stared at the carton while Suzie and the rest of Morgan’s team traipsed in. “What’s in the box?”

“A cake,” Charlie replied guardedly.

Adrianne blinked. “You made it?”

Charlie lifted his chin defensively. “Jasper made it, as a matter of fact.”

Cassius almost walked into Zach and Suzie, the demon and the witch having stopped abruptly in their tracks. Adrianne sucked in air. Even Julia looked shocked.

“Jasper bakes?” Bailey said leadenly.

Charlie furrowed his brow.

“He’s pretty good at it,” the enchanter almost growled.

Now in a firmly established relationship with Jasper Cobb, the demon director of the San Francisco branch of Cabalista, and Reuben Fletcher, the angel who commanded the local Order of Rosen, Charlie had grown more assertive, and acerbic, of late. Cassius suspected he was finally letting his true personality shine through his normally reserved demeanor, something Morgan often half-heartedly complained about these days.

The angel greeted Suzie and his team with a subdued air when they entered the living room. He was crouched down with a dustpan and brush and was clearing the mess he and Loki had made.

Julia indicated the hole in the ceiling. “Did Loki’s head do that?”

“Yeah,” Morgan muttered. “That imp is a menace.”

Cassius’s chest twinged a little at his lover’s morose expression.

He steeled himself the next instant.No, both he and Loki need to learn some boundaries. They can’t keep going on the way they have been. They’ll wreck the damn building one day during one of their arguments.

“Shouldn’t the guests of honor be here by now?” Suzie asked curiously.

“They’re on their way.”

The doorbell rang on cue.

A stuffed unicorn hit Cassius in the face when he opened the door. He grabbed the overly purple toy before it fell to the ground and was greeted by an enthusiastic “Agaboo!” by his attacker.

Phebei, Lilaia and Bostrof Orzkal’s daughter, beamed at him toothily from where she was strapped in a baby carrier to the Lucifugous demon’s chest. She had inherited her mother’s build and refined features, and her father’s eyes and dusky complexion.

“Sorry,” the former king of the Shadow Empire said in a harried tone. He took the toy off Cassius and gave it back to his daughter. “No hitting people with Lola.”

Phebei giggled and threw the unicorn at her father’s head. “Booya!”

“I swear I don’t know where she gets her aggressive personality from,” Lilaia muttered, wearing the tired look of a first-time mother.

She took Phebei out of the baby carrier and wiped her nose with a hanky that looked like it’d been sewn by the Gods. Cassius recognized the handiwork of the Nymphs of Rain Vale.

He decided not to point out that Phebei had probably inherited that trait from both her parents and kissed Lilaia’s cheeks. “It’s good to see you.”

Phebei blew raspberries at Cassius from her mother’s arms. Though she was less than a month old, she already resembled an infant five times that age. She owed her fast growth to her Lucifugous father.

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