Page 7 of Suspicions on the Stage
We all look at the pretty male siren and his face turns bright pink. I can tell he’s struggling, but even the brash mage isn’t going to step in between him and his family drama. “Fine. Azul, queen of the Seven Seas. I want to introduce my, uh, friends to you.”
Fucking weird. Kid didn’t even do this for his dad and that asshole is supposed to be in charge.
“You may do so once I’m seated, Ezzie.” She turns, wiggling up to a second throne that seems to appear out of nowhere next to Axel’s. Once she’s tucked into it, the woman nods and waves her hand at her son like he’s a peon. “Go on, then.”
I watch Slade struggle for a second, but he pastes a fake smile on his features before he continues. “Azul, this is Prince Liam Spéirgheal of the Daybreak Court and his royal guard, Kaspar…”
“Peshko,” I said quickly.
He looks grateful, then goes on. “Yes. Um, you know Ignatius Briarton, but next to him is Lucas Wolfberg. Last, but not least, Morgana LeCiel, dean of State University.”
Azul snorts, her long green and blue locks bouncing on her shoulders. “Ezzie, that is not how you address The Dragon Slayer.”
Morgana’s posture stiffens and she focuses her gaze on the woman making her pet siren so damn uncomfortable. Something in the electricity in the air tells me she’s getting ready to do something insane and I need to be ready for it. “Nice to finally meet you, Azul. I am quite fond of your son. Please, simply call me Morgana.”
Ouch. She left off that silly titleanddenied the moniker at the same time—that’s a high society snub.
The seawoman stares at Morgana as if she wants to slice her to ribbons with her eyes. It doesn’t phase the gargoyle—no, she simply looks back at Azul with a pleasant, yet blank expression. I’m not sure if this is the way female alphas confront one another or if it's more about their age, but the room stays quiet enough to hear a flea’s fart. Finally, the self-proclaimed queen nods and leans back on her fancy throne.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Dragon Slayer. I would say my son speaks highly of you, but it would be a lie, since he rarely speaks to his family.”
Before Ignatius can burst up to defend Slade, I side-step to keep him away. The mage doesn’t need to defend the younger siren; he needs to encourage him to stand up for himself. I can seewhyeveryone feels protective of Slade, but I don’t believe they’re doing him any favors by not letting him try before they help out. If I have to ride around in this clown car, the one thing I’m going to do is get the kid to show some spine.
Not that I care.
“Mom, I’m finishing my thesis. I work in a coffee shop. I play in the orchestra.” She arches a brow and he almost falters, but a look back at the rest of us seems to buffer him. “I’ve got alot going on at school, and I’m not a guppy anymore. Plus, the phone still works both ways as of this morning.”
I suck in a breath, hoping that spunk he got from our subtle encouragement isn’t going to start a fist fight. He took the ball and ran, though, I’ll give the kid that and then some. The feel of the professor glaring at my back doesn’t faze me, but waiting for this motorcycle mama to respond might.
Azul tilts her head, then bursts out laughing. It ripples over the crowd, with even Axel joining in as she expresses her amusement with Slade’s defiance. Tracer doesn’t look thrilled, though, and I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. Knowing our luck, it’s probably very bad.
“Ezzie, I’m glad to see you’re finally showing a little tooth. Good boy,” Azul says when she finally stops chuckling.
Morgana recoils visibly, obviouslyveryuncomfortable withthatphrase in this context. She looks at the bear and the prince, who are hiding their laughter behind their hands. Admittedly, it sounded creepy as fuck, and I’m not even completely sure how incestual this family might be. It’s definitely not as patriarchal as the public is led to believe—Axel’s a figurehead at best. The woman taunting us at the moment is the true power in the room and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.
“Now, perhaps you might share with our family why you’ve brought the Dragon Slayer and a Fae Prince to our territory? If I weren’t so fond of you, I’d think this was an act of treason against our organization.”
This time, Iggy gets past me, looking deathly serious as he worms his way in next to Slade. “That’s not true at all, Azul. The by-laws allow for this if we pre-arrange the audience through aroyal or one of the heirs in advance and are announced by the witch. We’ve done all of that, as you likely know, or we wouldn’t have gotten in here. Stop playing games with him.”
I’m suddenly a little impressed with the magical teacher; he’s done his homework.
Azul rolls her eyes, then snaps her fingers at one of the women gathered behind her chair. The shifter scurries off to get whatever that gesture was demanding, and the ‘queen’ looks at us again. “Fine. You are not in breach, but youarewasting my time before the summit. Why are you here, Briarton?”
“We need information,” Morgana interrupts. “There have been attacks on campus—some large and some small—that point to more than a single individual. When we did some poking around, we believed that there are more incidents than are being reported widely in our community, and that perhaps, this is a bigger ploy.”
“Villains are always villains, Morgana. Politicians, whether human or supernatural, always want to cover up problems they cannot manage to solve. Why would that warrant a visit to us? Moreover, why would a college dean care?”
“Becausemother,” Slade grinds out, “some of the people affected at State U are both friendsandimportant supes. If this is a move by several groups of… bad guys… then our incidents might get worse. People could get hurt, and I’d like to make sure the people I care about are safe.”
Azul’s gaze narrows and I can picture the gears in her head working out how much she wants to share. My dragon scents the magic swirling in the air and I let him come forward a little more to send tendrils of smoke curling around our group. It’snot much, but it might let Iggy and the Prince know that we need to be cautious of what the other beings in this tent are doing.
There’s some sort of magic afoot and I want them to be aware.
“While I’m pleased that you’re exploring a personal life, I don’t see any reason to break accords I’ve been part of to answer your questions, Ezzie.”
“Look, lady,” Morgana says before Slade can even open his mouth. “You and I are too old for this shit. Quit yanking our chains and admit that you’re too self-centered to help your son and we’ll be on our way. I’m tired of playing reindeer games with you.”
The mer-siren pops up off of her throne, her eyes flashing with anger as she slowly walks towards Morgana. To her credit, once again, the gargoyle doesn’t flinch nor does she move a centimeter. She simply stays in place, waiting for Azul to come toe-to-toe with her. Once she does, they stare at one another again.
