Page 8 of Realm of Flames (Reborn 3)
“Hmm?” Maya looked at me with concern before I shook my head.
“Just do two glasses of champagne,” I offered evenly, my eyes narrowing.
“Right away.” He scampered away and left me with a seemingly content Maya, who seemed to be not nearly as focused on the others at the table now. Which was exactly the way I preferred it.
“Could we get to the point of why we are here exactly?” Edmund asked, his voice filled with distaste at Lucas and Marco’s friendly discussion.
“And what is the point?” I mused, my fingers brushing through the pink streak in Maya’s hair that seemed to shimmer against her skin.
“I want to know why you are returning to the realm,” Larry all but blurted out.
“We have some business to attend to,” Marco explained evenly.
“After all this time?” Edmund frowned. “I find that unlikely.”
“Afraid of what news we will bring back?” I chuckled. Lucas made a sound of agreement, taking a sip of his bloody mary, clearly finding all of this funny as fuck… which it was. Extremely so. I loved making Edmund and Larry uncomfortable.
Fear flashed through Edmund’s thoughts, making me realize that was very much the case. Which hadn’t been the goal, but now that he mentioned it… Maybe we needed to look through their actions with a fine-tooth comb.
“I just assumed we all shared the same goal on why we left,” he amended.
“We don’t share any of the same goals,” Marco leveled. “But if it makes you feel better, this has nothing to do with you.”
“It has to do with her,” Anna bit out, taking a sip of her martini as Maya offered a small thanks to the waiter who was delivering drinks.
“You are telling them you have a phoenix mate?” Larry frowned. “You understand the problems that will cause, right? She isn’t fully marked.”
“You didn’t seem to care about that last night,” Lucas added.
“But the realm is different, you know that,” Edmund argued.
“Why do you need to go to the realm for her?” Larry demanded.
Maya took a sip of her drink and set it down before Marco shared a look with her, our mate clearly completely comfortable with whatever we wanted to tell them. It was funny, in a way, because Maya cared about so much and to such an extreme extent when it came to those she loved… but those she didn’t? There was a reserved almost coolness to her attitude that was completely unintentional. An indifferent and apathetic sense of examination she applied to them, like right now. I could almost see her phoenix watching the group of them struggle with what to do. Almost in a predatorial fashion.
“None of your business,” Marco mused. “Besides, we won’t be long.”
“They probably want to know if she can have dragon babies after all the shit she went through.” Anna grinned as Maya’s body tensed, clearly not having expected Anna to have known about the abuse she went through. Then again, the media paired with the pictures Becky Ash had taken really painted a picture of what Maya had gone through. Not including the assumptions she was no doubt making.
“Is that true?” Larry shot back. “Are you checking the viability of her being able to breed?”
A low growl broke through my throat at his words as Maya shrank into me, her eyes darting around the table uncomfortably.
“Enough,” Marco snapped, his magic wrapping around the table and tightening. Anna smirked, looking down at her drink. “What happens between our mate and our flight is none of your fucking business. If we don’t have anything else to talk about, I am perfectly happy with ending—”
“We need to talk about something else,” Edmund added. I pulled Maya onto my lap, no longer caring about their words and wanting to comfort her. Without a fight, the woman relaxed into me, her head resting on my shoulder as she narrowed her eyes at Anna just slightly, the woman unaware of the discomfort she was causing my mate. Or maybe extremely aware of it. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the problems I knew it would cause socially, I would have killed her by now.
Simply making Maya uncomfortable was enough of a reason for me.
“Anna?” Maya asked, drawing the woman’s attention as her eyes flashed with something that looked a bit like fear.
“What?” she snipped.
“How do you know about what I went through?”
“The news story,” she leveled, something sliding behind her gaze.
Maya straightened and frowned, not saying anything but suddenly looking far more cautious. I could feel her magic searching Anna for lies, and I had a feeling whatever she found there wasn’t good. It made me want to end this brunch now.
