“I just paused to shoot off a quick email and pick up Ravi,” Alric said before snagging a kiss. “Why are you here?”
“I figured I’d see what my sister thought was so important that she had to break into our morning snuggle time.”
Ravi’s mind might have drifted to a happy place for a moment as he remembered waking up wrapped in Sora’s arms. Sleeping with his mate was definitely becoming his number-one favorite thing in the entire world.
“Wow. Mate fog has seriously set in for Ravi.”
Cameron’s teasing voice had Ravi shaking his head hard. “What?”
“I asked how Sora was, but you’re so lost in mate fog that you didn’t even hear me. It’s cute.”
Ravi groaned. “It’s not cute! I’m supposed to be protecting you two. How am I supposed to protect you if I can’t stop thinking about Sora?”
“It’s alright, Ravi. It happened to Baldewin and Warin, too.”
“Oh, yeah, Baldewin had it bad for Tori. I think I even saw him walk into a wall once while lost in thought,” Cameron added with a chuckle.
“The point is that it gets easier. And I have complete faith that if there is any real danger, you will be on top of it.”
“Or the cause of it,” Cameron muttered.
Ravi poked Cameron in the shoulder. “Sure, because you’ve never caused any trouble on your own.”
“It’s been months—”
“Six weeks, Liebling,” Alric corrected. His lips twitched like he was trying so very hard not to laugh. “You and Cassie creatively repainted her study.”
Ravi cackled as a dark blush stole across Cameron’s cheeks. Cameron and Cassie had concocted a spell to change the color of the carpet in her study to an electric blue. Unfortunately, it had turned everything in the room bright blue. Including both Cameron and Cassie, as well as a castle cat, who had mistakenly chosen to curl up on a bookshelf for a nap.
Cameron sighed loudly. “Yeah, we misjudged that one a little bit, but magic is a learning process. We need to be free to experiment.”
“I agree, but for your safety, please run your experiments by Lisette.”
“Aren’t we meeting with Cassie and Gunter? I’m sure they have something important they need to tell us,” Cameron said, leading the way down the hall.
Alric’s shoulders shook lightly with silent laughter, and Ravi grinned. Cameron had definitely changed their world for the better when he appeared a year ago.
Cameron reached Cassie’s door first and briefly knocked before stepping inside. Ravi followed Alric and stopped just past the threshold. The room wasn’t blue anymore. None of it was. He thought he’d heard Cassie saying that she didn’t want to see the color blue for a long time.
What he did find was an explosion of paper, Cassie’s insane array of computers and monitors, and Gunter seated at a table with his laptop, scribbling some notes on a yellow legal pad. The dragon looked more than a little disheveled, his blond hair sticking out in all directions. His glasses were balanced on the end of his nose, and dark circles surrounded his eyes.
“Gunter, I thought I told you to get some sleep,” Alric grumbled.
Gunter’s head snapped up, and he blinked at the king as if coming out of a daze. “I did.”
Cassie barked out a rough laugh from her desk, but she didn’t look much better. Maybe a little more awake. Ravi suspected she might have sneaked some coffee recently.
“That was two days ago.”
“Really? It’s been two days?”
Cassie held up two fingers and nodded. “Oh yeah. Two days since you last left this room.”
“I’ll say. The room smells like you could both use a shower,” Cameron announced, wrinkling his nose.
Ravi couldn’t argue that. The air had a musty quality—hints of old food, stale coffee, and possibly smelly feet.
Cassie folded her arms tightly over her chest and leaned back in her chair, glaring at her twin brother. “Are you done insulting us? Do you even want to hear the good news?”
Cameron opened his mouth, but Alric quickly placed his fingers over Cameron’s lips. “We’re sorry, Cassie. We’d love to hear your news.”
“We found the Jaeggi,” Gunter declared.
“What?” Ravi screeched, forgetting for a moment that he was supposed to be hanging in the background.
“Where?” Alric demanded.
“Prague,” Cassie announced with a proud smirk.
“That’s not all. It’s Thomas Jaeggi,” Gunter continued.
Ravi didn’t think it was possible for his mouth to fall open farther, but it did. Thomas Jaeggi was the suspected leader of the Jaeggi Clan. He was the one who’d taunted Alric and had been behind the kidnapping of Cameron