Deirdre leaned forward and fixed me with an intense look. “But we’ve overlooked another little... hiccup. You don’t seem particularly... surprised by this anymore, Percy. We should still discuss what happened at the house, with Silas.”
I raised my eyebrows and waved a chopstick around to take in all four of them. “You guys stopped being the worst thing going on in my life the second I heard the b-bone saw.”
I tried to be nonchalant about it, tried to play it cool like Dodge, but I didn’t have it in me. Flashes of what I’d seen in the sanctuary’s kitchen kept surfacing at odd moments, distracting me and dragging me back to that panicked, uncontrolled feeling of pure fear. I stumbled over “bone saw” since I definitely wasn’t as relaxed about someone getting chopped up as Dodge.
She nodded but there wasn’t any judgment in her expression. “Be that as it may, since it sounds like we’re all going to be very... involved in each other’s lives for the near future, it would be a good idea for us to explain what happened with Silas and what we’re trying to do.”
I put the chopsticks down carefully and braced my hands on the table, taking a deep breath. “Okay. Shoot.”
A hint of a smile crossed her face. “It’s not that dire. Apparently Smith already shared quite a bit with you about the variety of supernaturals who are in the city. Until very recently, we witches have kept ourselves apart from the shifters and the fae. The shifters are quite... boisterous in their engagements with each other and seem to create a lot of feuds and drama, so witches typically stayed away to watch from a distance.”
“Bullshit,” her husband said, rolling his eyes.
“Oh? What, precisely, is bullshit?” she asked sweetly.
He apparently didn’t hear the warning and scooped up a massive amount of spicy kimchi, using his chopsticks like a shovel, and tilted his head back so he could practically swallow it whole. “We don’t cause feuds. The lions do. Those fucking cats are dramatic. And you witches... are you forgetting about the nonsense with Henry and his mate?”
Deirdre poked his ribs just as he swallowed, and Miles choked and coughed as he inhaled the massive mouthful he’d only partially chewed. She turned her attention back to me as her husband pounded on his chest and struggled to breathe, his face reddening. “As I was saying, there are a lot of politics within the supernatural community. That can take finesse to navigate. We don’t want you to feel thrown into this on your own. Because we are responsible for your knowledge of the community, we’re also responsible for familiarizing you and giving you the tools to navigate these relationships.”
“Relationships?” I frowned as I studied her and played with my chopsticks. I definitely needed to practice with those things. It seemed like an important life skill. “What relationships?”
Her head tilted as she glanced at Dodge and then back to me. “Well, now that you know about... all of us, there’s no going back. Not really.”
My heart thumped a little faster against my ribs. What the fuck did that mean? Was I going to be imprisoned in the basement along with the wolfman? Maybe I could take my chances with Ms. Bridger. I could explain that I didn’t see anything and didn’t want to know anything. I’d start over somewhere far away and she wouldn’t have to worry about me ever again.
I struggled to find a way to respond when another knock signaled the waitresses’ return. My eyebrows rose as they came in with massive platters of grilled meat, some marinated in sauces and others seasoned only with salt. I was just gearing up to tell Deirdre that I didn’t want anything else to do with their incredibly dangerous, apparently drama-filled, community, when Dodge signaled one of the waitresses and said something in a rapid-fire foreign language.
She stared at him as openly as I did, then laughed, nodded, and disappeared. I frowned at Dodge, once more completely thrown off my assessment of him. I tried to focus on Deirdre and the matter at hand despite the intense and delicious aroma that foiled my fumbling chopsticks ability. “I’m not –”
My teeth clicked shut as the waitress returned with a fork, smiling at me as she put it on the table next to me, and disappeared again. My cheeks burned as I looked at the utensil. It was a little embarrassing that I was the only one at the