“A good path too,” my dad said, puffing out his chest. “The best path, even.”
“Perhaps you’re not as lost to them as you think,” Ruv said. “The paths we take may lead us from home, but they always return us to where we started in the end.”
He turned back toward the King but kept glancing at me, like he was assessing. I didn’t know what he saw when he looked at me, and I tried not to squirm under his watchful gaze. Ryan must have seen it too, because he inched closer in what was I’m sure an attempt for subtlety but probably missed the mark by a good distance.
“I’m not going to whip it out and demand he suck it,” I whispered to him.
“Thank the gods for small favors,” he whispered back.
“Hey! I’m not small, you asshole.”
“I didn’t say you were. And why would you even be thinking of whipping it out?”
“Maybe because you look like you’re going to piss on me just to mark your—”
“Ahem,” Morgan said pointedly.
Ruv glanced between Ryan and me, brow furrowing, but the look was gone before I could even place it.
“Your phuro is here, is she not?” asked the King.
“She is,” Ruv said. “But it is customary for the Wolf to enter first to avoid any… complications.”
“And what complications might that be?”
The answering smile was razor sharp. “We are not always welcome when we leave the desert. Precautions must be taken. You understand.”
“There is nothing to fear here,” the King said lightly. “Your phuro is safe.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Ruv said, glancing at me again. “The power in this room is satarma. Like a star to be wished upon.”
“But your phuro has already entered,” Morgan said, speaking for the first time to Ruv. “Has she not?”
“Old one,” Ruv said with another bow. “You are a legend amongst my people.”
“A legend would imply I don’t exist.”
“And yet here you are,” Ruv said.
“I notice you didn’t answer my question.”
Ruv grinned. It really was a nice smile, if one cared about such things. “I did not.”
“He’s sassy,” Gary hissed at me. “We need to keep him.”
“He’s not that sassy,” Ryan muttered.
“Sam, can you tell the Knight Commander to calm the fuck down? He’s harshing my new boy-crush buzz and I won’t tolerate it a moment more.”
Because Gary was a unicorn and my best friend, I said, “Ryan, stop harshing Gary’s buzz.”
“My boy-crush buzz, Sam, get it right. It is so hard to find good help these days.”
“I good help,” Tiggy said.
“The best, really,” Gary agreed.
“Stop harshing his boy-crush buzz,” I said to Ryan.