“What’s this now?” Austin asked.
“This is the fifth time she’s berated me for Kace stopping her…game.” Kingsley’s displeasure was evident. “She was about to be stabbed, apparently by design.”
“Ah.” Austin’s gaze roamed the bar, ever watchful.
“You let those sorts of…games happen in the territory?” Kingsley asked.
“That, my dude, is the shifter version of talking trash.” I put my finger to my nose. “I’ve learned a thing or two.”
I chuckled under Kingsley’s hard stare. Niamh outright laughed.
“No,” Austin answered, running his palm across my shoulders gently and down my other arm. “Only Jess gets that privilege.”
“Does that not…cause problems?” Kingsley asked. “Tension? People don’t like to see a favorite get privileges others do not.”
“First of all, not many people, even shifters, would be jealous of a game that always ends in a stab wound. Second, the game was offered to any who wanted to play. Everyone knows how unpredictable she is. How powerful…” Austin paused when Kingsley moved his hand. “You know it’s true, brother. She locked you in a spell, right?” Kingsley moved again, almost imperceptibly. Austin inclined his head, some sort of affirmation. I wasn’t drunk enough to miss that they were conducting a second conversation in gestures. “You might not be able to feel or smell her power while she is swaying in place right now, but you felt it when she used it. That was no mistake. Right now she is learning, and so she gets passes any trainee would. She doesn’t mean anyone harm, and this territory knows that. They are content to allow her these rare…privileges because they like watching when it blows up her in face.”
“Well, that is new information,” I muttered.
“Only to ye.” Niamh chuckled.
“And outsiders?” Kingsley asked.
“Outsiders typically challenge me.” Austin ran his fingertips along the back of my neck.
“Wait.” I swatted his hand away. I couldn’t think when he was doing that. It was turning me into a puddle of goo. “People are challenging you because of me?”
Austin’s eyes were soft. “They would’ve anyway.”
“No.” I took another sip of beer. It dribbled down the side of my face. “Damn it.”
“Ye’ve got a hole in yer lip,” Niamh said.
“Yeah. Awesome.” I wiped it away with the back of my hand, swayed toward Austin, was gently nudged back, and clunked my glass down on the bar. “That’s probably a good cue to stop.”
“Sure, ye’ve just gotten goin’. Only good things will happen from here on out.”
“You just want to see me fall on my face. Little do you know that I am a professional. I do not fall on my face. Down a flight of stairs, sure, nobody’s perfect…”
“The video feature on my phone is already cued up,” she replied.
I waved a hand at her image—one of them, at least—and turned in my seat to glare at Austin, closing one eye to keep his image from multiplying. “The stabbing game has them challenging me? I mean you? Because just send them to me. I will rock their world.”
“The stabbing game, your random seeping power that I don’t control, a mage that I don’t cast out…”
I leaned back against the bar, the motion nearly jostling me out of my chair, but whatever. “Because you allow Sebastian in the bar?” I narrowed my eyes at Kingsley. “You were being serious earlier. You really didn’t want a mage in here.”
“He didn’t know who you were,” Austin said.
A flash of anger tore through me. Power followed, ballooning around me.
“My kind has been hunted by mages for a decade now,” Kingsley said, a growl riding his words. I felt the sweet rush of his answering power. “My pack is too big, too well established, too prosperous for the mages to go after, but if we continue to pretend it isn’t happening, it’ll only be a matter of time. Meanwhile, entire packs are being wiped out for frivolous reasons. For spite disguised as genuine offense.”
It was the same thing Sebastian had said to Niamh. She’d told us about Momar and the threat he posed.
“He would know,” Kingsley replied, and I realized I’d said that thought out loud.
“Not all mages are against you,” I said. “A blanket generalization will only hurt you in the end, because you’ll alienate the mages in the middle—or worse, the ones who support you. Then it’ll really be war. If you want to fight Momar, the best approach would be to recruit some mages of your own. He must have a crapload of enemies. Powerful people always do. Find some of those and push back.”
“Things are a lot more complicated than that,” he replied after a silent beat.
I’d felt a surge of energy, of motivation, but something about his tone took the wind out of my sails. My heart dropped, and I sagged against the bar. “I’m making everything harder on you,” I said to Austin, my eyes filling with tears. One got loose and shimmied down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away. Liquid courage had turned into liquid emotion. I needed to get out of here, and I needed some chocolate. “Your pack is in chaos because of me, isn’t it? You have people coming to challenge you because they hate that you’re working with a mage.”