“No, but”—Jessie picked up her glass of wine—“alphas don’t show that kind of emotion. It invites challenges.”
No one in their right mind would challenge either of them after Jessie’s show of power. It was quite prestigious for anyone to land an alpha, but everyone in this bar was quickly realizing that it was just as prestigious to land a female gargoyle.
That would’ve filled Niamh with pride if the heir’s magic hadn’t just given her a good rattle, and if she didn’t now have watery cider. The joy of her position had gone out of her. She just hoped those Janes at the end of the bar kept their wandering eyes and especially their hands to themselves until Jessie and Austin Steele got out of there. Niamh liked seeing fireworks, but she didn’t like being blown up by them.
Four
I slouched against the chair and sipped my wine, happy for the background noise of other people chattering. Mr. Tom had been doing my head in, quizzing me on various spells, randomly trying to attack me to see if I could defend myself, going over various clothing options for the trip, and asking if I might want to take Nathanial or a gargoyle in town for a sexual spin for comparison reasons. I think the pressure was getting to the guy. His grip on reality was starting to fray.
After all that, he’d had the gall to ask if I’d “finally” gotten around to deciding how I wanted to reoutfit the house.
I didn’t care about home décor! I was about to stumble my way into an impossible situation, and I was starting to lose sleep thinking about the danger I was putting everyone in. It would be better if I went alone, took a magical kill shot at Elliot, and hoped for the best. End of story. If someone went down, it should be me and only me.
“You good?”
Austin’s rough voice washed over me in the best of ways. I closed my eyes as his hand touched down on my shoulder and drifted across my back, dropping to rest on the back of the chair. I turned a little, dipping my fingers into his pocket and resting my hand there, pulling him a little closer until his side was pressed flush to my shoulder.
“Yeah. You?” I asked, looking up at his handsome face.
“Very. Should I grab a chair?”
He was asking how long we’d be.
My stomach flipped as I thought of him cooking dinner for me. Of what would absolutely happen once we were finished eating.
“No. Just one drink, I think.”
He nodded and reached around me to grab his glass. “So. You took down the phoenix, huh?”
My mood darkened. I scowled at Niamh. “I didn’t have much choice. It was that or die.”
“Bollocks,” Niamh said. “She was fartin’ around the whole time until she finally got her head out of her arse and finished things up.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t bother to comment. I’d already yelled as much as I cared to. She hadn’t backed down then, and I knew she wasn’t likely to have a sudden change of heart.
“One shot?” Austin said, swishing my hair across my shoulders. He stroked my cheek, and I closed my eyes and savored the sensation, my heart leaping, his heart beating right beside mine in my chest.
“Mhm,” I murmured.
“You did better than I did,” he said.
I laughed, my eyes fluttering open again. “Hardly. I didn’t get the shot off until after she nearly choked me to death.”
“That Cyra is tough, boy,” Niamh said. “Jessie raked her across the middle, nearly tore her throat out, and battered her around—she just held on until she couldn’t anymore. Everyone knows female phoenixes have more power than the males, but Hollace says she’s also one of the oldest and most vicious of the females. Her soul has been around for ages.”
The link with Austin sparkled with pride. “And now both of the alphas of this territory have taken her down.”
“I’m not so sure I could do it again,” I said.
“Ah, would ye schtawp.” Niamh gave the ceiling a long-suffering look.
“Was that English?” I asked with a grin.
“Janie Mack, ye’re driven me mental, so ye are. Go have dinner. Austin Steele, if ye’re goin’ta have all these people in this bar all the time, ye’re gonna need more bartenders.”
A woman in her early twenties staggered a little as she climbed the steps from the lower area with the pool table and the bathrooms to the main bar area, from which the pool table had been removed a while ago to create space for the crowds. Been there, done that. She was one of the Janes and definitely a tourist.
I sipped my wine, nearly finished, losing sight of her within the throng of people.
“Are you over capacity?” I asked, pulling my fingers from Austin’s pocket and tracing them up his hard side.