Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up 5)

Sebastian had been preparing for years, counting down to this meeting, with the blind hope that the heir wouldn’t kill him in the final moment. He very well might have been planning his death all this time. It was a helluva leap of faith, but he’d clung to his sister’s dying words, which she’d struggled to say right before giving in to eternal night. “You must…walk this journey. You must follow the stars.”

Follow the stars. It sounded lofty and full of purpose. Or so he hoped. It was what he’d clung to this last decade.

The waiting was almost over. The pivotal scene was upon them.

He was doing everything he could not to think about it. His elaborate game of cat and mouse with the other mages showing up would hopefully distract him from the possibility that he might be about to follow Jala into death.

“Oh…hel-lo.” Nessa looked at the screen showing the waiting area. An attendant had stopped next to the couple, no doubt relaying the information that their rooms were ready. The alpha stood, helping Jessie up after him, both of them dressed to the nines. “He is all man.”

“Don’t even think it.” Sebastian put his hand in front of the screen. “Don’t even look. Ever. Eyes and especially hands off him, unless you want a world of hurt.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to steal the heir’s man. But I don’t mind looking, not one bit. You said he was in shape; you didn’t say he was a god. The guy is H-O-T, hot.” She fanned her face, nearly salivating.

“Seriously, Nessa, I’m not joking. That female gargoyle is entering the mating phase—or maybe she’s in it by now—and she will literally tear your face off and wear it like a party favor if you encroach on her territory. That man is her territory. Do not pass go; do not collect two hundred dollars. He likes violence, too. He’ll like watching what she does to you.”

“All right, all right,” she said softly, her gaze still lingering on Austin. “He’s incredibly handsome, though. And just…so…masculine. They don’t make mages like that.”

“They don’t make shifters like that either, I think. From what I’ve seen, he’s unusual for his kind. More powerful and more intense. It has something to do with his father and mother—I couldn’t get a straight answer out of anyone. They only trusted me when Jessie was around, and I didn’t want to make her suspicious by asking too many questions. Just wait until you meet him in person, though. He is terrifying. More so than the basajaun. Or the phoenix. Or the thunderbird. Or even the vampire. That one is wily, the vampire. Half the time, he didn’t make sense—he’d just pop up next to me randomly, offering some strange sort of floral anecdote. He kept giving me doilies, too. Oddly shaped doilies. I couldn’t tell if it was a threat or a joke or… He really unnerved me—I got the feeling he was intentionally trying to disorientate me. He definitely didn’t trust me, that was clear. I think he knew I was hiding something. I kept waiting to turn around and find him sinking his fangs into my neck. It was a crazy couple of weeks.”

“So you’ve said. Who is…” She leaned closer to one of the lower screens—the whole office was covered in them, every inch of Sebastian’s compound affixed with cameras, recording to the cloud. He wanted to know every important detail of the meeting and hopefully glean secrets from the visiting mages that he could use against them. He also wanted to watch over Jessie and make sure she didn’t get tangled up with one of his other visitors. “Who’s that? I don’t recognize him. He’s a looker, too. The scar on his face makes him seem…dangerous.”

“He’s a shifter—he is dangerous,” Sebastian murmured, squinting at the screen. “I haven’t seen him before. He must be new. What’s it say on the roster?”

Nessa pointed at each member of Jessie’s party in turn before landing back on the incredibly large shifter who looked like he was draped in a black cloud. “That doesn’t look like a Shauna to me.”

“A guy like that can go by whatever name he wants. I’m not judging.”

Nessa took a step forward and grabbed the office phone off the cradle. She hit three buttons and waited for a moment.

“Yeah, Rick, hey…who’s the stand-in for Shauna? He hasn’t been approved.” She waited a moment. “Yeah, patch me through.”

Sebastian watched one of the screens as a red-coated woman holding a clipboard glanced at the phone resting on a nearby end table.

There was no cell service in this mountain. The only way to call for help was via landline, wired in a few of the tunnels and in select rooms. The chances of finding one of those landlines and getting help in time was next to nil.