Magical Midlife Invasion (Leveling Up 3)

It had been only two days since the battle, but I hadn’t wanted to keep stringing them along. Everyone needed an answer, including the gargoyles I wouldn’t be using. They’d agreed to stay, anyway, and would be joining Austin’s pack once he got around to officially forming one.

Jasper nodded, as silent and resolute as always, but Ulric shifted in place, a sheen of sweat covering his forehead and his mouth a thin line.

We stood just outside the council room. The house crew was already seated, waiting for Ivy House to assign roles to these two.

“You okay?” I asked Ulric quietly.

He wiped his hands on his crisp black dress shirt—his palms were apparently sweating, and he was too distracted to realize how gross that was. “Yeah. It’s just…” He licked his lips and his eyes turned glassy. “If my mom could see me now. No one ever thought I’d amount to anything. They looked down on me, looked down on her because of me—she’s the only one who believed I’d make something of myself. And here I am, about to join the most elite force my kind could hope for. I get to help protect a female gargoyle, one of only three gargoyles chosen for that task. All my hard work, all the brick walls standing in my way in life, and now…” He wiped away a tear. “This is a dream come true. Beyond a dream come true. Thank you for choosing me, Miss Jessie. It is an absolute honor.”

I pulled him into a hug. “You earned it.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that if he wanted an elite force, this wasn’t the place. If he hadn’t figured that out already, he had blinders on as thick as my father’s.

“Okay, when you get in there, you just let the house steer you, okay? I choose the people; she chooses the seats.”

They nodded, and I turned, walking slowly into the room in a pantsuit that somewhat matched the color of my gargoyle skin. Mr. Tom had tried to sew rainbow-colored sparkly streamers to the back, signifying the eddies of light, but I’d refused. There had to be lines drawn against the weird in this house or it would run amok.

A tray of champagne sat on the little table by the window. I passed it and made my way into the center of the circle, smiling at Austin in his number one seat, and glancing at the others—Edgar in the twelfth seat, Mr. Tom in the ninth, and Niamh in the third.

I put my hand out toward the door.

“Please welcome our newest members to the circle.”

Ulric and Jasper walked in slowly, their path leading them around the outside of the seats until they reached the little flag behind Austin’s chair, a space separating him and Edgar, allowing the two gargoyles to enter the circle, one at a time.

Ulric went first, pausing three steps in, as though he were listening. Then he kept walking until he about-faced in front of the sixth seat, wiped another tear, and sat.

“He is your balance,” Ivy House whispered to me. “When the team is fraying, look to him to pull you back together. He has kept his head through much strife in his life, and he will continue to keep his head for this cause.”

I nodded even as he wiped away another tear.

Jasper entered next, pausing where Ulric did. He turned before walking to the seventh seat.

“He’s strong and stoic, he is loyal to a fault, but he needs to be near his kind or he will lose his way. For that reason, I am placing him near Ulric, who will keep as close to him as a brother. Who will pull the gargoyles together much like he will pull the team as a whole together when they fray. You have one or two gargoyles yet to come. Most heirs chose a solid gargoyle team, but this approach you’re taking is wise. Land and sky, many different strengths and weaknesses—I approve of it.”

“What about Austin? You never gave commentary when he joined.”

“You must find your own way with him.”

I put my hands out in an are you serious kind of way. That made literally no sense, given she’d just provided me with a rundown of the other two.

The silence of the room jogged me out of my annoyance.

“Welcome,” I said again, smiling at Ulric and Jasper. “Champagne?”

The celebratory drinks were short-lived before Austin approached me, face stern and chest pointed at the door.

“I better get going,” he said.

The energy between us heated up the air. “Sounds good. It was nice seeing you.”

He looked like he was about to say something, but instead walked past me, out of the door. He didn’t get far before I felt a stranger on the walkway.

“Man, what happened to a quiet life?” I muttered.