Her body went limp, fear chasing out desire. “Well, I…”

“You’ve changed your mind.” There was no emotion in his face. A blank slate. Or a slab of granite.

“I’m not ready.” And might never be.

Magic swirled in his eyes, but his aura remained serene. “Take your time.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m not going anywhere. And I have something to show you.” He reached down, amusement tugging his brows when her breath caught in her throat. “Oh, but you do have a dirty mind, don’t you?” Chuckling, he waved his phone in front of her face.

Sera gathered up the pieces of her shattered dignity and glanced at the phone. On the screen, there was an official-looking mail from Duncan Blackbrooke.

“It’s your results from the Magic Games,” Kai told her.

Odd, considering that she was the one who had survived the Games and she definitely hadn’t gotten this mail.

“Results are sent to the coaches,” he said, guessing her thought. Or maybe her eyes just screamed ‘kill Duncan Blackbrooke!’. “It’s antiquated, I know. But so are most traditions we have.”

“Like wearing a suit?”

“I did away with that one many years ago. Except when I can’t avoid it.”

“Magic Council meetings?” she asked.

“No, I wear whatever the hell I want to those, and if anyone has a problem with me, we can take it outside. Or inside. I’m not particular.”

She chuckled.

“It’s not as though any of them could complain about my attire. The vampires wear two-hundred-year-old cloaks. And the fairies…well, they claim what they’re wearing are dresses, but I think they’ve confused ‘dress’ with ‘lingerie’.”

“Kind of like your man Edwards and the fighting pit lingerie he bought me.”

“Oh, no. Edwards’s choices were downright modest compared to those fairies’ dresses.”

“Hmm. Maybe I should come with you next time you have a Magic Council meeting. You know, just to keep those naughty fairies in line.” She draped her hands over his shoulders and leaned in to kiss him. “I can bring my sword. It will be fun. Like a field trip.”

He snorted. “Do you want to see your results?”

“I guess.” Sighing, she dropped her arms. “I’m going to find out eventually anyway. I need to show them to Simmons so he’ll clear me for work again.”

“Try not to sound too excited.”

“I’m never excited to be called in to Simmons’s office. Hey, maybe I’ll send you instead. He likes you.”

“Of course. I’ll help you. We can go together.”

“I was joking, Kai,” she said. “But, um, thanks for offering.”

“Bring him a muffin.”

“Sorry?”

“A muffin,” he repeated. “Simmons likes muffins. His favorite flavor is apple cinnamon.”

Her mouth hung open in shock. “How do you know the head of Mayhem’s favorite muffin flavor?”

He shrugged. “Research. Never go into battle unprepared.”

“I wasn’t aware you had ever battled Simmons.”

“The battle of negotiation. Back when I wanted to hire you the first time.”

“You mean, when you pretended to be Riley’s friend so that you could spy on me to see what kind of weird funky magic I had?”

He sighed. “We’ve been over this, Sera. Riley and I already knew each other. That he was the brother of the mercenary I wanted to hire was just a lucky coincidence,” he said. “But back to Simmons. I wanted to hire you, but I knew he’d try to push one of his top-tier mercenaries on me. I needed to soften him up first. So I had my guys research his weaknesses, and they came up with muffins.”

“Did the muffin work?”

“Somewhat. He still tried to sway me toward some of his ‘shooting stars’, as he called them.”

“Of course he did. He can charge more for mercenaries with high magic ratings. But none of them have my stellar sense of humor.”

“Or your magic,” Kai said, pointing at his phone screen.

“First tier mage,” she read.

“No surprise there,” Kai commented.

“First tier mage: Magic Breaker, Sniffer, Elemental. World rankings: Elemental #12, Magic Breaker…#1. Wow.”

“You shouldn’t be surprised. No one can break magic like you can.”

Alex could, but Sera didn’t mention that. She did not want her sister dragged through Blackbrooke’s Games. “Sniffer: #1. Hey, I beat you in that one!”

Kai laughed. Or was that a grunt? A grunt-laugh?

Sera scrolled down, looking for more, but it was just a bunch of standard text about how her official results would be mailed to her…yada yada…more random bits. She got to the bottom. There was no reference to Dragon Born. In fact, there was no mention of anything weird whatsoever.

“You look relieved,” Kai said.

She turned a smile on him. “Relieved that it’s finally over. Well, that crisis anyway. We still have to deal with Alden.”

“And we will,” he told her.

“Did the Council send a team to his underground hideout in New York?”

“Yes, but by the time they got there, Alden and his followers were gone.”

Figured. “I saw the news,” she told him. “There’s a lot of speculation about the nameless mage who stumbled into Alden’s lair and then escaped. Thanks for keeping me out of the headlines.”