Page 86 of Magical Midlife Conclave

“Ye don’t need all that sugar.” She patted me as we settled in.

The wolves went until one was on the ground, bloodied and giving up, before two more rushed in to tear them apart. Two more fights went the same until it was Aljoe’s turn to step up.

“Jess.” Sue walked down the line of spectators before gesturing me up.

“I’ll be back.” I put the cup on the cooler.

“Be sure to act quick,” Niamh told me. “Ye’ll blink and someone will be dead.”

The crowd parted, revealing Aljoe dressed in a purple muumuu.

“Nice threads,” I told him, standing beside him, just inside the cones.

“I hear you’re pissed.”

“Just about. I’m easing out of disappointed.”

“At me?”

“You get a pass. You haven’t been here long.”

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye as his five challengers stepped into the space, the largest that was sectioned off in the field. I had a feeling Aljoe’s challengers would need it. They’d be trying to get away from a charging lion. I’d seen him in action. It had freaked me out.

“I shouldn’t.” He stripped out of his muumuu, revealing his patchwork of scars acquired when growing up. “I failed in my duty to this convocation. To Austin. I made the wrong choices. You proved that when you barged in and set everything to rights. With quick economy, I might add. It was like watching a superhero. I walked out of that place greatly humbled.”

I half regretted saying anything now. I didn’t ever tend to stay mad very long.

“Downtown was locked down,” he said. “Gargoyles, who wouldn’t move an inch for that gargoyle-monster, were up in the air in a precise flying pattern⁠—”

“I forced some of them with pain⁠—”

“—shifters were afraid to show themselves with the legendary creatures flying around, and Cyra was taunting everyone who dared to try.”

I curled my lip. I hadn’t known that about Cyra. She’d probably gotten into the habit with the gnomes.

“The basajaunak covered for the shifter patrol who were all out of sync,” he went on, “and the garhettes immediately went on the offensive, organizing lunch dates and tea and I have no idea what else. They didn’t even need the magic. One started randomly clubbing an enforcer with a rolling pin. No idea why. No one knew what to do. Certainly, no one stopped it, least of all him. She then picked him off the ground, fixed his hair, and took him for coffee. In the space of an hour, a war zone turned into the hustle and bustle of a wary, confused, but calm town full of power no one dared use, let alone flaunt.”

“You pushed away some of our greatest assets.”

“I failed to call in our greatest asset.” He looked down at me again. “That won’t happen again.”

Now I didn’t regret saying anything. Offense forgiven, ten-fold.

His challengers waited, all of them shifted, the gargoyles hovering in the air expectantly.

“They need to work together to have a chance,” I murmured, stepping forward with him.

“Nothing they do will give them a chance.” He motioned me back. Light and heat flared from his shift. A huge lion stood in his place.

Murmuring erupted through the crowd. He walked forward, his movements sleek and sure. The gargoyles lifted a little higher and then circled him.

“This ends when you submit,” I called to everyone. “Gargoyles, you can physically tap out. Or just fly away. Shifters, you can run or play dead. Begin.”

“You don’t need to tell them to start the fight,” Sue said.

Yeah, but maybe it would move things along.

The shifter challengers were on the younger side, late twenties or early thirties. The leopard lunged and the black bear was right behind. All the gargoyles dove, going for Aljoe at the same time.