“Or maybe it’s the opposite,” Mama Jamba offered, then flipped open her magazine.
Evan sighed and picked at his omelet. “I’m not sure I want her to like me if this is the result.”
Quiet muttered something and stuffed a Danish in his mouth.
“Why don’t you put a bunch of sausage at the foot of Trin’s bed tomorrow?” Evan asked the groundskeeper.
Since his mouth was full, Quiet simply shook his head. Crumbs flaked off his mouth.
“It’s pronounced sau-sauge,” Wilder teased.
“The vegan isn’t allowed to tell me how to say meat words,” Evan fired back, then reached for a piece of bacon on Sophia’s plate. She slapped his hand away at once.
“Hey,” he complained and pulled his hand back. “You don’t need all that.”
“I do too,” Sophia argued. “I have to up my meat intake to undo all the good that Wilder is doing by being vegan.”
“That makes sense,” Hiker mumbled through a bite of toast, seeming a bit amused.
The leader of the Dragon Elite was in such a better mood lately since Ainsley had returned to the Castle and they’d sort of made things official between them. At least, they weren’t trying to hide the fact that they were in a relationship and blushed when Evan and Wilder teased them and made kissing noises at their backs. However, the elf had to return to the Elfin Council for diplomatic business, which was why she wasn’t there to offer insights on the new housekeeper’s strange behavior of serving everyone but Evan their favorite meals.
“You haven’t touched your food,” Trin observed while looking over at Evan as she brought through a pitcher of orange juice.
Evan gave the housekeeper a look of uncertainty. “Not to complain, but—”
“The phrase that precedes a bona fide complaint,” Wilder interrupted.
Evan cut his eyes at him and gave him an annoyed look before glancing back at Trin beside the table. “It appears that everyone got their favorite breakfast or what they were craving this morning.”
“That’s correct,” Trin agreed. “I thought that would be a nice change.”
“It’s lovely.” Mama Jamba cut into her pancakes.
“Very lovely,” Evan stated in a dry tone. “Thing is, my favorite isn’t an egg-white veggie omelet.”
Trin tilted her head and gave him a surprised look. “No?”
He looked longingly at Sophia’s bacon. “Yeah, I’m not really a vegetable guy. That’s more Wilder’s thing.”
“How do you know if you haven’t tried them?” Trin indicated the untouched omelet.
“I know,” he answered. “Ainsley served me salads nonstop for an entire decade while the rest of this lot got pot roast and other various delicious foods.”
Trin harrumphed. “Sounds like Ainsley was looking out for your best interests. You live longer if you eat your vegetables.”
Wilder laughed. “I don’t think Ainsley wanted him to live longer.”
Evan pursed his lips. “What’s the point in living a long time without bacon?”
“There’s life without bacon,” Wilder intervened as he finished his oatmeal and pulled a bowl of raspberries to him.
“Your opinion on this matter doesn’t count, Vegan,” Evan stated. “You and I officially can’t share a pizza.”
Wilder laughed. “When did we ever share one? You ate the whole thing.”
“My point remains,” Evan began, “you’ll go on to ruin all foods from this point forward.”
Wilder popped a raspberry into his mouth. “It’s true. The other day I ordered a pizza and told the guy no cheese or sauce, that I only wanted peppers.”
“Why no sauce?” Sophia ate another bite of her bacon.
Wilder winked at her. “Because it fits the story. Anyway, the guy remarked that it was the strangest pizza he’d ever heard of. That’s when I reminded him that I ordered the pepper-only pizza the last time.”
Almost everyone at the table groaned at Wilder’s bad joke. Mahkah grinned slightly. Mama Jamba giggled while flipping the pages of her travel magazine.
Trin began to clear the empty dishes and glanced at Evan. “Tomorrow, I’ll fix you something else, but your favorite could be something you haven’t tried yet. It could also be something healthy.”
“I’m a dragonrider,” Evan argued. “I don’t need to eat healthy, all vegan style. I’ll live a long life regardless. And unlike some do-gooders, I don’t want to save the animals.”
“I’m only doing this vegan thing because I don’t want to poison my body with disgusting animals,” Wilder replied. “I can’t stand those creatures.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Mama Jamba stated, her focus casually on her magazine.
“There a reason that you’ve been browsing through travel guides lately, Mama?” Hiker asked as he finished his breakfast. Trin swooped up his plate right away and retreated to the kitchen with the dirty dishes.
Mother Nature shrugged. “Had an itch lately. Maybe got a wanderlust bug coming on.”
Hiker narrowed his eyes at her. “You can’t go anywhere. We have an impending war brewing with demon dragonriders.”
Unhurried, Mama Jamba glanced up from her magazine. “For starters, I’ll remind you that you can’t tell me what to do, son. Second, I’m well aware that the Rogue Riders are making power plays, but that’s not my concern as much as it is yours. This is your job, after all.”
He growled slightly, and his beard vibrated. “You recently came back after being in hiding for all that time. I simply hoped that you wouldn’t run off again.”
“I’m a bird,” Mama Jamba said in reply.
“Who can’t be caged,” Wilder added in a sing-song voice.
Evan leaned over and studied the page Mama Jamba was looking at. “Does the appeal of travel still count for you since you created these places?”
“The Earth is my creation and my home,” Mama Jamba answered. “It’s like you retiring to a certain room in a Castle. Some you might like better than others, and some have a specific purpose.”
“But there’s no better one than your bedroom where you can be safe and rest,” Hiker cut in. “Which would be the Gullington for you, Mama.”
“True,” she chirped. “But who wants to be confined to their bedroom all the time?”
All the heads at the table whipped to look at Hiker.
He ground his teeth together. “We rely on you to help us navigate things. Having you here is important.”
“It’s a prosperity thing for you,” she argued. “I’m not doing you any favors offering up new information on anything, and you know it.”
“Sometimes you help with things,” Sophia countered. “You assigned Mae Ling to me at fairy godmother college.”
“You created the tracking device for the demon dragons,” Evan said.
“And the time orb for Ainsley,” Wilder reminded her.
“And countless other things,” Mahkah offered in a low voice.
“That’s all true,” Mama Jamba said matter-of-factly and pushed her plate away. “When I leave, it’s not forever. I simply might need to get out soon, and you all will have to fend for yourselves. It’s not like I can help with your current problem.”