“That’s true, but I think Deon’s kind of our missing secret weapon,” Avery said. “Both you and Nathan are so much stronger when he’s around, and I think he’s got some pieces of the whole Connor puzzle that we’re missing.”
“I totally agree,” Alistair said. “I can’t shake the feeling that things would go better if Deon were here.”
“Hey, don’t get me wrong. If we came across Deon first, I wouldn’t complain. We got so little time together, that I don’t want to waste any more time. I just imagine things have already been so stressful for him, that it would be nice if he could just come home and not have to worry about any of that, you know?”
Avery nodded her head as she munched on a piece of cinnamon bread. “That makes sense.”
Still, what they said was a logical response as well. We still didn’t entirely know how wrapped up Deon was in Connor’s world, wherever he was, and he probably did have an entire safe of good information that we could use to track down Connor and hopefully stop him for good. If we did manage to find Deon first it’d be good, not just because I’d be over the moon to see him again, but because then he could help.
The kitchen slowly started to fill with the rest of The Royal Court, starting with Jaxon and Colette, then Nikita, Brayden and Kyle, and last, but not least, Nathan. The kitchen island over breakfast was fast becoming our official Royal Court meeting place. Once Nathan had gathered his plate, he looked over at Kyle and nodded.
“Your sleeping in is causing delays,” Kyle joked.
Nathan shrugged as he chuckled. “What do you want from me? I’m taking advantage of not having my kingly duties right now.”
“Wait,” I said. “What?”
Everyone turned to look at me, furrowing their brows in confusion, and it was Brayden out of everyone who seemed to get it first. “Oh, right, Cherri wasn’t there.” He set his hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “Kyle is king right now.”
I dropped my jaw. “What?”
“Yeah,” Nathan replied. “I was sort of losing my mind there for a while, and I wasn’t doing the best job leading. I handed King to Kyle and became Prince in Line.”
“I just automatically assumed that you were still King and Nikita had moved up to Queen,” I responded.
“Actually,” Colette said. “Nikki hasn’t moved up. Not officially anyway. She’s still a Knight. In fact, if we’re being the most technical, you’re still Queen, Cherri.”
For whatever reason, that made me really uncomfortable. I didn’t feel like I should have the weight of The Royal Court on my shoulders anymore. It wasn’t just because of all the things that I’d put them through, but they’d all changed and grown so much that it wasn’t fair for me to lead them anymore.
“I don’t think I should have that title anymore,” I said.
“You know, I don’t disagree,” Kyle said. “Honestly, I think there are many changes that have to take place. Maybe now’s as good a time as any to do it.”
“We’re still missing someone though,” Nathan said.
Almost as if he’d been summoned by the mention of his name, we heard the front door open and a few moments later, Sicily rounded the corner into the kitchen. “Hey hey!”
“Good morning, Sicily,” Colette greeted.
“There she is!” He held out his arms towards Colette. “You have no idea how much of a whiz this chick is.” He walked over and stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “She figured out a way to check four times as many pings a day as we were checking. At this rate, we could get through the list way faster than we were planning on.”
Across from Colette, Jaxon silently picked up a butter knife off the island and held it out in Sicily’s direction. “Move.”
Sicily held up his hands and backed away. “Right. Sorry.”
“Knock it off,” Colette snipped at Jaxon, but he ignored her apart from setting the knife down on the counter and resuming his breakfast.
“I forget, I’m the lost, lonely single in this group.” Then he put his arms around Kyle and Brayden. “Well, I have these two at least. Just three single guys doing what we do, right?” Everyone went silent, and I actually had to fight back a laugh, but then I looked across the island and saw Brayden biting his lip to keep from laughing. Finally, Kyle broke and started snickering, which sucked in Brayden, and soon we all erupted with laughter. Sicily raised an eyebrow. “Ah, I missed something.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said.
Sicily smiled over at me. “My best friend!” He walked around the island and I stood up to meet him in a hug. “I’ve missed you. I feel like we haven’t seen much of each other lately.”
“I expected you to be hanging around here more,” I responded.
“To be fair, we’ve been working him to the bone,” Alistair said. “When he’s here, we lock him up in his dungeon and make him work like Cinderella.”
“I think we’re circling the drain on backtracking to Connor through Brayden, so hopefully I’ll be able to join the tech side soon,” I said.
Sicily rubbed my back. “Aw, I’d love that. Just like old times.”
Back before I reconciled with The Royal Court, when we were still in high school, Sicily and I would hole up for entire weekends sometimes just grinding through the internet for any clue regarding Deon’s whereabouts. Though we didn’t find much, we would often catch streaks of information and would get excited following the trail to its end. Even if we were disappointed at the end of it when we didn’t find anything, there was something about plugging in and chasing a ghost together that was fun and exciting. Our friendship was built on that.
“Okay, well, grab a seat, Sicily, we have some things to go over this morning,” Kyle said.
“Oh. Okay.” Sicily took a seat on the stool that was empty next to me and started loading some of the breakfast food onto a plate. “Are you guys breaking up with me?”
Kyle and Nathan exchanged a look and then Kyle smiled at Sicily. “Quite the opposite, actually. I’m offering you an official role in The Royal Court. Baron.”
Sicily’s jaw dropped to the floor. He looked over at me and I nodded with a smile, then he looked back at Kyle. “Yeah? I get to be official?”
“If you accept,” Kyle said. “I’m not going to muscle you like Nathan did us.”
“Okay,” Nathan grumbled.
“Yeah, hell yeah! I get to be part of The Royal Court?” He looked at Jaxon and Nikita. “Does that mean these two won’t bully me anymore.”
“Oh calm down, you baby. We haven’t done that since first semester senior year,” Nikita hissed.
Sicily held out a hand towards Jaxon. “He just pointed a knife at me like five minutes ago.”
I giggled and shook my head. “Well, we can only do so much. Maybe just don’t touch Colette.”
“Hey,” Colette said. “He can do what he wants, and Jaxon will be fine.” Jaxon looked up and glared at her, and she glared back, totally unfazed. “Trust me,” she said directly to him, “He’ll be fine.”