“Good evening, sir,” Jeeves greeted me as I jogged up to my castle.

  “It is now.”

  “Indeed. Shall I bring refreshments? Lady Ruby is in the billiard room with Nigel.”

  “Please do. I’ll join them there.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  I was surprised Ruby was not only awake, but waiting in my castle. We’d exchanged a couple chats while I rode Switchblade back to town. I’d assured her I was okay and figured she’d go to bed. The town always bustled with activity, but so late at night, the streets were noticeably quieter.

  Ruby was leaned over the pool table, poised to take a shot when I entered. She was wearing one of her new outfits, a comfortable green blouse and black slacks. She looked relaxed, her long, red hair hanging loose down her back.

  Nigel perked up and leaped 15 feet across the room to land lightly on my shoulder. I scratched behind his ears.”

  “Tomatoes are foul,” he told me without preamble.

  “Not as good as steak?”

  “They are red, so they should be, but it’s a lie. Don’t trust tomatoes.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Ruby smiled at me, then took her shot and somehow sank 3 separate balls with one hit.

  “Nice shot. You’re way better at pool than me.”

  “Thanks. I used to stink at it, but I think my new stats help.”

  Huh. I hadn’t considered that. I bet I could do better too.

  She set the pool cue down on the table and approached. “Nice new getup.”

  “Loads better than what I would have arrived in. Trust me.”

  “You do like stripping down to boxers more than most,” she said in a teasing tone.

  “He needs more fur,” Nigel said.

  Ruby grinned when I translated. “I prefer the leather look. I saw him in those fuzzy shorts.”

  “They were too short,” Nigel agreed.

  Ruby studied my face carefully. “How are you really? You nearly died again, didn’t you?”

  “It got rough, but I’ve survived nearly dying before.”

  “Now that you’re here, you can tell me more about the battles. Your texts leave much to be desired.”

  We retired to the sitting room at the back of the castle. Ruby explained that Brianna was sleeping.

  “She still plans to join Catelyn’s team in the morning?”

  Ruby nodded, then gave me a very warm smile. “You did a good thing helping her, Lucas.”

  I shrugged. “She needed help. I’m glad I could offer it. We need everyone and can’t afford to let anyone slip between the cracks.”

  “You’re a good man.”

  “Just doing what I can to help. Isn’t that what we agreed to do way back on day one?”

  “Yeah. I’m glad you haven’t let all the fighting and wolf rage and stuff make you forget.”

  I chuckled. “If I ever forget, I suspect you’ll be there to beat me over the head until I remember.”

  “Happy to help,” she agreed and a wooden club appeared in her hand before disappearing again.

  Jeeves arrived then, carrying a portable table. He set it down, then piled on a huge feast, big enough for several more people, pulling one dish after another out of thin air. Magical butlers were simply the best.

  Dishes included roast beef in dark gravy, pork chops with sauerkraut, an actual ham and sausage pizza, and three entire chickens, glazed with different sauces. And those were just the main courses. At least a dozen side dishes flanked the bigger platters like a supporting army. The sight and delicious aromas reminded me I was famished. Regrowing half my body burned a lot of calories.

  So we feasted and we talked. I told Ruby about everything, from the giant Mastiff, much to Nigel’s ongoing annoyance, to the Death Stalker, blasting Alpha across the stage, and the unexpected encounter with Ashkaroth.”

  “Level 82?” Ruby gasped. “What is a noble elite?”

  “Bad news. Yeah, he was insane.” I explained a bit more about him and his connection to Queen Marisara’s court.

  “And you fought him?” she breathed, big brown eyes wider than ever. She was a great audience.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  I nodded, thinking back over the fight. “I barely survived. Got lucky with some unexpected synergies between some of my spells.”

  “What synergies? You’ve been awfully vague about what spells and abilities you have right now.”

  As if to punctuate her words, distant thunder rumbled. Way to be not subtle, Cyrus. Crap. I so very much wanted to explain, but I couldn’t. I’d thought I’d done a pretty good job concealing my class, but Ruby knew me too well.

  She cocked her head to one side, looking up. “Was that really thunder?”

  I shrugged. “No idea. The sky was clear earlier.”

  “Got any food left?” Steve called loudly as he entered the room.

  “Enough for a couple more teams, probably,” I replied, happy for the interruption. Leave it to Steve to arrive at exactly the right time. Or wrong time. He did both equally well. How he knew to arrange his timing so perfectly was still a mystery I hadn’t figured out.

  Steve stared from me to Ruby, a sly grin spreading across his face. “Having an intimate little meal without me?”

  Ruby waved to a stack of empty plates. “You’re late, so we had to get started.”

  I leaned back in my chair, stretching out my legs, and sighed. That was one of the best meals I’d ever had, and once I let my stomach recover a bit, I planned to return for seconds.

  Steve piled a plate high, but looked between us, his smile fading to a frown. He waved a fork at us both.

  “What the Handel is going on here?”

  “What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

  “You know exactly what I mean. For days, you two have been acting like middle schoolers with their first crushes. Now you’re like BFFs. No strangled sexual tension undercurrents. Did you two hook up in secret?”

  Ruby blushed. “You’re incorrigible.”

  I added, “We had a good chat yesterday.”

  Steve leaned forward, eyebrows rising, and made an impatient gesture with his head. “And?”

  “And we talked through some things and agreed we need time to figure out how to move forward,” Ruby said.

  I was so glad we had. Steve was right, the tension that had been building between us was gone, replaced with an easy comfort around each other I’d never hoped we’d find. So I was shocked when Steve threw up his hands in disgust, then scrambled to catch the half chicken he threw off his plate.

  “You talked? Really? That’s it?”

  “You sound disappointed,” Ruby said.

  “Of course I am. How am I supposed to tease you both relentlessly? No one does the rational thing and approaches their problems like adults. This is a disaster!”

  “I think you’re overreacting.”

  Steve flopped into a chair, managing to not spill any of his food, and sighed deeply. “There are certain responsibilities I take very seriously as the annoying third wheel. Now you’re making my job really difficult.”

  “I have absolute faith in your ability to remain annoying,” Ruby said.

  Steve barked a laugh, lifted the chicken in one hand, took a huge bite, and spoke around the mouth full of food, “Fair enough. What are we talking about?”

  “Lucas was just explaining about how he survived another run-in with Alpha and somehow defeated a level 82 elite noble fire lord.”

  Steve choked on his chicken, but Jeeves appeared behind him and rapped him on the back so hard he spat chicken across the floor. It disappeared instantly and Jeeves said, “Smaller bites are often advised, master Steve.” Then he disappeared again.

  “I’ll be honest. That guy freaks me out sometimes,” Steve muttered as he took another smaller bite, then fixed me with his full attention. “Level 82?”

  “You saw that giant burning dragon earlier?” Ruby asked.

  Steve nodded, eyes as wide as saucers. “And you defeated that thing?”

  I shrugged. “Someone had to.”

  Steve laughed and slapped his thigh. “How?”

  I gave him the same vague line about unexpected synergies. He was as unimpressed as Ruby. She folded her arms and stared, giving me a stern look. “What are you not telling us?”

  I considered that for a moment, looking from her to Steve, who was watching me in expectant impatience. I sighed. There was no way to tell them enough to satisfy their curiosity without getting them into trouble.

  Choosing my words carefully, I said, “I got some special bonus loot that helped me survive, but I can’t talk about it.”

  I glanced up. Ruby started to object, but Steve held up a hand, expression thoughtful. “You’ve been restricted from saying a few other things in the past too. Like you’ll lose your special power if anyone else knows?”

  “That’s dumb,” Ruby said, but Steve looked up, then gestured up with his chicken leg. She rolled her eyes, glaring upward, before looking back at me. “Still dumb.”

  “Suffice it to say, I survived. I got lucky. Very lucky, but I survived. Got some really good loot too.”

  I extracted the pristine white Gloves of the Healer’s Touch, handed them to Ruby, and shared the description. She gasped and clutched them to her. “Lucas! Thank you! These are amazing. We could heal people infected with lycanthropy.”

  “You can.” I had to smile at her delight.

  “Almost as good as a ring,” Steve pointed out.

  “Lucas already gave me a ring,” Ruby said absentmindedly, still examining the gloves.

  Steve choked again. His timing was usually better than that. “What? You didn’t!”

  “Not that kind of ring.”

  “Oh, just a practice ring? A ring of ‘I want to be friends for now, but not for long’?”

  Getting a chance to tease me about the ring seemed to renew his spirits enormously. To help him move on, I extracted 2 of my new shirts, one long-sleeved and one short-sleeved.

  “Eel hide fitted shirts. Uncommon. Extreme defense against slashing and piercing damage.”

  “Here. You’ll want to wear these outside of town.”

  Ruby didn’t want to look away from the gloves, but Steve took the long-sleeved one and whistled. “Nice! Team shirts.”

  “They’ll keep you safe.”

  “Thanks,” Steve said, then his grin returned and he nodded at Ruby, who was examining the black short-sleeved shirt. Since it was made by Earth crafters, it lacked the auto-resizing function of clothing bought at the store or won from loot boxes. It would be ridiculously huge for her.

  “You know, usually you start dating before you let your girlfriend wear your shirts,” Steve added.

  “Oh, shut up,” Ruby laughed, pulling a pillow from her inventory and flinging it at him.

  “You can probably get the local crafter who made it resize it for you,” I told her, then shared the shirt’s description.

  “I will, thanks. The protection sounds amazing,” she said, her bright smile warmer than the nearby fireplace.

  “Did you see the team at the lake?” Steve asked as he went back for another helping. Jeeves arrived with several desserts, so he dumped his plate and grabbed an entire chocolate pie.

  “Yeah, they set up a floating base camp, and it looks like teams plan to work through the night. I didn’t stop to say hi, though.”

  “Forgetting the little guys while you hobnob in high-class meetings is always a bad sign,” Steve pointed out.

  “I didn’t have time!”

  “Sure,” he said sarcastically, but grinning.

  “Tomas and Jane and their teams are at the lake,” Ruby interjected. “Part of the security detail.”

  Now I really wished I’d stopped to see them.

  Steve gestured at Ruby with a slice of pie. “The two of us are part of the first joint hunting party with the zombies. We head out in the morning to hunt monsters and capture some to bring to the lake.”

  “Be careful.”

  “We know the zombie weakness,” Ruby assured me. “They give us any trouble, and I’ll shove a lava grenade down their pants.”

  Steve choked yet again, eyes bugging wide. “That’s brutal!”

  She shrugged, her tone turning hard as ice. “It’s what happens when a man annoys me too much.”

  Steve gulped, glanced down at his own pants and said, “I need a belt. Think Jeeves would buy me one?”