Page 116 of A Silent Prodigy for the Lycan Princess

He smiles and nods.

“Actually,” Lion interrupts the short silence. “Tori and I were talking last night.”

“Yeah,” Tori agrees. “And… we wondered if we could stay a bit longer?”

Terry blinks. “What?”

“We want to date properly,” Tori says. “And mend our relationship, and see where it takes us, and we both feel it would be easier to do here, in Paris, far away from home.”

“And with none of you around,” Lion says bluntly.

Tori elbows him.

“What?” he says. “It’s true! They’re a distraction.”

“What Lion means is that we want to focus on us, and being here in a foreign country with not many people we know will force us to rely on each other, and it means we can spend time with each other exclusively,” Tori says. “School will start soon, but I already talked to Mom, and she said she will talk to school and tell them I will return a week later. My marks are good, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I actually think that’s a good idea,” Aurelia says.

“You are welcome to stay,” Val says joyfully. “I’m happy that not all my friends will be leaving at once.”

Aurelia, Nox, and I leave the others at the brunch table and hurry to my office. Once there, I notice two things. First, the other four members of the team are already waiting for us, and second, Eric—because, who else?—has cheekily put a mistletoe above my door. I smile, grabbing Aurelia and making sure to kiss her before we enter the office.

“I’m trying not to be envious,” Emilien mutters.

“Happy New Year, to you too.” Gustave sighs.

Zoé giggles. “I’m actually happily single at the moment.”

“You are also pretty young, honey,” Leila says softly. “You have plenty of time to fall in love. No rush.”

“And the best thing is, now that I have actual work outside of the pack, no one pesters me about finding a mate as soon as I’m eighteen and making pups,” Zoé says. “I can make my own choices now.”

“Did you enjoy your day off?” Aurelia asks her.

“It was great.” Zoé beams. “But I’m glad to be back here. I can’t celebrate and relax when I know our victims are still suffering.”

“I feel the same,” Gustave says.

Leila nods. “I think we all do.”

I take that as my cue to gesture for Gustave to fill everyone in on his findings. “My friend drank too much,” he says, “so we called it quits after midnight. I didn’t mind because I’m not that sociable to begin with. I spent the time reading and working through the books I borrowed from the council. I also tried using the app Zoé set up and used my own search algorithm. And that’s what did the job.”

“Really?” Zoé asks.

“Yes, I roamed the online database of the Council for runes and witchcraft, and found the rune. It stands for peridot.”

“Peridot.” Leila frowns. “Like the gem. But what does it mean?”

“A codeword maybe?” Aurelia asks.

“Or a categorization,” Emilien muses.

“How are the auctions doing?” I ask Zoé.

“72 hours are over tonight,” she says. “I will bid on them. Let me check, briefly.”

While Zoé checks on the auctions and everyone ponders over Gustave’s findings, I receive a surprise message.