Page 55 of Seer

It didn’t make him any less of an asshole, but it was something.

I just wished my dick wasn’t so excited about me and Greg being this close to each other.

Dominic examined us, then he flicked his eyes to me and gave me an approving nod.

Delphia passed a glass of water to Greg, who gulped it gratefully. She rushed back to the other end of the kitchen and swiftly returned with a plate of cookies, which she set down in front of us.

Greg made an appreciative noise and said, “Thanks, Mom.” He snatched a cookie from the plate.

Delphia nudged the plate in my direction. “Have one. They’re Greggy’s favorite, peanut butter chocolate chip.”

Greggy?I’d heard people outside yelling it, but... wow. I slidmy eyes to Greg. He was glaring at me as he chewed, daring me to say something. At least his color was better.

I smiled and said, “Thank you, they look delicious.” I took one, and it was possibly one of the best cookies I’d ever had, warm and buttery, the peanut butter and semi-sweet chocolate perfectly complementing each other. I swallowed and said, “This is amazing.”

Dominic grabbed two cookies. “I’ve got a report of a group of goblins being held near El Paso. One of them’s a newborn.”

Greg grimaced. “You need to get going then.”

“Yeah,” Dominic said. “Hopefully Ric and I will get it sorted in time for me to come help you with the fog monster things, or whatever you and Edgar are calling these fuckers.”

Greg nodded. “I think it’ll come down to a fight. But we can’t fight them until we know what they are.”

“And how they can be killed.” Dominic kissed his mother on the cheek then came around the island to hug his brother.

“Stay safe,” Greg told him.

“You know it.” Dominic stuck his hand out to me. “Welcome to the family, Cal. I hope the next time I see you we can spend more time together.”

“Uh, sure,” I said uncertainly. I carefully did not look at Greg.

I wanted to believe Delphia and Dominic were using “family” to mean their group of magic carriers. But they were really commenting on the connection they could see.

Greg and I were magic-married.

Fuck.

Dominic said, “You’ll probably meet my daughter, Caroline, at some point too.” He grinned proudly. “She just took over as DM of the Panhandle District.”

“Oh, wow. That’s impressive.” Or at least it sounded like it was. What the hell did I know?

Dominic left a few minutes later.

I took a sip of water, then I said, “Should we get started on the books?”

Delphia pointed at our glasses. “After you finish your water.”

Grumbling, Greg and I did so.

It turned out Edgar and his wife Bettina had already started on the book room.

That is, if you meantstartedin the way of the old saying, “a journey of a thousand books starts with moving a few of them around.”

Bettina, a woman of undetermined age with dark brown eyes and jet black hair without a speck of gray, told me she was excited to meet me, and that Edgar had sung my praises to her. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d done to earn Edgar’s compliments, but I’d take them.

Bettina informed me she was the bookkeeper for TWIST. “But,” she rushed to add, “the accounting type, not a keeper of books like this.” She waved her hand around to indicate the dusty stacks.

The room was about twenty feet long and twelve feet wide. No windows, or at least if there were any windows they were covered by bookshelves. It was impossible to estimate how many books were in the room. Every shelf was filled, not only with books placed in the traditional upright and spine out way, but also with more stacked in front of and on top of those books. The floor was covered in additional piles, and Ihad the impression there was a table in the center of the room, but we couldn’t see it due to it being surrounded by and covered in even more books. Here and there I could see parts of a few non-book items, but my view of them was blocked by—you guessed it—books.