Page 104 of The Keeper of the Kingdoms

“Yes. I can hear someone coming up the path.”

“How do you know it’s her?”

“Three beats.”

“Three beats?”

“Two feet and a stick,” he explained.

“More fae than my Gran walk with a stick, you know,” I said, sure this was another way to detour my line of questioning.

“She drags the cane in a particular pattern. If you listen enough, every fae in the Twelve Kingdoms has their own unique gait.” He lifted a shoulder. “Wait and see.”

A moment later, Gran appeared in the doorway and it was as if she had walked into a wall of tension with the way she stopped and assessed us.

She knew something was up the way only a matriarch could. She asked me if everything was okay with her eyes. And I told her I didn’t know the answer to that question with mine.

You could cut the air with a knife.

Jaxus stood and offered her his chair because he was always so chivalrous.

“How did you fare in the archives?” she asked, accepting Jaxus’ seat.

“Well,” Jaxus replied. “We’ve begun translating some of it, but I’m certain you’ll have an easier time.”

She looked up at him, his size requiring her to tip her head way back. “Are you saying I’m old, dragon?”

“Wisdom cannot be counted in years.” He smiled fondly.

Gran turned to me. “He has a smooth tongue when he wants to, doesn’t he?”

“When he wants to,” I agreed, looking at him wistfully. I wished we could have it out, whatever this problem was between us.

He offered me a regretful smile.

Gran took it all in and then turned her eagle-eyed attention to the books on the table. “Let’s see what we have here.”

After flipping through a few pages in the book we’d been translating, she addressed Jaxus without even looking up. “Jaxus, would you be a lamb, run back to the archives and ask for the Old Amayan text we use for transcription?”

“Of course.” He dipped his head and cut me a brief glance, then left for the archives.

I turned to Gran. “Since when do you need a reference text for translating old Amayan?” I asked accusingly.

“Not in your lifetime—or your father’s, either.” She chuckled.

“So why send Jaxus off to get one?”

“Because I know how long it will take them to dig it out of the tunnels, and it gives you time to fill your gran in on what in the Goddess’ name that awkwardness was between you just then.”

I huffed, rubbing my forehead to ease the tension there.

“Honestly, Gran, I wish I knew. “

“Trouble in paradise already?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know,” I sighed.

“Tell your old gran all about it.”