Jaxon was a genius mage surrounded by dragons, and he had accepted that any concept more advanced than ’fire bad’ required a full puppet show and pictures.
"I’ll make this simple because I can see Ryker’s eyes glazing over. Portals need anchors. Velkaris has anchors. Nyros does not. We can’t portal to a continent that never bothered to install the plumbing."
Maddox dragged a hand down his face. "So the portals are useless. Fantastic. Love that for us. Get me as close as you can and I’ll do what dragons do. Fly angry."
Brennan raised his hand like a student who’d been waiting for the teacher to finish being wrong.
Every mage in the room looked at Brennan’s hand and then immediately looked at Jaxon to watch the reaction.
Jaxon closed his eyes for one second before answering. "Yes, Brennan?"
Every head turned towards Brennan.
"There’s no need. I created an anchor point in Shadowfell already."
Jaxon’s eye twitched. "You what."
"Oh yes," he said with an earnest nod. "I portaled from Shadowfell to Drakencrest, which created an anchor. So I now have one to portal back."
Jaxon looked at Brennan the way a high priest looks at a toddler who summoned a god by eating a crayon.
"How did you—" Jaxon, Lux, and the Luminari Master Mage started the same sentence at the same time, stopped, glared at each other for stealing their question, then turned back to Brennan with triple the hostility.
"Can I just say, the three layers are incredible," Brennan added. "The first two were classic, very elegant, very you. Both of you. Light magic, dark magic. Beautiful." He looked at the Luminari Master mage next. "But what really blew me away was the Luminari layer. I have never seen that before. Really creative stuff."
Jaxon absorbed the compliment the way a brick wall absorbs a hug.
"Where did you make a portal?" he sputtered, the words barely surviving the journey past his outrage.
Nicholas stepped forward, eyes blazing molten wolf gold. "He made it wherever he wanted because he’s brilliant and had a sandwich beforehand. Can we move on? We have a portal."
The Luminari Master Mage stood slowly. The kind of slowly that preceded either a lecture or a murder.
"Let me be very clear. I wove those enchantments with seventeen failsafes. Seventeen. Each one designed to collapse the portal matrix on unauthorized entry. You’re telling me this man walked through all seventeen while eating a fucking sandwich?"
"I can show you—" Brennan started to say.
Nicholas held up his hand. Brennan shut his mouth.
"My Master Mage portaled through your infrastructure and complimented it on the way through. The appropriate response is ’thank you,’ not a goddamn interrogation."
Brennan’s hand went to his chest for a moment and his throat bobbed once. His eyes turned glassy, and he blinked three times in rapid succession.
Damon: Nicholas.
Nicholas: What.
Damon: What did you do.
Nicholas: I stood up for OUR mage.
Damon: He just clutched his heart.
Nicholas: He’s fine.
Damon: He’s going to cry.
Nicholas: No he’s not.
It was at this point that Brennan sniffled, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and pulled his hood up as if that could block the entire room from seeing what was three feet in front of them.
Damon: They’re still arguing about portals. Do we risk no snack?
Nicholas: Absolutely the fuck not.
✦✦✦
ONE SNACK LATER
A portal cracked open in Shadowfell Keep, exactly where Brennan’s last portal had been made.
Nicholas stepped through first, Damon and Brennan behind him.
Jaxon looked like a man forced to compliment his ex-wife’s new husband as he passed through.
Maddox, Sterling, and Ryker stared at it together like a single unit that had just spotted prey. The silent conversation that followed was unanimous, We need one of these.


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