“Are you asking me to go as your bodyguard or as your date?” Spencer questioned as he pulled the car onto the street.
Amy winked. “Can’t it be both?”
It was mid-afternoon when Kiera entered Stacy’s office, informing her that someone was waiting for her at the gate. “Says he came from your father’s house,” the sidhe fae reported.
Stacy smiled. “That must be Reginald, my father’s butler.”
Kiera raised an eyebrow. “He sent his butler?”
“Regi is more like a grandfather to me. You can let him in, and I’ll be up in a moment.”
Kiera nodded, turning to go.
Stacy strolled through the back garden, appreciating the bright sunlight this afternoon. Her phone call earlier with her father had gone exactly the way she’d expected it to. He’d been alarmed to hear what happened and said he would send people over today to help. In addition, he wanted to “restock the Thorn Pantry of Armament.” Stacy had objected, but her father wouldn’t hear it.
“You need proper ammunition and weapons, not only the old stuff your mother kept there,” he’d explained. Stacy had other battles to attend to, so she agreed. This was why Reginald was here, she thought. To inspect the weapons inventory she already had.
As she expected, she found Reginald in the main hall of the manor house, surveying the destruction with concern. “Ah, Anastasia. I fear things are much worse here than you described to your father.”
Stacy would have rolled her eyes if not for the fact that Regi would have felt disrespected. “My father fusses too much. I am sorry this is your first time being in my home since I’ve moved here. I would have liked you to come under…well, better circumstances.”
Regi kissed her cheeks and finally broke into a smile. “I’m only happy to see you, Anastasia. Esme, Torin, and some of the others will be over soon to help. They are all excited to see you.”
“Well, hopefully, the next time everyone comes over, it can be for dinner and not because werewolves ransacked my home.”
Stacy was joking, but Reginald’s face darkened with anger. She looped her arm through his and led him down the hall. “Tell me. How are things at my father’s house?”
Reginald reported that things were running as well as ever, and everyone was doing well. As always, Khan was often holed up in his library with his “work,” whatever that meant. Khan sometimes left the house and disappeared into the vast forests he owned for some “magical relinquishing” time, which was code for “turning into a dragon to release a build-up of magic.” That was one aspect of her father’s bloodline Stacy was glad she had not yet tapped into.
“I know why you came here,” she told Reginald when he’d finished. “My father wants you to inspect my armory.”
“I also came to speak with Rowan. Is he here?”
“He hardly ever leaves.” Stacy paused. “Why do you need to speak with him?”
“He is in charge of the security here, correct?”
Stacy sighed. “He did everything he could, Regi, and he feels terrible about what happened. Please don’t give him a hard time.”
He offered a soft, grandfatherly smile. “I wasn’t going to lecture him, Anastasia. I was going to give him some…light encouragement.”
This time, Stacy did roll her eyes. “You’re using my father’s rhetoric.”
He chuckled while stepping over shards of glass from broken picture frames. “You should get that swept up, Anastasia.”
“No shit.”
“You’re lucky your father didn’t come. He’d be furious about your language.”
Stacy grinned. “He doesn’t have to know. As for Rowan, he’s been in a secret library of my mother’s I found this morning. I don’t think he knew about it, and he’s taking the revelation a bit hard. You should find him there when we finish our tasks.”
On the way to the lower floor where the armory was, Reginald rattled off a list of things Esme, Torin, and other members of the Drakethorn estate staff would help with today. “You should have a working kitchen by tonight, at least.”
“Good,” Stacy replied, looking dubious. “I don’t know if Rowan can handle us ordering takeout again.”
Rowan sensed someone had come into Catherine’s secret room, but it wasn’t Stacy, Miles, or Kiera. The magic humming off the new figure was different. Someone like him.
He turned to see Reginald Blackguard, guardian of the Drakethorn estate, standing inside the doorway, hands folded behind his back. Though Rowan was a dryad and Reginald was a golem, a similar thread of magic ran through them both and bound them to the land they protected.
Rowan remembered the day he’d first met Reginald years before Catherine and Khan were married. Reginald had been crafted from the ancient soils of the Drakethorn estate centuries ago and animated through Catherine’s powerful enchantments to serve the land and the family he was placed before. He had since dedicated himself to maintaining the estate’s smooth operation, upholding traditions, and ensuring the safety of its inhabitants with unwavering loyalty.
Rowan had not been crafted from soil. He’d existed long before he came to work for Catherine. One thing about himself and Reginald was the same, though. Catherine Thorn’s magic tied them to the land. Some might have considered it a cage, but Rowan couldn’t think of a higher honor. He knew Reginald felt the same about his work for Khan.
The dryad set aside a book he’d been looking through for several minutes. He was close to finding a way to better secure the property, but now he had a visitor to pay attention to. “Reginald, I wasn’t expecting to see you today. How are you?”
“I am well. Thank you, Rowan. Khan sent me to look in on things. He figured his daughter might have downplayed the attack from last night, and I believe he was correct.” Reginald’s lips twitched in a smile. “You have a lot on your hands now that Anastasia has come to live here.”
Reginald had known Stacy all her life, had been like another parent to her these past twenty-five years. He did not mean “a lot on your hands” in any bad way. Rowan figured Reginald had chased Stacy through the halls of the Drakethorn estate while she was still in diapers.
He returned the golem’s smile. “Stacy is taking her tasks in stride. She has a lot to learn, but I believe she will one day run this house as well as her mother did.”
Reginald glanced around. “This isn’t the only home she’ll one day have to run. She will need you here, Rowan, when she transfers to the Drakethorn estate.”
Rowan wasn’t sure what he thought about that. On the one hand, it warmed his heart to know he would always be here, always have the responsibilities of this estate’s management. Another part of him wondered what it would be like for Stacy to no longer live here. “Then I will soak up these precious years while she is here with us,” he replied.
