Island of Glass (The Guardians Trilogy #3)(29)

“Come up.” Rising, Riley held out a hand. “We’ll hit those showers, get that coffee. I could chew the beans by this time.”

? ? ?

By the time she’d showered off the night, the workout, dug out a sweatshirt, cargoes, pulled on her beloved Chucks, the smoothie was a distant memory. She needed food, and plenty of it. Coffee—enough to swim in.

She smelled the coffee as she jogged down the back stairs, followed that siren’s song. Sawyer stirred something in an enormous bowl while Annika stirred something else in a smaller one.

Riley scowled at Sawyer. “I figured you’d have it fried up by now.”

“Needed to shower.”

“Sex in the shower is so nice,” Annika said with an easy smile. “But it takes a little time.”

“Great. A woman could starve to death while you’re doing the slippery slide.”

She dumped coffee in a mug.

“Pancakes, bacon, sausage, yogurt-and-berry parfait.” Sawyer turned to the stove. “Set the table and you’ll eat faster.”

Riley grabbed plates, knowing if Annika could manage it, she’d add plenty of flourishes to the traditional setting. For herself, she was a lot more interested in bacon.

The minute Sawyer transferred some from pan to platter, she grabbed a slice, tossed it from hand to hand to cool it. The first bite burned her tongue, but it was worth it.

And when he flipped a pancake off the griddle, she rolled it like a burrito, chomped in. By the time the others wandered in, her pre-breakfast had cut her hunger down to tolerable.

Bran studied the table and the three bud vases Annika had added to it. She’d put a rose in each one—white, red, yellow, draped the vases in white napkins, tied at the “waist” with ribbon, added a wooden skewer for a sword.

“The three goddesses.”

“I thought they should join us.”

Bran gave Annika a grin. “The food looks fit for gods.”

As she considered it more than fit for her, Riley sat, loaded her plate. “I’m going to dig back into the tower library. Anything specific in there on the stars, or the island?”

“The fact is I haven’t read a fraction of what’s in there, but I do know of a few. Various languages,” Bran added. “I’ll show you after breakfast.”

“Weapons training at noon.” Sawyer sampled his pancakes, approved.

“I’ll be ready for the break. I’m on lunch today. It’s going to be sandwiches.”

“Hand-to-hand follows that.” Doyle studied the pretty parfait suspiciously.

“It’s good,” Annika told him, scooping out a spoonful. “Sawyer says healthy, too. I made it.”

His soft spot for her left him no choice but to try it. “It’s good,” he told her, though personally he could live his immortal life without ever consuming yogurt.

“I’ll be working on defense and offense—magickally—in the tower, so I’m close if needed.”

“I’m on maps,” Sawyer said, “so me and my handy compass can get us wherever we need to go.”

“Annika and I can help Bran, or Riley, or Sawyer—depending on what’s needed.” Sasha glanced over at her chart. “Annika’s in charge of laundry.”

“I like laundry. It’s fun to fold, and it smells good.”

“It’s all yours,” Sasha told her. “Since the place is so big, I assigned everyone to different sections for basic cleaning.” She lifted her eyebrows at Doyle. “Team morale stays higher if we live and work in a clean house.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Out loud,” she qualified. “And you’re on dinner tonight.”

He grunted, glanced at Bran. “Where do I get pizza around here these days?”

“Well now, I’m thinking you’d likely have to go clear into Ennis for it, unless you’re meaning frozen. It may be there’s closer, but none I know of offhand.”

“Ennis then. I’m past ready to get the bike on the road anyway.”

“It’s a village? With shopping?” Annika all but bounced in her chair. “I can go with you. I like the bike.”

Riley didn’t trouble to hide her smirk, and inspired Doyle for his out. “I’ll take you out for a ride after breakfast.” He liked her company, and enjoyed her pure delight in riding pillion. “But if I’m heading all the way to Ennis, Sawyer should go along. We need ammo.”

“Then you need Riley.” Reaching for the coffeepot, Sawyer missed the looks of annoyance from both Doyle and Riley. “She’s the one with the connections. I did inventory there,” he continued. “Got a list for you. I don’t know if your connections go this far, but I was thinking. The way this place is set up, we’ve got some excellent vantage points from inside. If we had a couple of long guns with scopes.”

“The towers.” Thinking it through, Riley nodded. A good long-range weapon, a good shooter—yeah, it could be an advantage. “You any good with a rifle, Dead-Eye?”

“I hold my own. You?”

“Yeah, I hold my own, too. I’ll make some calls.”

After breakfast, she flipped through a couple of the books Bran pulled for her. She decided she’d work through the ones written in English first, then tackle the one handwritten in Latin—could be fun. And finish with the two in Gaelic, as she wasn’t as fluent there.