Braxton was standing in the spot from where his brother had just taken his little flight across the room. He looked calm, deceptively so, arms hanging loosely as he locked eyes with Tyson. The magic user was already on his feet, streams of gold threading the brown of his eyes. This was about eight seconds from World War Ten – the other nine counted only the major battles between the quads over the years – it was time to end this now. I stepped to the center of the room, between the boys, and held up both of my arms.

“Stop! If you two fight, I’m going to tear you both a new ass–”

“Jess!” Horrified, Mischa cut me off. Her over-the-top fear of crudeness of any description was enough to lighten the tension.

“I’m going to shower and change,” said Grace gently, as if the boys weren’t squared off to fight. “We should all hurry. We only have forty minutes to meet back with those fey.”

She maneuvered through the room, avoiding Tyson, before grabbing her bag and entering the closest bedroom. Within moments I heard the sound of running water.

This was my chance to end the secrets between us.

I waved my arms. “Bring it in.”

Our group tightened until Mischa and I were the center of a hulking mass of males. Five sets of eyes locked in on me. Tyson’s were back to honeysuckle brown, already over his shitted-at-Braxton moment.

“I need to tell you something.” I focused on Jacob and Tyson. I didn’t mince my words, quickly detailing the dragon marked abilities, my dual shifting and what had happened in Vanguard. “I didn’t say anything when we first escaped because of Grace. It’s not the sort of information which should be general knowledge.”

The silence was heavy, filled with anger and slivers of hurt and mistrust. I didn’t drop my eyes. I forced myself to see and feel every facet of pain visible in Jacob’s leaf-green eyes and Tyson’s honeysuckle.

The quad wizard was uncharacteristically somber. “Do you have any more hidden information? Because I’m about done with all the secrecy.”

Braxton and Maximus stepped closer into me. I’m not sure they even realized they had done it, their instincts always to protect me, even against their brothers.

I shook out my hair. “No more secrets, I promise. I agree with Max, we can’t fight effectively if we don’t have all the information, so full disclosure.”

It might have been what I said, or the fact that truth rang clearly in my tone, but the tension slowly filtered out of the boys.

Jacob folded me in his arms. “I adore you, but sometimes you’re a real asshole.”

I chuckled. He was right, sometimes I was.