Arwen waved it off, the fluorescent lights dancing pale green highlights across the back of her hand. “Please, the Gales would approve of my reaction were they to learn of it. Have they learned of it?” she asked Jack, turning toward him so suddenly he barely stopped himself from starting. “We retrieved and destroyed all the pieces.”

“They haven’t . . .” Jack began, then, as Alice set pie and coffee down on the table, shut up so he could immediately stuff a forkful into his mouth. Brownie-made came close to being as good as Gale pie and, as only Allie’s mother made coconut cream, it was nice to eat pie that didn’t come with instructions on how to take care of the twins as well as a reminder about clean underwear he still didn’t entirely understand. Brownies, on the other hand, did not make Girl Guide cookies. His first year in the MidRealm, he’d found that very disappointing.

With the plate cleaned, he sat back and saw Elessar had ignored his pie completely in favor of dumping half a dozen packets of sugar into his coffee, while Arwen had only licked a little of the whipped cream off her finger with a pointed tongue. “You’re very young,” she said, speculatively.

So were they, and, for immortals, a couple of hundred years wasn’t that much older than seventeen. Which only emphasized how stupid it was to be hung up on thirteen years. Of course here he was a dragon and with the Gales he was a Gale no matter how uncomfortably his skin fit lately. Gale before Wild? Definitely Gale before dragon. Thirteen years given more weight than immortality.

“I’ve racked my brain,” Arwen continued, jerking Jack’s thoughts out of the familiar spiral that would eventually lead to seven years and from there to Charlie, “but I can’t imagine what we might have to discuss. Unless you plan to betray your blood.”

The flame was involuntary. It crisped Elessar’s meringue.

“My point exactly.” Arwen smiled.

Jack took a swallow of coffee, set the heavy porcelain mug down, and smiled back at her. He’d been all dragon in their face so they’d expect twisty. He hit them with direct. “In just over twenty-one months an asteroid is going to hit the planet. This planet. Almost everyone dies.”

Elessar rolled his eyes. Given the size of the eyes under the glamour, Jack had to admit the effect was impressive. “We’ve seen the new light in the night sky, a careless diamond against the black.”

“It’s as close now as it will ever come and already beginning to curve away.” Arwen licked more whipped cream off her finger. “You’ve been misled.”

Was it weird that they knew about the masking asteroid? Probably not if it changed the patterns of the stars. Jack spread his scowl over both of them. “Our Seer has seen it.”