He’d made the wrong move, he knew it. Birch’s voice was quiet, disappointed, and the silence which followed her monosyllabic response to his actions was long and deafening. Jacopo’s mouth ran dry. He should say something, apologise, but his throat was stuck. How could he have messed what should have been a fantastic day up so badly? Why could he never do anything right? Now his life would be tinged with yet another regret as he would spend the next few months trying to re-establish the cordiality he’d built with Birch in the last few minutes and destroyed in just as many –

Oh.

He met her kiss in shock, his heart stopping momentarily. Her hand found the back of his neck and Jacopo leant in obligingly, instinct taking over. His heart restarted with the force of an electric charge and pounded with increasing speed and volume until he was certain it would wake up the entire inn. He mirrored her movements, pulling her closer as she angled her body against his, and had to bite back a moan of protest when she drew back slightly. Jacopo had gotten used to people using his first name since he’d come to live in the Dragon, but no one said it quite like that. He leant in a little closer, just as the door burst open and Alder appeared.

Birch and Jacopo backed up simultaneously, drawing instinctively apart, but it was too late. Alder’s grin was wide and glittering. Was his sense of humour unique, or did it belong to his father? Cypress and Olive were more like Birch in their own ways – Cypress her impulsive goodness, Olive her calm and reticence – but Alder seemed to bear very little resemblance to his mother. Usually, Jacopo told him directly to shut up or just growled until he scurried off, but now he found himself stuck for words. At least Nerissa’s comment gave him something else to think about. His eyebrows drew together.

“Gwythr damn it.” He grumbled, turning to stomp off in the direction of Cypress’s room without needing to pause and consider where she might be.

Shouting at her and Thoth relieved some of his feelings, but it did leave him with a new sense of guilt. He made a point of trying to be more polite to Thoth as he showed him into his new room, although Thoth didn’t seem to have noticed any rudeness. Jacopo left him to it and headed back down the corridor, not sure if he was glad or disappointed to find it now empty. Maybe they’d been too hasty. This was going to take a lot of talking out.

Still, he couldn’t help reflecting as he put his foot on the bottom-most step, that feeling… electricity on his skin… surely there could be no regrets in that. Maybe he should go by her room. No; he definitely shouldn’t, but he could walk past it and if she happened to open the door…

The staircase shifted beneath his feet, making him stumble forward in surprise. When his foot next found solid ground, it wasn’t in the tavern or even indoors. He stepped down onto soil, the smell of earth and pine tingling in his nose. The walls of the Stone Dragon had vanished, replaced with a forest which definitely wasn’t the Kingswood. The temperature was too cool and the trees were different. Hanging from the trees in front of him were two hiking backpacks, and standing next to him was…

“Any idea what’s going on?” He asked Birch, clueless.