“Oh, that’s not going to happen. So Mom—at some point, you’re going to have to tell Mom that he’s awake.”
“No, I don’t.”
Cullen stared at him. “Dude, your door is the portal to Mother’s realm.”
That got an entire shrug from Corbin, and Evander could feel the stress building. “So?”
Orion’s head tilted. “Do you think she won’t notice?”
He blinked at Orion, and then Corbin blinked at Orion. “Do you think you can make it ’til she does to where she doesn’t notice? If not, I can just lock the door.”
That got Cosmo involved. “Dude, if you lock the door against Mother, she’ll lose her shit. I mean in a wild sort of way.”
“I could possibly live with that.” Corbin stared both of his brothers down. “I will not allow anything to happen to him. Are we clear? Mother or not, I will take on the entire Seelie Court if I have to. He is mine to defend.”
It was absolutely the dearest thing that anyone had ever said to him.
While he was honor bound to point out that he was a warrior.
“I have done nothing wrong. I performed my duties that I was sent to do. I saved the child. I am not infected. I will not be ashamed.”
Corbin nodded very firmly. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of. You survived something that very few, if any, people have survived: you and Tisi. And Tisi is her grandson, so if she’s going to destroy you?—”
Cullen pointed one finger at Corbin. “B-A-B-I-E-S.”
Elliot chuckled, the sound grinding. “That means be quiet.”
“Does it?” Children’s minds were so very interesting, Evander loved the way they worked.
Elliot nodded. “B-A-B-I-E-S spells quiet.”
Cullen winked at Evander. “Totally. He’s such a good boy. So smart.”
“He really does seem to be amazing. I love his stone-like personality and physicality, for that matter.”
Cullen nodded seriously, then grinned at Cosmo and Hawk. “That’s because I think he’s half-gargoyle.”
“Well, considering that neither one of us is even partly gargoyle, it’s hard to believe he could be half,” Hawk pointed out. Sounding very reasonable, but he thought the big guy was starting to get annoyed.
“Look.” Corbin waved a hand in the air. “I’ll talk to Mother. I really will, but I’ll go to her and let her know what’s going on instead of her coming here.”
“You can bring her here, and we’ll talk to her together,” Evander said. He didn’t like the idea of Corbin being worried about him being here in the house or causing issues with his mother. “She and I are on relatively equal footing socially.”
Now every single set of eyes turned to stare at him, including the children who were taking their cues from their parents. The silence lasted a long while, so long that it started to get uncomfortable, and he felt horns itching at the top of his head, trying to spring forth.
“But mother is royalty.” Cullen seemed to be having a hard time holding in his illusions. Things were randomly spewing forth from his head, or so it appeared. The bubbles had been there for a while, but now there were clouds and thunderbolts and weird rainbows and all sorts of things.
“So am I. One forgets that there is more than one court in the Land of Summer.” Evander drew himself up, lifting his chin in the air and putting his shoulders back.
Corbin came to him and took his hand. “We should all eat something. I think that will make everyone’s tempers a little less frayed.”
“Sure, I was making snacks.” Cosmo put a tray of all sorts of wonderful looking things down. “But why would they leave you here for a year if you were royalty?”
“Like Sleeping Beauty!” Serena piped up.
“Oh. Maybe that’s true.” Orion grinned. “After all, this is a guardian house. Why not leave you here until they know whether or not you’re going to be a problem?”
Evander smirked. “Of course. And I have a brother as well who would love to take over my place at court. So I’m sure he preferred to have me out of the way.”
