“In a manner of speaking. The bond you’ve forged is real, and even I couldn’t ask Kesk and Veroni to say otherwise. Trust you to make this so much more complicated than it needed to be.”
Nimai shook his head, sadly, then drew a cup of tea from the air and held it out to Everil. The porcelain burned Everil’s fingers as the smell of cinnamon and clove filled the air.
“If they’ll confirm the bond, then I can go.”
“Leave, and you’ve forfeited the trial. The rules stand.” A touch of steel in Nimai’s voice, immediately softened with a smile. “Don’t fret so, my wild horse. I’m here for your sake. It’s not right, that we should be so at odds.”
“The council would have called us anyway.”
“Oh, not that.” Nimai gestured vaguely, dismissing dragging Everil back to Faerie as immaterial. “I mean Lawrence. You hurt me very badly, Everil. And I lost my temper. I took it out on an innocent, and I regret that.”
The cup shook in Everil’s hands. He could still smell it. Lawrence’s blood and rent flesh. “I see.”
“Pettiness doesn’t suit you, my love.” Nimai’s lips pursed in brief disappointment, then he sighed, and gave a rueful shake of his head. “Never mind. You’ve been away for so long. Listen to me, Everil. You know I hate upsetting you. That’s why we’re talking. I feel another such incident would be unpleasant for both of us.”
Bo would bite back, his words profane and defiant and clever. Everil sipped tea that his throat tried to close itself against and said, again, “I see.”
“I don’t think you do. Forgive me for being blunt, but I fear the circumstances require it. You’re not much for subtleties. Everil, some betrayals cannot be borne without reprisal. I will kill Oberon. You know this. You must have known it from the first. What possessed you to put the poor mortal in such danger, I can’t imagine. But you have. And he’ll die for it.”
“Nimai.” The name came out a growl, Everil half out of his chair before Nimai raised his hand.
“Don’t be dramatic. You can’t hurt me, my love. You can’t stop me. He’s in Kesk and Veroni’s territory, and while they grantedyouhospitality, they make no such concessions to humans. They could kill him now if I liked. Chop him to pieces. Serve him as hors d’oeuvres while we chat.”
Everil froze, still half standing, his breath coming unsteady through gritted teeth. In Kesk and Veroni’s territory, the distance between Everil and Bo was however long the pair wished it to be.
“I swear on Summer, Nimai, if he’s harmed–”
“You’ll throw another tantrum. I’m aware.” Nimai raised delicate fingers to the bridge of his nose. “We can’t keep this up, my love. It’s exhausting. And I have ambitions that have been stymied for a century due to your stubbornness. The council will have an opening soon. A decade at the most. I intend to take it.”
“Then take it. I’m not your only potential bond, Nimai. I never have been. You don’t need me. You don’t have any reason to kill him.”
“No reason? You sully yourself with some disgusting little human, dirty your verysoulwith him, and I have no reason? You gave me youroath, Everil. I intend to keep you to it.” His voice had gone bright and hard, but he took a breath, and it softened again. “My love, let’s not fight. You don’t want the human killed. I don’t want to upset you. That’s why I’m here. There’s a simple, reasonable solution to all of this.”
“What do you want?” He’d sat down again. His voice was dead level.
“A chance, nothing more. That’s not so much to ask, is it? A chance? Give me a little time. You’ve been away from Faerie for so long. You’ve forgotten all its charms. Take the opportunity to know them again. To know me again.”
“You want me to break my bond with Bo.”
“Always jumping to the most dramatic possibility.” Nimai tsked softly, shaking his head. His smile was beatific. “If that’s what you or he chooses, then yes. I’d be pleased to have my bondmate back. But I said a chance, and I mean a chance. Three years, say? Three years with me. Your Oberon goes back to his world, and if you both want this at the end, I’ll step aside. I’ll give my oath to his safety. I’ll protect him myself if you like.”
Three years was hardly any time at all. Even in his truncated eternity, it would be bearable. A chance to reintegrate into fae society for both his good and Bo’s.
Bo wouldn’t see it that way. Bo wouldneversee it that way.
“Or?” he asked.
“My love, I thought I made that clear. I kill him. I kill him in ways that make what Lawrence suffered seem like mercy. I kill him while you feel every excruciating second of his despair. And then, after, you bond me anyway. Trust me when I say the loss of a bondmate in such a fashion will leave you in no state to deny me. Do you really intend to put me through that? When all I ask of you is three years?”
The room was warm with the glow of a brownie’s pleasure. The air thick with cinnamon. And Nimai was smiling, in that way he had. Only love in his eyes.
Chapter twenty-four
Bo
The room to theright consisted of very white walls that looked like they were made out of marble, floor and ceiling included. No light fixtures, despite being fucking bright inside, no more ornate decorations that screamed ‘I’m very secure with myself and my lot in life,’not even a single fucking chair.
Just a colorless, cold floor in a place with nothing to look at except the outline of a door. Bo wedged himself in the far corner, sitting on said cold-ass white floor.
