“Nor should you. I don’t believe we will need to worry about his promises of safety. He is unlikely to offer them.”
Was it hot that Ever had a growl in his voice? Bo, exhausted and aching, the taste of the honey-and-snow oranges on his lips from a snagged fruit, shouldn’t think anything was hot, but … here he was.
“I fucking hate how he treats you. Manipulative and abusive as fuck.”
Another kiss, because Ever apparently liked kissing Bo’s hair. Bo didn’t mind, either.
“Then let us face him together and stand for the other. He will not hurt you.” A thumb, soft, over knuckles. “I am loath to see him again. But Talia…”
“Yeah. Yeah, we need our strange kid back. Okay. Fuck, yeah, okay, let’s do this.”
And if Nimai’d fucked with Talia’s brain, Bo would screw Faerie as many times as it took to rain hellfire on the brownie.
Bo clung to Ever’shand as the moss bled to bleached wood, fine-grained and gorgeous. Ever’s house, Bo figured. The walls were mostly windows, huge as the arching doorways between rooms. Every space seemed to havesomethingto draw the eye. A framed picture, a book, art. Notquiteenough to be called cluttered. The social media ideal of lived in enough.
Holding tighter, he leaned against his kelpie’s arms. He hadn’t been scared, the last time he’d seen Ever’s lands. He’d been in Ever’s arms, the two of them making magic while the Council waited.
Now, hand-in-hand, Bowasscared. Terrified.
This wasEver’shome, he reminded himself. Bo’s home, with the whole consort business.
But not Nimai’s. Not even with every inch of the place screaming his style. Twisting the whole fucking world to make himself right and Ever wrong.
He’d seen it when Nimai showed up the first time. Just hadn’t known what he was seeing. Hotel sheets, rumpled and far too used from a couple rounds. Peeling wallpaper with mildew lingering. Carpet worn enough that there’d be bruised knees instead of friction burns.
That was what the fucker thought of Ever, and pictured the open, clean, admittedly gorgeous desert scene for himself.
“You’ve got a big fucking house, kelpie.” Bo kept his voice quiet, for all the good it would do them.
“Only sometimes,” Ever replied with equal quiet. “My preference is for a closer space.”
“You brought him here? To ourhome?“ Nimai’s voice, then Nimai in the flesh, stepping through a set of double doors. Tall as Leana had been and perfectly comfortable looking in the great room, openness and high arching ceilings framing him all pretty like.
Bo flinched, sure. Half expected Ever to move in front of him like usual, but Ever stayed still.
Nimai there, and Ever didn’t pull away. He didn’t speak up, but he stayed shoulder-to-shoulder with Bo, fingers intertwined. Not a whiff of shame to be felt.
“It’snotyour home. It’s Ever’s. You muscled your way in.”
Nimai ignored him, his pretty eyes focused on Ever with unsettling intensity, voice rich and warm as a crackling hearth. “Really, Everil, this cruelty is beneath you.”
“You talk a big fucking game about cruelty for a guy who likes to kill humans to punish your ex. Where’s Talia?”
“Little mortal, I can see you’re under the impression that you care for my Everil.” Nimai looked at him then, expression pitying. “That you can claim a place at his side as an equal. Your naivety is endearing. He’s akelpie, Oberon.”
“Bo.” Ever’s interruption was soft but unmistakable.
Almost fucking broke Bo, that correction. He could’ve cried again just from that. Instead, Bo squeezed his hand. Flashed him an unsteady smile, grateful as fuck.
”Akelpie,” Nimai repeated, like a prick. “Not one of the pretty, silly fairies from the play you’re named for. He doesn’t dance around in glades or make flowers grow. He’s a predator. The current and the sharp rocks it drives you against. And you, little human, are not the swimmer you think you are.”
For all the homework Nimai did, finding out Bo’s name and his profession, he really didn’t know shit about him.
“Holy shit. Really? Akelpie? Well, fuck, color me shocked. Here I thought he was just some other kind of big, fanged horse prancing around in the water.”
“I have no intention of harming Bo,” Everil interjected, a little firmer than before.
“You won’t, but youcould,” Bo said, tugging at Ever’s hand. “There’s a reason I kept my hands in my pockets and my feet on dry land when you changed that first night. You’re a badass, flesh-eating stallion with knives for teeth. You’re theriver.”
