Bo tensed beside him, emotions a tangle of tightly woven branches. Everil frowned, concerned without knowing what had upset him and Robin so.
“It’s how I saw you were here. It, um– It catches cars driving down the road. This is– Just– This is where you should tell mehow you got here.”
“Cameras.Winter’s curse. I always forget about those,” Talia said, studying Robin with a little frown. “And I don’t think Everil knows what they are.”
“I’m familiar with the concept of videography,” Everil said, an absent correction as he attempted to understand.
It sunk in slowly. A puzzle of words placed into new context. Robin had, somehow, recorded their arrival. Their entirely magical arrival.
Talia chewed her bottom lip, a flash of guilt in her usually bright eyes. “I should’ve just taken us to the car.”
And Everil should have asked Bo how he wished to handle Everil’s nature with his family. It simply hadn’t occurred to him, flush with relief and wanting Bo to rest. Now, with Robin watching him through wide, distrusting eyes, it felt rather more pressing.
“Fuck, kid, I’m in no shape to drive.” Bo’s emotions were grapefruit rind and the shock of biting into unripe fruit. The manneededhis family. “I’d pass out after an hour behind the wheel.”
“This conversation was inevitable,” Everil added, not knowing whom the statement was meant to reassure.
“Someone hurt you?” Robin asked, expression darkening.
Nearly at the same moment, Jan said simply, “Bo.”
How like Bo they were, so quick to grow protective. Now, if only they could prove half so open-minded.
“Yeah. But I’m fine now. We’re all good. We just…” He trailed off, leaning into Everil.
“The matter isn’t easily explained,” Everil added. “And Bo is without fault, in all that transpired.”
Releasing Bo’s hand, Everil drew him into his arms. Bo had given him license to touch, and he wasn’t going to ignore the old guilt stirring through his bondmate’s emotions.
“Bo,” Jan said, speaking in the soft way humans sometimes used with wounded animals. “Whatever you say, I’m not going to throw you out. No one is about to be set aside. What’s this about videography and cars?”
“It’s about kelpie.” Bo sounded somewhere between defeat and determination. “Fae. Liminal, all-powerful beings in hoodies. Soulbonds. Magic. Them being real, even if the shit I saw as a kid wasn’t.”
“Magic,” Jan said. “Are you sure? People are much better with special effects than they were twenty years ago.”
Robin sat, birdlike in his wary regard. Everil tried to recall what he might have seen. The veil opening. The disappearance of Everil’s holly crown. Bo’s, too. Gone in a shower of green and gold sparks.
“As best as I understand it, Bo has devoted himself to identifying the deceptions used to create false magic.” Everil kept his voice soothing, for Bo’s sake. “Surely, he’s well educated in any ‘special effects’ used in such mimicry.”
“He’s devoted his career to it.” Jan met his level gaze with her own even study. “That doesn’t make it any easier to believe.”
“Bo’s telling the truth.” Robin’s voice was barely more than a whisper. He turned to look at Jan, gone pale, nearly gray. “It’s all on the camera. They walked in out of nothing. The boyfriend made something disappear off their heads. There were sparks.”
Frowning, Bo’s aunt pulled out her phone. Everil could only assume it would allow her to see the same arrival that Robin had witnessed. For his part, Bo rested heavily against Everil. The man had been through too much in these past few days to face this as well.
“He is, indeed, being truthful.” Everil kept the growl from his voice, but he met Robin’s accusing gaze without flinching. “He’s also–forgive me, Bo–exhausted.”
Robin seemed to take the implicit rebuke in stride or simply didn’t notice it. He studied Talia, who smiled back at him.
“You’re the all-powerful being in a hoodie?” Robin asked Talia, a wavering thread of anxiety still in his voice.
“Not all-powerful,” Talia said, still smiling. “At least, not until Bo teaches me how to drive. You can’t be all-powerful if you can’t drive.”
Robin relaxed a little, faced with Talia’s delightful immodesty. He even smiled back at her. “Make sure you learn donuts. I taught him those.” But he wasn’t smiling when he looked at Everil. “And you’re the kelpie?”
“My badass kelpie,” Bo murmured, the words so soft that Everil doubted that even Talia had heard them. For him alone, and Everil leaned to kiss his hair.
“I am, yes.” Still calm. At times such as this, he was grateful for the habit. “Bo came to my aid at a time when I was in desperate need. He has remained since, despite my best attempts to dissuade him.”
