“She’s a fucking phoenix?”
“Voids and starshine,no.” Declan shivered delicately. “Reborn, aye, but not a phoenix. New incarnations. Not flames. I’ve been told memories of their past selves linger, but I’ve yet to call a Gate a boon companion.”
“New. Young. Sure, fuck, whatever. She acts like a teenager, and she doesn’t want Nimai to be her guardian.” Bo laughed, an ugly sound even to his own ears. “Besides, it’snot like the guy will let me run around anyway. Like I told Everil, jealous exes don’t like the new person, no matter the relationship. Fucking or not.”
Suddenly, Declan was very close. Almost chest to chest, with his dark lips near Bo’s ear. Bo stood frozen, only Everil’s trust in the man keeping him from hitting flight or fight. The fact his knee was in decent nut-kicking range helped.
“I will never threaten one of Everil’s nor cause them harm,” Declan murmured, voice gentle but still deep enough to rattle Bo’s fucking bones. Like a raptor’s screech mashed together with a rockslide. “And as Everil does not think unkindly of you, I give you this advice freely: Do not be Nimai. Don’t become him. He doesn’t fear me as much as he ought. But you will, should I learn what I saw in him lives in you also.”
“I will break your dick with my knee if you do not back off,” Bo hissed.
Declan laughed. The sound ugly. Rasping and predatory. He leaned away despite that, if only enough to look Bo in the eye. Hawklike now, keen and bright and hard, so pale a blue they were nearly fucking white. “You treat Everil and Talia as you say you want to, and I think we will be the best of friends. Don’t you? And if you don’t, if you harm my friend, I will haunt your dreams.” He smiled, the expression much too wide, showing a predator’s sharp teeth. A crocodile’s smile. “You do not wish to see a sluagh in his full aspect.”
“You’ve gotfive fucking seconds.”
“I’m taking that as ‘aye, Declan, I agree’,” Declan said. Bo’s space was his own again. Declan leaned against the porch railing, out of reach, as if he’d been there the whole time, his face fully human once more. “Has anyone told you what happens during oath taking?”
What in thefuck.
“You were just-. How the fuck are we switching topics to–” Bo waved his hands at Declan, thrown. “What the fuck? I– Sure. Fuck. Fine. No, no one has. You should do that now.”
“Charming,” said Declan. “No wonder he’s not drowned you yet.”
The last time Bo’dwalked into Brookhaven in the dark, he’d expected rotted floorboards and dust. Maybe raccoons if he was unlucky. Funny how a day could change things.
No cobwebs in sight. No heavy air or settling sounds.
Just Talia, flopped in a chair. Everil, by the window again, the picture of calm, freckled beauty. Every fucking inch the person who definitely never had a Bo shaped indent on his shoulder.
Everil, who felt like secrets. Dust spread thick enough to drag your fingers through. Deadfall on a frozen riverbank. The sort of quiet you could curl up safe in, the world still and beautiful around you. No matter what his aura ‘felt’ like, the room felt warmer by virtue of him being in it.
He turned, when Bo and Declan walked in, a thread of apprehension fading when their eyes met.
“I applaud your taste in guardians,” Declan said to Talia, voice thick with amusement. The bastard. “Do you hold by your decision on these two?”
Bo leaned on the desk near the entry. The quick, crooked grin he shot Everil might not have been called for, but he wasn’t a man built for posing all pensively.
Bowas the bearer of hot chocolate. He didn’t think Talia’d shun him.
“Well, Bowie’s dead and Lorde’s not taking my calls. Besides, I can steal Bo’s hoodies.” She glanced between them, grinning. “They’ll do.”
Correction: Bearer of hot chocolate and gifter of hoodies. Bo needed to invest in more of those.
“Good news, gentleman: you’re acceptable.” Declan’s dark eyebrows arched, his black-purple lips the slightest bit tipped at the corners. “Three and three days given to offer forth an oath of blood and binding. If you wish to abstain, now is the time to say so. Otherwise, let the terms be set.”
“And have you come all this way for nothing?” Everil asked, stepping away from the window and standing, rigid, an arm’s length from Bo.
“I’m good,” Bo said. He glanced at Everil, offering him a faint smile. The kelpie said Bo wasn’t like Nimai. He’d curled toward him on the porch, like Bo’d done something right. “I’m in.”
“For the record,” Talia said, her gaze on Bo, “The oath thing isn’t my idea. Also, don’t, like, freak out on me, okay?”
“Okay,” Bo said.
“We non-fae gotta stick together,” she added.
“Being non-fae doesn’t make you human,” Everil corrected, mildly. Fucker should’ve starred in period dramas.
Talia only pouted at him, “You know, I could make it a part of the oath that you’re not allowed to say that.Andthat you have to wear a dumb hat.”
