“He’s my bond,” Ever said, each quiet word set carefully after the last, spine and shoulders rigid. “You’ve no right to him.”
“So I’ve been told. And can you imagine howembarrassingit was for me, having to learn what you’ve been up to second hand?“ Nimai rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighing. “Really, Everil, you and your little games. Even dragging poor Declan into your machinations despite how he suffered in your absence.” Nimai said the sluagh’s name in the same way Bo’s mom had blessed someone’s heart. “And after all the work he’s done to become palatable during your estrangement, too. You never think of anyone but yourself.”
Shame and self-loathing, radiating from a man who shrank further with each word.
Evercringedand Nimai kept talking down to him. Called Ever,Ever, selfish in a way that told Bo all he needed to know about Ever’s hesitations the night before.
“Weird, you calling Ever selfish when you’re the one sighing overyourembarrassment Bo snapped, like a fucking idiot.
“You’d do well to hold your tongue.”
Bo knew he should stop. But he was fucking pissed, furious and impulsive and all those other words his therapist had told him to write down on goddamn sticky notes for a year. And he was never good at being told to shut the fuck up.
“You ever stop and think, ‘gosh, I wonder whatIcould have done that might have upset my former bond? Is there somethingIcan do to be less of a prick? Maybe not tell him that what he cares about is unimportant?’ ”
“Bo isn’t fae,” Ever interjected, the words hurried. Fuckingeager,even, the desire to placate Fuckface burning through their bond like too many spice candles lit all at once. “Nimai, this isn’t–”
Nimai cut him off with a look and a tightening of his jaw.
“Boismy guardian, though,” Talia added before Nimai could speak. “I picked him. Just FYEyes.”
“Yes, sweetheart, he is. For now.” Nimai’s tone had gone clipped and impatient. “The Council will decide if that remains the case.”
“Oh, fuck you.”
“That’smydecision.” Talia dropped her knees, sitting upright and forward. The first flickers of her power lit her eyes up, just a little glow. Bells rang gently in the distance.
“It is. But whether he lives is not.” Nimai turned his gaze toward Bo. Ever, still standing between them, stiffened. Which was impressive, considering his posture was already straight enough to make a drill sergeant weep. “Listen carefully, little Oberon, because you clearly understand nothing of what you’ve entered into. Everil is mine by oath. That he’s using you to satisfy certain base kelpie lusts doesn’t make you important. It makes you leftovers he hasn’t gotten around to eating yet.”
Bo laughed with amusement he didn’t feel: quick and sharp. “Big words coming from a brownie.”
“Before you throw around accusations of selfishness, consider this. By our law, you’re his. It’s Everil who’ll lose his tongue if you can’t keep yours in check.”
In a perfect world, Bo would’ve found a way to throw Nimai’s shit back in his face. In the moment, all he could manage was not flinching. He glared, forcing himself to keep taking normal breaths and stand upright.
“I do not like Nimai,”Declan murmured in Bo’s memory. No fucking wonder.
No fucking wonder, and Bo–
He held on to Ever, no matter how fucking quiet the kelpie was. One thing for Bo to get fucked up, but not Ever. Sweet, quiet, flinch-if-you-glared Ever.
Keeping him out of that was part of the reason Bo’d refused to break the fucking bond to begin with.
Nimai noticed Bo’s silence. That was obvious from the satisfaction in his too-confident smile. The brownie took another step closer, malice in every pretty, perfect fucking line of him.
And Ever, the dude who’d murdered a dryad for Bo without blinking the day before, didn’t make a single fucking move to stop him.
Chapter fifteen
Everil
Everil couldn’t breathe. Couldn’tthink. He shouldn’t be able to feel Nimai’s aura, shouldn’t taste cinnamon and cedarwood. But he did. He’d left so much of himself behind when he tore his soul free. Ruined himself. Nimai had always said that if he left, he’d be ruined.
Bo stood, silenced by Nimai’s cruelty. No further sharp rejoinders. He clung to Everil, the fear and rage radiating off him, while Talia glared, and Everil–
Everil did nothing.
Because Nimai was always right, and Everil was always wrong, and the safest course of action was to wait quietly and let him handle things.
