“What the fuck has them grossed out?” Bo asked under his breath, glancing sidelong at Ever.
Ever shook his head, arms tighter still around Bo. Trepidation and anxiety and protective anger curled around Bo through the bond. It was all he could do to not bolt, then and there.
Whatever fae waited for them, they were creepy enough to churn the stomachs of some of the most influential fae in all of Faerie.
Fuck.
Chapter seventeen
Everil
In Faerie, nothing wasever far. A truth that Everil found himself regretting as he followed Yenah and Charil to the first of the three who would judge them. He kept his hand on Bo’s back as they walked through a gilded forest, the reassurance more for himself than for the human. As if, by keeping Bo close enough, he might keep him safe.
The forest opened up into a clearing, as Everil tried not to think on what the Council had said of his damaged soul. A towering maple dominated the space, and lounging against it, their judge, waiting.
Pale skin and a small, knowing smile. A chain of flowers in colorless, thin fingers.
Declan.
“Councilor Yenah, Councilor Charil.” Declan dipped his head in greeting, not moving from his tree. “Everil. Bo. I’d started to think you didn’t want to see me.”
“Declan.” Everil kept his voice flat. It was best not to appear overly familiar with their judge. “We weren’t told who was expecting us.”
“Councilor Fiadh’s noises of disgust didn’t give it away?” Declan asked, his gaze on Yenah, his tone coolly amused.
“No noises,” Yenah answered, tone light. She kept her distance, though. As everyone tended to do with sluagh. “Not from her.”
“Color me impressed,” Declan murmured, sounding anything but. He continued weaving flowers as he spoke.
“Have fun,” Charil said.
With that, the pair stepped back into the forest, away from Declan’s knowing smile. Everil did his best to not take too much pleasure in the nuggle’s hasty retreat.
“What the fuck?” Bo muttered, looking from where the Councilors weren’t to Declan. “Weren’t they supposed to stay?”
“The Councilors were to ensure you arrived here,” Declan answered, his smile deepening. “Dawdling risks courting knowledge they’d rather avoid.”
“Deathsight,” Everil added. “Declan is as much the truth of death as I am the river. When in a sluagh’s presence, one often catches glimpses of fate.”
Everil reluctantly pulled away from Bo to approach Declan. The need to guard him was ended, and only a selfish seeking for reassurance remained. There was such a thing as asking too much.
“Fate?”
“Everil is being kind.” Declan donned his now-finished flower crown, arching a single pale eyebrow. “Deathsight shows inevitable endings. It’s triggered when a loved one is fated to die. It isn’t pleasant. Or possible to control.”
“Well, shit. That fucking sucks.” The man did have a way of cutting to the quick of matters.
“We all have our trials,” Declan’s tone was light, for all the weight deathsight had placed on him over the years. “Some more literally than others. To very gracefully change the subject, you’ve both decided to go forward with this, my friend?”
Everil took a breath, bracing himself to answer. And Bo, sweet Bo, stepped to his side, fingers curving around Everil’s elbow. A tendril of calm curled through Everil’s anxiety, the comfort of Bo’s touch making him want to lean in and take more.
It wasn’t the time. Wasn’t appropriate. But he allowed himself to sink into the safety of Bo’s soul. Firefly summers, the hum of drowsy bees and press of sugared lips.Another breath, less forced than the last.
“Decided implies somewhat more agency than we’ve been permitted.” Everil’s words were as dry as Declan’s. “But it was inevitable that they would take the news ill. I’d not have thought such a bond could be possible myself were I not involved. And now they say the same.”
“Not possible?” Declan asked, that predator’s gaze gone sharp even as he continued to lounge against his tree. The colors of his flower crown shifted slowly, a lazy rainbow in the shadowed quiet of the little clearing.
“Fuckers said our bond didn’texistBo bit out, his emotions all lemon-peel sharp and grapefruit bitter. “Because Ever’s bonded before. And that if it did, it wasn’t valid because I’m a vile human, and the idea is gross.
