“Thank you. You know, I do believe he cares for you, as you do for him. You’d not be taking a stroll with me if you didn’t.” His smile was as soft as the rest of him. “But even so, four hundred years? I think I would have tried, and failed, to smother him with a pillow. He’s not an easy person to live with.”
“It’s a good thing you won’t be the one living with him that long then, yeah?” Bo grinned at the somber, lovely man and didn’t even gnash his teeth. “What made living with him difficult? He leave wet towels on the floor? Drink all the milk before you had your coffee? Make noise in bed?”
“I’m only the messenger,” Lawrence answered with gentle distance, stepping back from Bo and shrugging helplessly. “I’m sorry if this hurts to hear, but you do need to hear it. And I’d rather you hear it from someone who cares for Everil than someone who despises him.”
“Like Nimai.”
Lawrence didn’t quite flinch. But he looked away again, if only for a moment, then back to Bo.
“Him. And others. He had plenty of detractors when I knew him. Everil wasn’t subtle. Brookhaven was an escape for us. We were both running from scandal. I was simply foolish enough to believe it was the same one.”
“What was he supposed to say? ‘I’m a kelpie, and I’m running from my abusive ex’ or something?”
“Perhaps you’re right. But there was so much he kept from me and little to soften the blow.” Lawrence moved closer again, watching Bo with big, pretty eyes. “That’s what I mean, Bo. Not petty domestic squabbles. That he equivocates on those things that matter most.”
“He’s fae. Blunt isn’t exactly a quality most of them have.”
The trees murmured, roots crawling gently toward the edge of the dirt path. Lawrence spread his slender, pretty hands beseechingly before him. “As you say. He isn’t human. He doesn’t think as we do. He used to disappear for days. Weeks. Can you imagine? We got in terrible rows about it. I thought he was ignoring me.”
Snarling at Lawrence felt like snarling at a random fan coming up to earnestly tell him about putting him on in the background or following him when he was a kid. Just trying to help and fucking genuine about it. Like Antonio.
Unlike Antonio, Bo couldn’t help Lawrence survive the fae. Too late for that.
Goddamnit.
“What was he doing?” Bo asked. “Going to Faerie?”
“He was forgetting about time. Off somewhere and not realizing that I would miss him.”
“I– Yeah, I get it. It’s hard to trust someone who ghosts you and talks sideways,” Bo agreed, albeit somewhat sideways himself. He winced. “Fuck, ghosting like, disappearing for days on end with no notice or news. Not ghost like…”
Bo started to wave his hand at Lawrence, realized it was a dick move, and let his hand fall to his side.
“It’s alright.” This time, when Lawrence smiled, it wasn’t sad. “This isn’t one of those stories where the ghost isn’t aware that they’re dead. It’s probably for the best that we both be willing to face what happened to me.”
“It’s not– Look. Ever’s lucky you didn’t end things with him then and there. I can’t say I’d‘ve stayed on board for that kind of stuff.” See? He could do tactful. Sympathetic, even. Hell, Bo didn’t even sidle away when Lawrence got closer again, all entreating eyes and lifting his hand to pat at Bo. “It’s not exactly the same for him and me, though. Even if wedidn’thave the bond, I know what he is, you know? Context and shit. And the soulbond thing.”
Not that Ever’d told Bo what he was straight out. Bo’d had to fucking guess. And he’d not wanted Bo in the first place. And– No. That wasn’t the situation now. Things were different, up to and including Bo not calling Ever adear friend.
Around them, the trees shifted, growing more autumnal in their coloring. The forest grew denser, pressing closer to the path, a susurrus of wind Bo couldn’t feel rustling through the leaves.
“True,” Lawrence agreed, not seeming to mind the spiraling roots along the edges of the path. “You and Everil are more closely tied than we were. But doesn’t that make it hurt all the more?”
“The fuck you mean?”
“Being with a man who alternatively clings and freezes. Who is too wild to give you a proper home in Faerie and too tame to–” Lawrence cleared his throat, prim as the damned unicorn. “Be bold in the way you are.”
“Ever’s not actually a mortal horse,” Bo retorted, striving to sound calm and not like he wanted to snarl at the other man. He did remarkably well if he were to be humble about it. “He’s a kelpie. And it’s gross to talk abouttamingsomeone without it being an agreed-on kink thing.”
“Falling for him, I understand,” Lawrence continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “He’s terribly fetching. And charming, when he remembers to be. But I’m certain youcould find some other like-minded sort, one who doesn’t require a four-hundred-year commitment.”
Bo shook his head, still not snarling. He wasn’t. He wouldn’t. This was agoddamn test, and Declan was anasshole.
“What do I care if he’s not bossy when he fucks? If that’s what gets you off, that’s a you thing. Not mine. And even if it were, he’s notinterchangeable, for fucks sake. I don’t need a goddamn dowry for Ever. He’s funny and weird and frustrated because he thinks he shouldn’t be. Ilikehim.”
“And what of his attachment to … that man?” Lawrence asked, his gentle voice mild for all that it skipped when he pointedly didn’t say Nimai’s name. “He will always neglect you, leave you reaching for him. And it will be because he fears that man’s judgment. He’s still desperate to please someone he despises.”
“You can go fuck right off.” Bo sliced his hand through the air, the gesture as sharp as his tone had become.
