“You’re an asshole, Declan,” Bo managed to say, though the acid faded somewhat now that he knew it wasn’tLawrenceLawrence. He turned away from the bastard, starting toward Ever.
He barely made it a step before Ever was on him. Like with the dryad, he held Bo at arm’s length, the song of his nearness enough to drive Bo to slump against him.Almost. Even with Declan pointedly looking elsewhere, Bo didn’t think Ever’d welcome Bo clinging over much.
“May I?” Ever asked, his words unsteady. His hands moved to Bo’s shoulders, thumbs hesitantly tracing along Bo’s collarbones. “I would feel better with you close.”
Fucking not-ghost didn’t know shit. Ever might not cling all the time but, fuck, Bo could always feel that hewantedto. Even now, holding Bo, his touch so fucking gentle while his voice trembled. Asking. Bo felt the apprehension in Ever just from that.
“Yeah. Yes, fuck.” Bo rested his hands on Ever’s waist, smile crooked, eyes searching. His. His goddamn kelpie, who wouldn’t run off and abandon him, who froze up but asked to hold on. Bo’s hand tightened as he gave him a light tug. “Go for it. I want you to.”
Declan could go fuck a tree if he had an issue with it. Worth the sluagh’s smirk to feel the scorched earth taste of Ever’s caution smooth out to old wood and cool streams.
Three days ago, Ever’d kept his distance. Now, he drew Bo in, a hand resting on the nape of his neck and another on his back. Ever buried his face against Bo’s hair, breathing deep.
“You’re not injured,” Ever said, the words caught between statement and question.
“Not a scratch,” Bo murmured back, wrapping his arms around Ever’s waist, holding tight. Warm. Whole. His.His. “You?”
Ever shook his head minutely. “Nothing more trying than an unusual conversation. Not that you need worry over my safety. I heal quickly.”
“Fuck you, I’ll worry if I want to,” Bo said with a little laugh, weak as it was. He leaned in to sneak a kiss to Ever’s shoulder, the kelpie shivering under his lips. “Wasn’t worried about you bleeding, kelpie. Not too mindfucked?”
“No,” Ever answered, a smile in his soft voice. “Not too much.”
“Good. Same here.”
“Humans,” the dryad had murmured, “tend to lie.”
Ever kissed Bo’s hair, then eased back, half turning to Declan. He kept his arms around Bo, though, which was more than fucking fine with him.
“Remind me not to ask you for any further ill-considered favors,” Ever said with a ghost of a smile. “Are you satisfied that I’ve taken your advice to heart?”
Declan looped his unfinished flower crown around his wrist, watching as it coiled and shrank into two bracelets, shiny as glass and a translucent pink.
“Aye, so I am,” Declan confirmed, long fingers playing over the dips of his flower petal bracelet. “You’re still stubborn when you wish to be. I’m glad to see what you’ve put your heels down for now. It would have gone badly otherwise, facing the misgivings your bonded harbors as you did.”
Misgivings.
Bo fell still, slit gaze slowly widening. Magic and memories. Misgivings. Doubts. Reservations. Qualms. A million different ways to say he’d played them with their own goddamn insecurities.
“Dude. That’s fucked up.”
Declan was fucked up. Cunning and smug and apparently a good friend to Ever butfucked up.
“You’re as bad as Bo,” Ever said, his words playful and his fingers stroking gently over Bo’s neck. “Bringing out the worst in me.”
“He says that,” Declan said to Bo, dry as the desert. “But I daresay you and I bring out different parts of him. At the very least, I hope so.”
Bo snorted. “Yeah, no shit.”
That, at least, they agreed on. Ever hadn’t had someone like Lawrence from the sound of it, not if he could tease Declan about it. Definitely not Bo’s mom and dad, thank fuck.
“I assume our next trial awaits.” Ever smiled down at Bo, small and fleeting, and Bo tasted shaded groves. He glanced back at their judge. “Declan?”
“Eventually.” Declan disappeared in a pale swirl of magic, replaced by huge trees, butted up against one another. They surrounded Bo and Ever, the branches and leaves reaching. Friendly, somehow. Moss seats, a curling root rising up and twisting to form a small, cupped room to the side where Declan had been.
“What the flying fuck?”
“Listen well.” Declan’s voice shivered through the room, quick and intense. Bo shut his mouth. “You each saw what the other fears. Your next judge requested you have room to reflect on what happened, time to rest and recover away from prying eyes or whispering magics.”
