“Dad says it’s good for me to make friends,” Talia replied.Still, she let go of Calloway’s arm.“You should stay down here, wispling.This next bit will beveryfucking fae.”
“No kidding,” Antonio agreed.He touched Declan’s arm, just a brush of reassurance, whether seeking or taking, and reluctantly glanced at Calloway.
“Be careful,” the wisp said.
He looked so wounded.And so like he was still the kid that Antonio had imagined himself in love with.Antonio wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive him.But he wasn’t much for leaving things unsaid.
“Look.This, today?You did alright.We’re not square.But I got a few centuries on the clock now.You figure out what side you stand on, treat me and Declan with respect, maybe in a couple … hundred … years, we grab a beer.”
“I would like that,” Calloway answered, hands fluttering like nervous birds.“Goodbye, Antonio.”
“Later,” Antonio replied and turned away.
Whatever he’d been in Antonio’s past, Callowaynowwas just an opening act.The headliner was waiting.
“Well,thatwassimple,”Declan said, as they reached the top of the stairs.“Nine o'clock.”
Standing where Declan indicated were nearly a dozen fae.There was Nimai, the brownie towering over most of the others, but no one else in the group was familiar.All seelie, all beautiful and strange, all with the stuck-up air of the eternally superior.
“Not sure I’ve ever seen a group of more punchable faces,” Antonio admitted.
“We’re agreed on that.”Declan laughed, though the sound had a wary sharpness.“The qilin with the orange scales is Kylan, Nimai’s very appropriate new bond.Kesk and Veroni are the sidhe and the sylph.He’s the ringleader, but she’s the one with two brain cells to rub together.”
Antonio had all of half a second to take the group in.Alabaster Kesk, looking unnervingly like an angel with his gold ringlets and white wings.Flowing, lovely Veroni all soft grays.Both of them, to his eyes, were stark naked.At least Nimai and his bond, whose orange scales glinted like jewels on his red skin, wore Faerie weave.
This would be bad enough without a naked duel.
Half a second, and then Talia was stepping forward, waving enthusiastically in the group’s direction.
“Hi, Lysander!”she called out, then added, in an ineffective whisper, “He’s the shy-looking Gate.Don’t punch him.”
A boy of about Talia’s age, with soft features, light brown skin, and worried eyes, waved back, though only barely.The rest of the group had also turned at Talia’s greeting.Antonio wanted to beg Declan to forget about this.About everything.The duel.The Council.Faerie.
But he’d made a promise.And Declan needed him.They were out of time.
“Hey, Murderpunk,” he said and dragged the man to him for a desperate, urgent kiss.“I fucking love you.”
“I love you as well,” Declan answered, hand cupping Antonio’s cheek.All of him close.All of him.“And I owe you centuries yet.”
Laughter sounded from the group.Kesks’s was easiest to pick out.There werehooksin it, that sidhe voice magic that always made Antonio queasy.Like everyone else, he looked in the man’s direction.
“It looks like the start of a joke, love,” said Veroni, smiling with lips the color of blood money.“A Gate, a sluagh, and a human walk into a party.What do you suppose the punchline is?”
Declan’s fingers brushed over Antonio’s arm as he stepped forward, head high, his own wide smile fixed in place.
“I do enjoy a good laugh,” he said.“One of the many things I’m known for.Wouldn’t you agree, Nimai, old friend?”
“You’ve certainly developed a reputation,” Nimai replied, his voice like a hearty slap on the back from someone you didn’t want to touch you.“As a friend, I advise you not to flaunt your indiscretions in quite so public a venue.No one will blame a sluagh for making compromises.The curse you bear is no easy burden.But that doesn’t mean they’ll tolerate seeing it.”
“A greater burden was learning that the man I’ve called friend for centuries put a call out for my head.”Declan sighed heavily, all fae now, playing disappointed.“An irrevocable allotment and a near anonymous open bounty, even.”
“I would be interested to hear how you’re so certain of these terms and who set them,” Kesk’s voice hit like the aftermath of a hangover.“It would be rude to levy accusations without revealing their source.”
“Bullshit,” Antonio snapped.
“Surely you know my family deals in information, Kesk,” Declan said, sounding as calm as Antonio hadn’t.“Mother was especially keen to barter once it became clear a school of nereids didn’t suddenly find me offensive to their existence by chance.”
“Are you so certain?”Asked storm-colored Veroni, words as rolling and catlike as Kesk’s were ringing and sharp.“Nereids aren’t known for enjoying poison.”
