“Got it,” Antonio said, contained panic making the words flat.
“Will you walk with me?”
It was walk or betray his oath.Worse, betrayDeclan, who’d killed for this.Spent lifetimes trying to get where they were.
“Yeah.I’m fine.I know this one.Walk ahead of me, yeah?I’ll follow you.”
The Monarchs were doing this on purpose.Putting him in his place.They could go to hell.He squeezed Declan’s arm once more, then dropped his hand.
“Of course.”
Declan didn’t linger.Didn’t question him or insist on helping.He smiled, and he walked out onto empty air, and he trusted that if Antonio said he could handle it, hecould.Ridiculous bastard, standing in the Monarchs’ invisible dining room in his usual punk get-up, a leather jacket, torn shirt, plaid pants, and boots.Chains on his wings, made to look like tarnished iron.Antonio loved him for all of it.The outfit and the way he smiled when he glanced back over his shoulder.
Antonio locked his gaze on the sluagh.Sexy, ridiculous Murderpunk.Fierce and defiant.The yuki-onna cleared her throat, but he ignored her.
Declan.Just Declan.
“I can see the walls and the ceiling,” he said.One step.Another.Eyes up, Antonio.You’ve played this game before.“That’s it.Not whatever you're resting your hand on.Or the floor.”
As soon as he was close enough, he reached for Declan’s shoulder, felt the bone of those wings brush his fingers instead of the prickle of magic.The man had taken his glamour down, like the defiant fuck he was.
“How charming,” Declan murmured as he leaned toward Antonio’s hand.Then he smiled, slow and wry.“Other than the decor, Mrs.Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”
Antonio’s laughter came sharp and unexpected, sneaking past his lips and easing the hard clench of his jaw.“Zero stars.”
The words had hardly left his lips when a door appeared in the far wall, blurred in the way Faerie always was.Ahugedoor, gold and ivory, that swung open with a bang.Dramatic sorts, these monarchs.
An enormous lion walked in first, with paws the size of dinner plates, golden wings, and the face of a man, green-eyed with light brown skin.A sphinx.Between one step and the next, the sphinx was man-shaped, his mane of golden hair crowned with a diamond-studded circlet.It had a sun in the center, nestled in fine gold leaves.
“Ah.Our prospective Councilors,” the man said, turning back to the doorway.“They’re here, my darling.I lost our little bet.”
The second Monarch seemed to step into being at his words.She had warm, sun-kissed olive skin and pale green hair, her eyes huge and sparkling.A zana, carrying with her the scent of new growth.Her crown was made of silver holly leaves, studded with pearls, a crescent moon at the center.
Other than the crown, they weren’t wearing a fucking thing that he could see.Probably, they had some very pretty glamour on, but the best he could do was keep his eyes away from her nipples and his dick.
“I do enjoy a risky wager, my heart,” she said, with a twinkling laugh.“Especially when it comes to the bold little sluagh who courted our dear Tsuri.”
“Ah, the ill-made dreams of callow youth.They never do think matters through.But no matter, Tsuri has their dryad now.”The sphinx held his hand out to the zana, palm up.“And you, Declan, have your Hollow it seems.Sit, both of you.”
Sit in the chair he couldn’t see.Stuck either waiting for Declan to help him or groping around and making a show of exactly how helpless they’d made him.And all while the pair of them were rubbing losing Tsuri in Declan’s face.
“Tsuri and I were just discussing how well it all worked out,” Declan said, shrugging out of his jacket and draping it over the back of what must be a chair.“Each of us found the bond that best suited us.”
Christ, he didn’t deserve this man.He’d been braced for Declan to pull out the chair for him, guide him down to sit.(Like a pet.Like a child.) Instead, Declan gave him a marker to aim for, then sat–not on air, no matter how it looked–in the chair next to his jacket.
For an instant, Antonio forgot where they were, and who was watching.He flashed Declan a smile as he pulled out the seat he couldn’t see.“Lucky me.”
“It’s important to recognize one’s reach,” the sphinx said, and if that wasn’t a veiled threat, nothing was.“Now, we’ll have our little meal and get this done.The second oath taken for this Seat in as many years.Darling, we must wager on how long before the next.”
Antonio sat, eyes on Declan instead of the Monarchs.The chair tingled against his skin, a low-level uncomfortable prickling.The four of them sat on nothing, around an empty space.Antonio shifted in, cautious, until he found the lip of the table, then rested a thumb against it, so he wouldn’t lose track.
“That’s no simple call, light of my world.”The zana spared Declan the barest glance, not even looking at Antonio.“The lack of eternity for them does narrow down the field a bit.I’m torn between a week, and the full few centuries they’ve left.”
“Ah, yes.There is that.It comes to not much either way.Tell me about this unfortunate fad, Declan.What inspires not one, but two, of our people to throw their eternities away?Do you think the death aligned will continue in the habit?So concerning, losing our beloved subjects.Sluagh and kelpie are not what one would call common.”
“Fewer and fewer,” the zana agreed.“Such a shame.”
Antonio pressed his thumb harder into the table to keep from talking, saying exactly who should be ashamed for the dwindling of the unseelie.
