“He’s the kelpie’s old bond, isn’t he?The one Bo hates.Why you and the kelpie had that fight.”
Voids.
There wasn’t a way to answer that without sounding pathetic.
Declan swallowed, finally looking up at the ceiling with hooded eyes.Focusing helped.
“Aye.That’s him.And wewerefriends, once.Of a sort.Bloody hated each other but after Everil… No one understood the pain of his rejection as well as Nimai.It mattered little that he was the cause, at least at first.”Declan smiled bitterly.“We mourned together.Kept each other from the voids for a time.Then we remembered why we couldn’t stand one another.”
“I get that,” Antonio said, very close.He stood next to the chair, vital and breathing and grounded amidst the spreading rot, still rocking on his feet and twisting the bracelet.“Sometimes you put up with shit that kills you inside to try and work through something worse.”
Declan stared up at him, helpless.
Aisling had railed against that temporary companionship.Declan, bone white and near to fading, had been so alone, torn.Betrayed.How strange, to be understood now by a man he’d met only days prior.To be listened to without censure.
Nimai would bloodyburnif he threatened Antonio again.Declan would scorch the building around him and salt the ashes, for good measure.
“That exactly,” is what Declan said instead ofthank you for choosing purple, not blue or black.“My only regret is that I kept him from fading as well.He’d not have been here to smugly fae at us if I hadn’t.”
Antonio laughed, short with it, studying the half-sprawled Declan and bouncing in place again.
“Right.Okay.We’ll figure out what to do about him and the Council.But first, I need to move, and you need to make sure no one eats me.”
He wouldnotsay something suggestive.“Pardon?”
“We’re going for a run.”Antonio held out his hand, unhesitating even after the last day and a half.The lastwhole of his life.“You can tell me about those marriage proposals with the pooka and I’ll tell you about my sisters.”
“A run?”He’d lost the plot and took Antonio’s hand anyway.“Your sisters?”
“I’ve gotta see them for dinner tomorrow, and I’m sure as fuck not going anywhere alone.”
Declan didn’t refuse.Couldn’t, with that rough-edged almost smile on Antonio’s face, limbs tight with excess energy.Declan knew well what adrenaline and lingering fear could inspire, that need tomove.
The anger lingered.Simmering.Readying itself for a glass bottle and rag, with matches held by gritted teeth.Until then, there was Antonio, and his trust, hand still warm and steady in Declan’s.
“Allow me a moment to change my shoes,” he said, weapons and destruction set carefully aside for the moment.“Then tell me of your sisters as we run.”
AntoniopulledDeclanona runtwicebefore it was time to invade the family home.The last time Declan had run so much there’d been … well, a considerable amount of chaos going on, it being the seventies.In Belfast.With the lads.
Better memories this time about.And it meant that Declan was well prepared for dinner with Antonio’s sisters, passing plates and laughing at the right moments.The oldest of them, Angela, clearly mistrusted him, as did her husband.But the other two, Elaine and Claudia, remained personable enough.
Dinner finished, and Declan found himself alone while the older two sisters congregated in the kitchen for cleanup.Claudia had already pulled Antonio away because her car was “doing that thing again.”
Loitering in the living room, Declan could hear the gentle clinks and murmurs from the kitchen, as well as the more distant, pleasing rise and fall of Antonio’s voice.Just barely, that, if he concentrated.
Angela lined her walls with photos, all framed and aesthetically placed.Most were of Angela, Michael, and Mara.Well enough, but the ones that held Declan’s attention included Antonio.
There weren’t many.Only one was of the siblings on their own, including Antonio’s absent fourth sister, Raquel.The other few were after Mara, Gabriela, and Dulce were born, Antonio as the doting uncle, clean cut but for the occasional peek of ink at collar or sleeve.
Nieces that Antonio would outlive ten times over.Voids.
“That’s Tio Tio and Mama and the Aunties when they were younger.”The tiniest of the nieces appeared in a fluff of curls, pointing at the photo Declan stood before.“That one’s Tio Tio.”
“So it is.”Declan grinned at the image of her Tio Tio, then looked down at the girl.Dulce.“Is that your mum beside him?”
She nodded, rocking up on her toes much like Antonio.“Can I ask you a secret?”
A secret?Alarm bells pinged, but dimly.Dulce and Colm’s son, Liam, were of an age.The young banshee thought a ‘secret’ was “Uncle Declan sometimes scares people.”Things that people simply talked around.
