“They likely owe him some favor.”That dead even voice, still.Everil stroked Bo’s hand with his free one.“Nimai is good at being owed.If he’s dissuaded, they will be as well.No one wishes to give up an allotment if they needn’t.The expense is too high.”
“Fucking fae,” Antonio muttered, knee pressed hard to Declan’s.“Guy never heard of a parking lot fistfight?Be quicker and cheaper.”
“Quite.”Declan managed a faint, warm smile.“Though a car park fistfight would be too unseemly for him.Not all of us fae can boast of brawls in our past.”
“I fucking bet,” Bo muttered.
Declan nudged Antonio’s knee again, fond, before his attention returned to Everil.Calm, even Everil, his touch gently placating on his rabid human’s hand.
“Nimai is ankle deep in the River of Death, my friend, and he’s brought a rein.I’ll not let him leave the waters while he still breathes.That’s the only discouragement I offer.”
“Death is generally very dissuading,” Everil murmured, softer still.His fingers twisting in Bo’s was the only hint that the thought of his ex being killed by Declan bothered him at all.
Antonio said nothing.He stared down at his plate, with its half-eaten waffle, piled high with strawberries and syrup and whipped cream.A pensive, conflicted quiet seeped through their bond.Antonio had proven time and again to be someone who thrived on fixing things, helping others.
“It’s notfair,” Talia grumbled, giving her own plate a disapproving look.“I could’ve killed him, but I’m not allowed.”
“Nor am I,” Everil replied.“If oaths were easy to keep, we wouldn’t have to make them.Besides, last week you wanted to murder the mail carrier.”
“You’re sure that it’s the brownie?”Antonio asked, looking at Aultyr.Who clearly hadn’t losthisappetite.“It’d suck to go after the wrong guy.”
Declan blinked, surprised into silence.Itwouldn’t, was the thing.Declan had sought an excuse to kill Nimai for over a century.He’d not mourn the man.
“It’s him.”Bo shifted toward Everil, the kelpie’s arm curling over his shoulders without hesitation.“He’s a psychotic fucking asshole who sees a problem and tries to kill it.He teaches through pain and doesn’t include kidnapping and psychological torture in his definition of ‘harm.’Probably thinks that offing Declan would do you both a favor.”
Everil drew Bo in closer, murmuring something too low for Declan to hear.The human shook his head a little, swallowing hard, and leaned further into Everil’s embrace.Antonio watched them, his expression unreadable.
“Gossip’s not worth a finder’s fee,” Aultyr said after a beat, mild, as if he hadn’t stared hard at each of them as they spoke.Those eyes were on Antonio, then.“People like him, they’re why the Monarchs kept their doors open.”
“Hear he’s been trying to pass something to compel all parents of would-be changelings to deliver their babies to the Council, instead of the mortal realm.”Harke smiled coldly.“To make sure they go to ‘appropriate’ human families.No exchange needed.”
“It wouldn’t suck,”no one said.They didn’t need to use those words.
“Got it,” Antonio said.Declan couldn’t decipher the tangle of him through the bond.Only blood, dried and flaking in the sun.“Don’t think I’m much use for this sorta shit.”
“Antonio?”Declan wasn’t even sure what he was asking.
“I’m fine,” Antonio replied, with a human’s facility at lying.He pushed his chair back and reached for his plate, still heaped high.“Someone should start cleaning up.Good for that, at least.”
No one spoke, as he fled to the kitchen.And Declan, coward that he was, watched him in helpless silence.
“Fucking fae,” Antonio hadn’t replied.He didn’t need to, not with the door shutting quietly behind him.Declan, now one of those fucking fae, killing to not be killed.As if Nimai’s treatment of him in their home hadn’t been reason enough.
Defend himself in the moment, and Antonio’s gaze would stay on him, unwavering.Take measures to keep them alive, sully his claws, and be greeted with silence.Distance.Would he prefer Declan continue to face knives in the dark?
“I’ll go help.”Bo stood, leaning in to kiss the kelpie.He took a moment to poke Talia’s head gently.“Don’t spy, kid.I’m trusting you.”
Aultyr had the good sense to wait until the door shut behind Bo before he spoke.
“Thought he’d lived with fae before.”
“Not like this.”Declan studied Everil, refusing to hesitate.“Do you wish to protest as well?I’d hear it, if so.”
“I would protest that it falls to you, but I can take no direct action.”Everil glanced over his shoulder to the closed door, then back again.“I wish I could be glad of it, that this might end.”
Declan shook his head.“You loved him.I understand.”
He couldn’t conceivehow, but nevertheless.And perhaps Everil’s only protest being a lack of partaking soothed his own tension enough to be able to say so.Even the talk of not being entirely glad of it didn’t carry the same hurtful reproach as Antonio’s departure.
