Both Cain and Talon just stood there for a second, staring.
“I’m serious. I will take him, and I will whisk him away from here and help him be somewhere safe. Don’t you make him angry. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it.” Patterns began to move and swirl under Mercury’s skin.
“Mercury.” Cain held his hands up. “No one’s harmed Talon, not in any way.”
Mercury focused on Talon. “Mate, are you sure? Is everything okay? You can tell me. I heard you. You’re very angry. I will help you.”
Actually, this exact second he was very honored and touched. His mate had come to rescue him from the big bad seer, and that was adorable. “I’m well, but I am glad to see you, mate; we were talking about you.”
That earned him a frown. “Did I do something wrong?”
“Of course not. What could you have possibly done wrong?”
Mercury shrugged. “That’s an excellent question, but you were angry. If you were angry and you were talking about me, then somebody must have done something wrong.”
Mercury did have a point. “Your old keep did something wrong by locking you away, and I found out that someone passed away.”
Mercury’s head tilted. “Who?”
Talon glanced at Cain, who offered Mercury a seat and a sad smile. “I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”
“All right.”
“Xenia passed away, the seer at your old keep.”
“She must have been ancient; she was old the last time I saw her.” Mercury didn’t seem particularly distressed; in all honesty, he seemed like he cared very little. Talon wasn’t sure what that meant.
“Did you know her very well?” Talon asked.
Mercury shook his head. “No? Seers usually stay apart from people. You’re the only one I’ve ever known who didn’t. Of course you’re only the second one I’ve ever known.”
“She’s the one who contacted me to have you saved, Mercury. She wanted you freed.” Cain stared into his hailee’s eyes, so serious. “Do you know why they sent you to the tower?”
Mercury nodded. “I had a lover. Biram. I was supposed to never slide; they said it was dangerous, that it was wrong. He asked me to do it, and I did.”
Talon reached for Mercury’s hand. He didn’t want his lover to feel alone. “Where did you go?”
Mercury stared at him. “He wanted to go home, but when we got there, it was dead. Everything was dead and rotted, the buildings were lost under the water. It was as if a war had happened. It frightened him. It scared me. So he asked me to take him back.
“When we got there, they were waiting for us. They were angry. They took him away, and they told me I had offended the gods themselves. They locked me up in the tower, and I was never allowed to touch anyone again. I don’t think I was supposed to know there was a war, but how can a war be so quiet? That no one would know it? That no one would talk about it afterward?”
His poor hailee. “What happened to Biram?”
“I assume that he went away at some point. I lost my stone—they came and took it from me, hurled it from the window, and let it crash down in there. I like to believe that somewhere it’s still waiting for another dragon.” Mercury tilted his head. “IfBiram comes for me, I do not want him. I’m sorry if he’s waited, but I have found my braaken, my mate, and I won’t give him up.”
Talon hated this because at once he was so pleased that Mercury felt this way, and on the other hand, he was about to have to tell his lover something terrible.
“They found his body. Mercury, they found him dead. He had been killed.”
Mercury’s eyes widened, the silver swirling like clouds on a stormy sky, and his mouth fell open. “How? What happened to him?”
“Someone beat him down, Mercury. Cain said his head had been caved in at the back. I’m so very sorry.”
Tears welled up in Mercury’s eyes. How awful for him. “We were never meant to be mates. I know that. We were just casual lovers, but I did this. I got him killed.”
Talon growled and then he grabbed Mercury and lifted him into his lap. “No, you didn’t. This is not your fault. Murder is never the fault of someone else. It’s the fault of the people who did it.”
Mercury stared up at him. “Are you sure? If I hadn’t slid…”
