Florian shook his head. “Don’t say that. I think you have it much harder. And, you know, as long as things are better for both of us, why compare?”
“Why compare indeed?” Tatiana echoed softly, nodding. For a moment she was silent, then she added, “Jerah would be very proud of what you’ve accomplished, Florian. Learning about the Arrows and finding their locations was his life’s work. I can only imagine how happy he would be that it’s helped you so much that you’re more than halfway there in just a few months.”
Florian’s smile faltered, a hot surge of emotion washing through him. It was hard to describe. He wanted his father to be proud of him, of course, but it was all mixed up with his complicated feelings about Jerah. He managed to reply, “Thank you.”
Tatiana seemed to sense that it was not a conversation he wanted to continue, though; so she took in a deep breath, let it out, then met his gaze again with a firm, less-sentimental smile. “Alright, let’s get all the boring stuff out of the way now. I have some merchant requests that need your approval...”
Florian lost the rest of the afternoon to all the busywork that Tatiana could not take off his plate, which was tedious, but not especially difficult. Then he met up with Kade and Koji again for dinner—the two had been obviously sparring through most of the afternoon, looking tired both from the exercise and the jet lag. When Florian settled down, he noticed several bruises along Koji’s arms, making him frown.
“Jeez, Kade, you didn’t even try to take it easy on him?” he said. He felt Kade huff, but it was Koji who interjected quickly,
“It’s alright. I told him not to take it easy on me.”
“He did say that,” Kade agreed. Florian sighed, shaking his head with an amused smile, but didn’t press. Exhaustion was catching up to him, and all he wanted to do was eat, shower, and sleep; but he needed to talk with the two of them first.
“I’ve been thinking about what we should do next,” he said. “There are three more Arrows left, and two are near the kraken kingdom. One looks like it’s on a land mass, so I think we can get that one with just the three of us, but... One looks like it’s probably underwater, in which case, wedoneed help from the kraken shifters.”
He paused to take a quick bite of his food. Kade and Koji were still both watching him attentively, but in stark contrast to each other: Koji was eating as he listened while Kade sat up straight and motionless next to him, all his focus on Florian.
“So I was thinking we could take a few days or a week here to sleep off the worst of the time difference, and so I can catch up on everything that I need to deal with here,” Florian continued. “Then we can go back to Coral Shores, get a flight to Norway where the curtain to the kraken kingdom is, and head over there. What do you guys think?”
“That sounds good to me,” Kade agreed.
“Where’s Coral Shores?” Koji asked, frowning.
“Oh,” Florian said, realizing he must not have mentioned it to Koji before. “It’s the city on Earth where I live—well, where I grew up, at least. We’ve been staying with my uncle there as a sort of base of operations when we’re on Earth, I guess.”
“And Norway is another city?”
“It’s a country,” Florian laughed, shaking his head. “Like another kingdom.”
“Got it,” Koji replied, nodding, though internally Florian was trying not to laugh—he wasn’t sure if Kojididget it, but he couldn’t blame the dragon shifter. He was as sheltered about Earth as Florian had been about the Veil, and there was a lot more about Earth to learn, it seemed. “Well, everything I’ve heard about King Torsten makes him sound just as difficult to work with as my father.”
“I know a little about him, too,” Kade said. “The wolf kingdom is nearest to the kraken kingdom, so we have some contact with them every so often. I haven’t met Torsten, but from what I’ve heard, that sounds... accurate to me.”
“So we might not get a very warm reception in the kraken kingdom,” Koji said. “But I guess we need to at least try. You’re the ones who have been doing this longer, so whatever you think is best, I trust your judgment.”
Florian smiled gratefully. He hadn’t expected either of them to put up a fuss, but it was still a relief to have everything settled quickly.
“Alright. Let’s spend a week here so Tatiana and I can take care of everything, and we can rest, then we’ll head back to Earth and go from there,” he said. The other two nodded, then Florian hastily finished his dinner before heading back to his room with Kade to finally sleep.
The rest of the week passed largely uneventfully. It took a few days, but Florian managed to get his sleep schedule back in line with the Winter Court’s time. He usually had at least one meeting with Tatiana and other fae, like merchants or community leaders each day, but Tatiana had kept things running smoothly in his absence and made it easy to pick up the duties expected of him. Kade and Koji sparred every day, too, but Koji enjoyed going on long walks alone through the gardens; and if Kade wasn’t sparring with Koji, he was almost certainly at Florian’s side.
The day before they were to leave for Earth, the two of them were in the study, poring over maps and Jerah’s notes to get the best understanding of where the Arrows would be, when Florian felt Kade’s eyes on him intensely. He looked up, smiling; but Kade’s expression was serious, and his smile faltered.
“Everything okay?” he asked nervously. Kade nodded slowly, then sighed.
“I just keep thinking about...” Kade started, then trailed off. His gaze faltered as he considered what he wanted to say. Florian set down the map that he was holding to give Kade his full attention, waiting. “Florian, I just want to protect you. More than anything.”
Florian blinked, color rising in his face. “I—I know. You do protect me.”
Kade shook his head. “I don’t know. It seems like most of the timeyou’rethe one protectingme.”
Florian fought back a laugh. That had happened a few times, certainly, but their abilities were just different. The way he kept Kade safe was nothing like the way Kade protected him. And for a long while, it had been Kade who was doing the protecting—it was fairly recent that Florian could protect Kade in any significant manner. And it was mainly the shroud, which only fae could produce.
“I... I understand,” he said slowly, thinking over what he wanted to say. “I know you want to protect me. And you do. I mean, even with those lion-dogs, you took out three in the time it took me to handle one. But I want you to be safe, too. Of course I do. So if I can do that, I will.”
Kade’s lips pressed together, and Florian got the distinct sense that it was not exactly the response he had wanted.
