“Um, yeah. Of a sort.” He did not want to get into the technological weirdness of the fair folk. “Anyway, if we get one shield and one hoodie, he can make four others.”
“And what is he adding to them?”
“What? Nothing—”
“Bullshit.” Josh blew out a breath. “That’s incredibly stupid. Fairy deals—”
“It’s not like that!” Nero huffed, praying it was true. “Bitterroot owed me one. I helped him out once.”
“Time travel is not a small favor.”
“And what I did wasn’t a small favor either!”
Josh leaned back against his seat and stared blankly out the front windshield. “So it’s not an Omega 13, it’s a whole Star Trekreboot, dead planet Vulcan and all.”
Nero turned to him. “I have no idea how to answer that.”
Josh waved it away with a depressed sigh. “This Bitter guy owed you, right? He didn’t ask anything in return?”
Not exactly. Nero didn’t say the words out loud, but his face must have given the answer away, because Josh abruptly pointed at his chest.
“I knew it! What did you promise him?”
Nero’s hands fidgeted on the steering wheel. There was no going back now. He might as well tell it all. “After the mulligan, no matter what happens, I go work for him.”
“For how long?”
Nero didn’t answer. He didn’t like thinking about it, but if it meant his team survived, it was worth the sacrifice. It was worth a thousand times the sacrifice. He just hadn’t expected to meet Josh before he left the mortal realm for Fairyland. And he hadn’t expected to fall so hard for the guy.
But fairy deals had to be honored. The alternative was always worse, as in skin-burning-off-for-eternity worse. And that was one of the nicer possibilities. “How long?” Josh repeated.
“A year for every day that the mulligan stays available. Payable whether or not I use the portal.”
“But it’s been weeks.”
Nero nodded. “Six weeks and six days. The fairies have a thing for the number seven, so at seven weeks the portal closes, whether I use it or not, and either way—”
“You’re living the rest of your natural life in servitude to the fae.”
“Actually, it’s natural and unnatural. If I die before the contract is up, they’ll resurrect me as something….” He shuddered. “Something unpleasant, and I’ll keep going.”
“Wonderful.” The sarcasm was heavy in Josh’s voice, and Nero rounded on him in fury.
“Stop with the judgment already. I don’t need it, and frankly, you’re wrong. I don’t regret my choice for a second. Not a goddamned second. And I’d do it again if it was a hundred years for every day. They are my pack. I’d do anything for them.Anything.”
“Even give up the rest of your life—”
“Yes.”
“Give up a new pack—”
Nero winced. He hadn’t counted on finding friends, much less a new pack in the trainees. “Yes.”
“Me.”
Nero looked down at his hands. He didn’t have to say the word yes—they both heard it loud and clear in his silence.
“Well, I guess I understand why you broke up with me today.”
