Chapter Five
Robin
Robin re-entered the dining room alone. That’d been one of his terms. Zyr kept his ass in the kitchen until Robin came to get him. Frankly, Everil should give him a ribbon for that one. It was the only way that Dinam was leaving Banyan alive.
It wasn’t that Robin liked Dinam. But, Declan had said that the asshole’s bond was useful. Robin liked Bo and his friends being alive. And he really didn’t feel like seeing a corpse. That meant keeping Zyr from murdering the ever-living, deep-fried hell out of a certain cat-sith.
The ‘meeting’ was about the same as when they’d left it.
People talking over people, others murmuring, hissing, and the noticeable lack of a sluagh’s deep rumble.
As soon as Robin stepped into view, they all went silent.
Door went click, and Robin fell under the scrutiny of a fourteen person boardroom from hell, sending a warning thrill of surprise and wary suspicion down his spine.
Even Teddai was quiet, their pink-tinted teeth on display in a grin.
“He’s agreed to limited access to his library,” Robin said into the silence. Then paused, as Dinam scoffed, to look the cat-sith in his stupid face. “If you have a thing for interrupting people, stop.”
“Hardly a thing,” Dinam said, smug in a way Robin sincerely doubted was warranted. “I’m just wondering about the abrupt change in his tune. That’s all. Beithir aren’t known to be generous without immense persuasion."
Robin stared at him, only to get an oily, pleased smile in return. The man had to be suicidal or unable to read a room. Right? Insinuating that Robin had traded sex for the library in front of Bo and Everil was beyond stupid. His family. Heads of the House Dinam was currently sitting inside.
Bo started to snarl something, but Robin cut him off with a look.
“If you think fifteen minutes of silence is a sign of a fuck mindblowing enough to get access to a beithir’s hoard, you need to apologize to everyone you’ve ever slept with.
” Robin kept his voice flat and sharp. Unimpressed.
“I’m almost embarrassed for you. You couldn’t have waterboarded that information out of me. ”
Admittedly, Robin had decided he and Zyr would need to fuck in the library. In his defense—though Robin didn’t need a defense, thanks—Zyr was hot and talked about Jung and offered up a library because he wanted to ‘learn Robin.’ Closed his eyes when told and had a sharp edge to his humor.
Dinam didn’t need to know any of that. Dinam just needed to sit there like he was as red crept up his neck, and Taibe—poor woman, Robin felt so bad for her if they boned—stared at Robin, one of her hands at her chest. Pearl clutching, without the pearls.
“Dinam is unseelie,” Spider broke in, smooth as silk. “As are the rest of the fae in this room. Except you, of course, Judah.” He flashed the ghillie dhu a smile before turning his attention back to Robin. “Any assumptions as to your sexual prowess are likely meant as a compliment.”
“Asking for pointers is preferable,” Robin snapped.
“And now Dinam’s been enlightened to that. We all appreciate a mindblowing fuck.” Spider smiled, all teeth and no malice. “Judah, I presume, included.”
Judah blushed prettily at that, flushing gold. Metara murmured something in his ear, and drew a small smile from him.
“Unseelie aren’t the only ones allowed to enjoy themselves,” Judah said, just barely audible, still blushing.
Aultyr smirked at him. Nudged the seelie, which only set Judah to blushing more.
“Christ, can we not get off topic again?” That was from Antonio, his arm casually draped over Declan’s shoulders. “Ask for pointers in your own time.”
“I’m told I’m a great teacher for beginner students.” Robin grinned, and made sure it had teeth too.
“What’s the catch, Robin?” Antonio asked, demonstrating one of the many things Robin appreciated about him. He could be counted on to keep things halfway sane, no matter what the greaser said about being batshit. “With the dragon.”
“For some baffling reason, he doesn’t feel like hanging out with a group of people that called him a traitor.
So the guest list is limited. Just me, and ‘the Solstice Kings, the Hollow, and the Hound of the Wild Hunt.’” Robin nodded to each in turn.
He absolutely used air quotes. Possibly rolled his eyes a little.
Declan blinked, brows furrowed. “Me? Not Mother?”
“Voids, no,” Aisling said immediately, wrinkling her nose. “Zyr and I get along because we don’t collect the same treasures. Is that all, Robin?”
“All you’ve got to worry about for this,” Robin replied.
“What do you think, Murderpunk?” Antonio watched Declan, his fingers tapping lightly on the sluagh’s shoulder. “Got everyone on the same page about how to handle the Monarchs, at least.”
“Slit their fucking throats,” whispered the creepy-cool little murder-machine manticore, their intense eyes simultaneously dark and bright. Cool name, cool tail, sounded like a desert wind. Robin was jealous.
“Yeah. That.” Antonio kept his eyes on Declan. He tended to do that, Robin had noticed, when things got too ‘fucking fae’ for him to handle. “And we’re all agreed that the heirs probably need to be dealt with as well.”
“Not probably,” said Taibe, pretty nose wrinkling in disgust. “Kesk and Veroni are worse. And they would love a chance at the throne.”
“Definitely, then,” Antonio said, still looking at Declan. “Table the rest and see about getting a library card?”
Declan nodded, slow, dark lips pursed. “I doubt anyone else we trust will be in possession of the knowledge we seek.”
“They won’t,” Aisling said firmly. “If anyone living has a more comprehensive library than Zyr, they’re no one I’ve heard named.”
“Party of six it is, then.”
“That’s some absolute void-fucked bullshit.” Teddai straightened up in their chair, frowning. “What happened to putting all our chips in, huh?”
“I don’t like this either.” Metara studied Robin long enough that he braced himself for an argument. Then the siren looked down at Judah, and sighed, all fondness. “But it’s best to avoid a shouting match when we have a cu-sith among us. Two days, and we meet again? All of us, including Zyr.”
Harke smirked. It was the first expression Robin saw on the cu-sith in the whole ten minutes he’d known him. And, seeing it, Robin made another mental note to look into cu-sith shouting matches.
Robin bit his tongue to keep from agreeing then and there. This wasn’t his meeting. He’d come to take fucking notes. He wasn’t about to become the de facto schedule maker or start looking like a yes person to the siren.
So, he looked to Everil and Bo. Their House. Their meeting. And, in the end, their call on the terms Zyr agreed to. Everil met Robin’s gaze and, shockingly, held it.
Times like this, Robin remembered his not-really-brother-in-law was a bloodthirsty death horse who had killed for Bo without batting an eye.
“Robin?” the kelpie asked. “Does that suit?”
“It suits. Two days, all of us. Including Zyr.”
“I presume we can expect him to be held in some kind of check?” Dinam asked.
Teddai opened their mouth to speak, only to shut it with a snap as Abrhail leaned in, whispering something. It left both of them snickering and looking at Dinam like sharks scenting blood in the water.
“No,” Robin put all the weight of his Shut Up, You’re Violating HR Policy And Federal Laws bite into the word.
Because seriously, fuck that guy. “He’s not been leashed.
Expect him to react to how he’s treated.
And next time, I don’t bother to keep alive whoever’s calling for a beithir’s hoard to be invaded.
I care about exactly two of you enough to step in at all for, and if you’re wondering if you’re on that list, that means you aren’t.
I’m going to trust everyone’s clear on that. ”
“Oh aye,” Declan murmured, smirking. “Crystal.”
Dinam, thankfully, kept his mouth shut. And left.
The static and thoughts of lightning came back as soon as Zyr joined them.
Six, instead of sixteen, the room already rearranged to fit.
Robin asked Faerie for a pillow and not to be distracted by the crack of lightning in his head.
The other weird magical things had faded when the ten people not invited to the cool kids party filtered out.
Robin picked his spot and shoved the chair next to him out a few inches towards Zyr. With the table officially an oval, Declan and Antonio to one side, Bo and Everil at the other, he wasn’t about to make the beithir sit at the far end on his lonesome again.
Zyr sat without comment, but Robin felt his tail wrap around one of the legs of Robin’s chair, the barest brush of pressure at his heel before it settled.
Clingy dragon. Not that Robin minded.
“Mother asked me to tell you to expect a delivery to your home by morning,” Declan said to Zyr as they settled into their new spots. “I presume it will include some book or scroll to make up for dragging you here.”
“She has some fascinating pre-convergence texts on bonding,” Zyr answered, looking between Declan and Antonio. “Which, I imagine, she no longer has great use for. You may tell her that the only cat she claims ownership over is that monster of hers.”
Robin glanced sidelong at Zyr, watching him with a razor thin smile, and caught the cheeky bastard glancing back.
“I don’t imagine she does, no.” Declan smiled like a cat himself. One full of something, and whether it was shit or cream, Robin couldn’t say. Likely both. “Though I’d not say a word against you taking the creature off her hands.”
“Puck never shreds my clothes,” Robin interjected. “Maybe try not calling him a creature.”
“I was plenty kind when he didn’t destroy my trousers.”