Chapter Thirteen
Antonio
Sprawling hills and purple-red flowers. A winding stone path, through it all. Bunches of long grass pushed up between the rocks and around the flowers, dotted the bases of the few trees. Far below, Antonio could just make out a large lake, glinting in the early dawn-tinted light.
Common land, Declan had explained. A place for the sluagh to clear his head after the shit they’d learned. And Antonio? He was only too happy to be away from everyone.
Dead unseelie babies and haunted-eyed, irritable dragons. What could he even say? Antonio didn’t have a fucking clue. The beats were familiar, human history had plenty of cruelty.
But this was different. Faerie was, in some ways, so small. Not billions of people. Millions? If that. It wasn’t like he’d counted. Small enough for one council reporting to two monarchs. Less “Earth” and more “Iceland.”
Small, and maybe it was getting smaller. The unseelie had lost their name, and with every generation, there were fewer than the one before. Humans were being treated less as pets and more as a plague.
Not long ago, Antonio would have been happy to hear about the veil closing. No more children lured away into the dark. He still didn’t like the idea of Faerie feeding on humans.
But not liking a world didn’t mean he wanted it to disappear. And there was Declan. Who was trying so hard. Who was the target of a fucking hit. Who needed help but had gotten Antonio.
Shit.
Antonio wrapped an arm around Declan’s shoulders and stroked the man’s arm. Didn’t say anything for a while. Just walked and waited, feeling the knot of his bond’s emotions slowly ease.
“What Zyr said,” he finally managed, when they both seemed to be breathing easy. “About the kids.”
Because, Christ. You didn’t hurt kids.
“They say seelie births are more natural. Two unseelie, that’s asking for a stillbirth.
Few wish to risk it. Seelie and unseelie?
Life breeds truer and death claims its own.
” There was a flatness to Declan’s voice that hurt to hear.
“No one questions it. Less of us every century and no one’s even noticed. No one’s doing anything.”
Antonio pulled Declan a little closer. Stopped walking to just hold on. Declan curled in, head to Antonio’s chest, and held on back. Antonio wasn’t stupid enough to think he could make Declan feel better. There was no fixing this. But he could hold him. He could do this much.
“You’re gonna do something. We’ll do it together. Got an argument for the Council right? Learned what we needed to.”
“Aye. If a human can sit as Monarch, then one can be a Councilor. Fancy yourself a–”
Antonio never got to learn what Declan thought he might fancy. A shadowy figure. A hard jerk. Declan torn from his arms. Antonio tried to hold on.
He did try.
He failed.
“Hello cousin,” said the hissing thing that held Declan. “I hear you’ve been stepping out of line.”
Antonio sprang forward. Toward the strange fae. Toward Declan. The air went hard, between them. A glamour he couldn’t see. Couldn’t find his way around.
On the other side, sickly oily smoke poured from the ground. Declan struggled. Antonio banged on the wall he knew was there.
Useless. He couldn’t fight. Shouldn’t fight. The fae were too powerful, and he had always, always been powerless. The truth of it felt like a physical thing, dragging Antonio down, trying to push him to his knees.
You can’t save him. You shouldn’t even try. Give up. Give way. Let it happen.
Fuck that.
“Declan, shit shit shit. Hold on. Fuck.” He felt along the wall, trying to think. Last time, it hadn’t been just the fish ladies. Last time there’d been– “Calloway. Calloway, you fucker!”
He whirled, and there he was, glittering and pretty, with sad eyes and a determined expression.
“I won’t ask you to wed me nor bond with me,” he said, all in a rush.
Which Antonio might’ve been relieved to hear if someone wasn’t tearing into Declan while the fucker spoke.
“All I ask is that you listen to me, Antonio. Let me take you to your home. Or somewhere safe. Sluagh, those like him, they can twist minds. Even a Hollow’s.
He’s not what you think. Come with me. We can sort out the lies you’ve been told from the truth. ”
A muffled scream and Antonio glanced sharply over his shoulder. Declan fought against the other fae, the pair of them wreathed in that thick smoke. A snarl from Declan. A laugh from his attacker. Claws sank into Declan’s pale skin.
Then the noises stopped, though Antonio could still see. See Declan bleeding. And Antonio couldn’t do a fucking thing to help him.
No. He could. Because this was Calloway’s doing. And Calloway was an idiot, a starry-eyed child who’d ruined Antonio’s life without even realizing it. If Antonio could just get through to him. Reason with him.
He had to.
Never mind the anger. The fear. Declan’s blood was so damned bright against his bone-white skin.
Antonio turned back to Calloway, the oh-so-pretty wisp who he’d loved when he was too stupid to know better. His hand went to his wrist. Thick metal and briars under his fingertips.
Right. Okay.
So, how the hell was he supposed to convince the bastard?
“Calloway.” Antonio did his best to keep his tone level. At least he wasn’t shouting. “All Declan’s done is try to protect me. From fae. From you.”
“Me? Antonio, you love me. I love you. Didn’t you read my letter?”
Mail. They were standing around talking about mail while Declan fought for his life. Antonio bit the inside of his lip and didn’t scream.
“I read the fucking letter. The one where you said you were coming to take me back. That’s when I called Declan. I called him. You say he’s the bad guy? He isn’t the one who locked me in a room ‘for my own good.’ He’s never left me trapped and starving.”
“I never…” Calloway looked away, pouting and maybe that’d worked once. It sure as hell didn’t now. “I was a kid.”
“So was I,” Antonio snapped.
“It’s different now.”
There wasn’t time for this. He needed Calloway to open his eyes.
To see. Right. Antonio needed to show him.
Fumbling and awkward in the rush, Antonio grabbed the collar of his shirt. Pulled it off in one hurried movement.
“Look. Look.” He turned so that Calloway could see the ink up his sides, on his back and arms and collarbones.
Turned and saw Declan. Blood dripped from the sluagh’s face.
A clawed hand held his thin throat. All Antonio could do to help him was turn away again.
Face Calloway with his skin, his story, bared.
“These aren’t new. Declan didn’t trick me into getting them.
Bells. Blackberry and nettle. Scissors and horseshoes.
I work with iron. What the fuck gave you the idea I wanted to come back? ”
“I thought… I thought perhaps you were cross I was waiting until things were perfect for you here.” His voice broke a little as he said it. “So you’d not be sent away again. I left you gifts to apologize, to show you I still meant what I said about us being together.”
“And when I didn’t follow along like a good pet, you figured you’d get your Council involved? Kill my bond? Fuck, Calloway, you never even asked. You never asked. You always just showed up and took me.”
And Antonio hadn’t minded when he was a kid. But he sure as hell minded now.
Calloway’s eyes were wet as he stepped closer. Glittering blue fingers brushed over the bells at Antonio’s collarbone, and he managed not to flinch.
“Nimai said that the sluagh twisted you. He said he knew him, and he had seen what he was capable of…” Calloway’s voice broke then, and there were tears on his cheeks.
His touch fell a little lower, so Antonio could feel it over his heart.
“You swear you chose this? You went to him? Swear on whatever you love the most?”
The sense of Declan was getting quieter, the rage fading into blankness. Fuck fuck fuck.
No. Not now. He couldn’t lose it now. He needed Calloway to believe him. He’d spent his whole fucking life trying to make people believe him. Only Declan ever had. And he’d lose Declan if he couldn’t do this now.
“I swear it,” he said. “I swear it on my name. On Declan’s name.
On my nieces. I swear to you that when you left, they told me I was crazy.
They sent me away, and you didn’t come for me.
No one came for me. Not then. Not later, when I was so fucking angry, so sick of being called a liar, that I decided I’d do whatever I wanted.
Not when I spent five fucking years in a box.
I swear to you that every fucking nightmare I’ve had for the past twenty years has been about Faerie.
Because you played games, but I was the fucking toy.
” Too far, but the words wouldn’t stop. “And you didn’t come when I was screaming in the dark, either.
But when every nightmare came true, when I was ready to kill myself before I went with you?
Declan came. Declan fucking showed up. And he’s torn strips out of anyone who’s tried to fuck with me since.
He is everything I care about in this fucked-up world, and you are trying to take him from me. ”
Calloway drew in on himself and shuddered, all pretty fae sorrow.
Good.
“Oh. I didn’t mean– I’m sorry, Antonio. I can’t stop them but I can– I’m sorry.” He swallowed, wetly, then darted past, toward the wall Antonio couldn’t see. “Don’t touch the smoke.”
His hand rested on air, fingers spread. Oily smoke spilled at his feet. But Antonio could only see Declan, limp in the other fae’s hold.
To hell with “don’t touch,” Antonio was already moving as Calloway grabbed Declan’s shadowy attacker. Pulled him into nothingness. The both of them gone in a breath.
Declan crumpled to the ground. A puppet with cut strings. Deep furrows cut into pale skin, blood on dead grass that had so recently been beautiful. Antonio forgot all about Calloway, bolting to Declan’s side and dropping to his knees.