Chapter Twenty-One
Antonio
The last time Antonio’d walked into a fae party, he’d been eleven and glued to Calloway’s side like a good little pet. There’d been rainbows. Antonio remembered that. One of Calloway’s cousins had pushed him into a ruby pool, the viscous, too-sweet liquid filling his mouth and nose.
This time, the theme seemed to be clouds.
Mist covered the ground, as they arrived on the allotment of House Acacia, and everything was hazy and muffled by the fog.
Talia was on Antonio’s right, buried deep in her hoodie.
Their getaway driver. Declan to his left, tension ringing through the bond.
That made sense. They were here to kill someone.
Antonio focused on breathing. He was fine.
Declan might die before the night was out.
He was fine.
The fog cleared enough to reveal a mansion made all of soft edges and faded colors.
Inside, it was much the same. Even the furniture had a wispy, insubstantial look.
The hosts, Antonio was able to spot from Declan’s descriptions.
Yenah and Charil, Councilors and moderates, looked down at their guests from the top of the stairs. One of them lifted an ironic eyebrow.
Pale colors and glittering fae. Occasionally glittering. This crowd, like those at the parties Antonio remembered, was mostly seelie. While many of the unseelie Antonio had met seemed to prefer either human fabrics or faerie-weave, the seelie leaned heavily on glamour.
Either that or they really enjoyed public nudity.
“Enough dicks out to shoot a nudie calendar,” he muttered to Declan. Better to make a joke than to think.
Declan laughed, low and rasping, sidestepping a stark-naked faun with the barest nod of acknowledgment.
Then he frowned, anger flickering through the bond before his expression went blank. Antonio followed his glance, expecting to see Nimai. But it was Calloway, skittering toward them, then stopping just outside of reach.
Antonio’s pulse kicked up, throat going tight.
He wasn’t twelve. Wasn’t Calloway’s pet.
There were no laughing cousins around Calloway, their smiles falsely kind.
Just the single wisp, soft eyed and cringing.
The man had ruined Antonio’s life. Brought him to a world with as many horrors as wonders, then abandoned him with the memories of all he’d seen.
Antonio reached for the bond, for the tattoo sting of Declan’s aura. The smell of woodsmoke and lilacs, drowning out everything else. He was fine.
“You need to go,” Calloway hissed in an urgent whisper. “You can’t be here. Go.”
“Lovely to see you, too,” Declan replied.
“Calloway,” Antonio started. And then realized he had nothing to say.
Luckily, Talia didn’t have that problem.
“Oh, this is him?” she asked. “And with ominous threats, even! We can be wherever I want. Just try and stop me, little wispling.”
“Threats? I–” More than anything, Calloway looked scared. And he had saved Declan. Sort of. Eventually. “It’s not safe. He’s not safe here.”
“Declan isn’t safe anywhere. You got anything more specific?”
“You should have heard about– I made sure you would hear who had sent the…”
“Assassins,” Declan supplied, his hand brushing Antonio’s. Steadying him. Later, they’d talk.
Later. If Declan wasn’t dead.
“He’s here. And his friends. And you should leave, because he’s dangerous. I’m not– This isn’t a threat, I swear.” The last, Calloway aimed at Talia, shoulders hunched up towards his ears for a split second. “Antonio said he wants the sluagh. I’m not going to try to hurt him.”
“A third time?” Declan interjected.
Calloway swallowed again. “I thought you… Yes.”
It was hard not to feel sorry for Calloway. The softness in his eyes. The helpless, almost fluttering way he spoke. Christ, if the wisp had gotten his way, Antonio would have broken him in a week, without even meaning to.
“Oh, puppy.” Talia crossed to Calloway’s side and patted him lightly on the arm. “Don’t worry, wispling. They’re just grumpy about all the attempted murders and kidnappings. But you’ve got that out of your system. Haven’t you?”
“I– Yes. I didn’t mean to. Really.”
“See. We’re all friends now. So, why don’t you tell us where Nimai is, so that Declan can kill him? My feet are already killing me in these shoes.”
As Talia was wearing the same beaten-up tennis shoes she always seemed to, Antonio spared her a sideways look.
“Kill him?” Calloway asked, brow furrowed. “You can’t… He’s dangerous.”
The real fear in Calloway’s voice was the last thing Antonio needed to hear. Still, the plan was the plan.
“Yeah, that’s the point. He’s not gonna stop until he’s dealt with.”
“You’ve already gone to the trouble of getting us his name. Now we merely need his location.”
Calloway edged closer to Talia and earned a smile for his trouble.
“I saw him upstairs, a little away from the hosts. He’s with his sidhe friend.”
“Kesk? That sidhe?” Declan asked, knuckles continuing to brush against Antonio’s.
“I think so? Yes. The one whose brother’s–” Calloway glanced to either side, then lowered his voice. “The one whose brother had a human father.”
“Hyacinth’s an old friend,” Declan said, dry as ash. “I don't suppose he’s here?”
“I didn't look. Maybe. It's a party.” He was looking at Antonio again with those huge, sad eyes. “I… I really was trying to help. But all I ended up doing was proving everyone right about me.”
What the hell was he supposed to say to that?
“People are only right about you until you make them wrong.” Talia patted Calloway’s arm again.
For all that she remained a chubby, diminutive teenager with a spark of mischief in her eyes, there was something about her amused, dismissive manner that felt much much older.
“I’m sure you’re not the first fae to try to murder Declan.
Seriously, I’m surprised any of you live more than a century. ”
“I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. I thought I was saving Antonio. The other ones were sent by– Not by me.”
“Sure,” Antonio said, just to get the guy to stop looking at him. It didn’t work. “We still good, Murderpunk? This Kesk gonna be a problem?”
“For our purposes, Kesk is a boon. He’s almost guaranteed to have his bond and entourage nearby.
And Nimai cannot afford to lose face in front of so valuable a friend.
” Declan murmured, his narrowed eyes on Calloway.
“However, Kesk could be a problem for little wisps who talk about how his mother consorts with humans. I can’t decide if you’re sillier than I thought or have a scrap of bravery in you. ”
Calloway blushed lavender. “Even I know to toss up a distraction ward.”
“And that,” Declan said, “is how some of us survive past a hundred. Even if we insist on being fucking fae about it.”
“What else would we be?” Calloway asked with a frown.
“People, puppy,” Talia replied. “You and the rest could try being people.”
Antonio wanted to bolt. To drag Declan along with him and be anywhere else.
Somewhere without naked fucking fae everywhere he looked and the promise of blood in the air.
The garage, Declan with his glamour down, and the safety of iron around both of them.
Declan sitting on the hood of the Mustang, and Antonio kneeling between his spread knees.
Da. Da. Da.
Yeah.
Wanted that.
But this, this, was his life. Was Declan’s life. There’d be no getting away from it, and if the idea of Declan fighting made him sick, the idea of him being hunted was worse. They had to do this now.
Fuck, but he didn’t want to lose him.
“Sounds like now’s as good a time as any,” he said, with a nod to the stairs. “Let’s get this over with before Nimai hears we’re around.”
“Let’s,” Declan agreed, his gaze raking up the length of the stairs. “Talia, if you bring a wisp home, Bo will have my hide.”
“Dad says it’s good for me to make friends,” Talia replied. Still, she let go of Calloway’s arm. “You should stay down here, wispling. This next bit will be very fucking fae.”
“No kidding,” Antonio agreed. He touched Declan’s arm, just a brush of reassurance, whether seeking or taking, and reluctantly glanced at Calloway.
“Be careful,” the wisp said.
He looked so wounded. And so like he was still the kid that Antonio had imagined himself in love with. Antonio wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive him. But he wasn’t much for leaving things unsaid.
“Look. This, today? You did alright. We’re not square. But I got a few centuries on the clock now. You figure out what side you stand on, treat me and Declan with respect, maybe in a couple … hundred … years, we grab a beer.”
“I would like that,” Calloway answered, hands fluttering like nervous birds. “Goodbye, Antonio.”
“Later,” Antonio replied and turned away.
Whatever he’d been in Antonio’s past, Calloway now was just an opening act. The headliner was waiting.
“Well, that was simple,” Declan said, as they reached the top of the stairs. “Nine o'clock.”
Standing where Declan indicated were nearly a dozen fae. There was Nimai, the brownie towering over most of the others, but no one else in the group was familiar. All seelie, all beautiful and strange, all with the stuck-up air of the eternally superior.
“Not sure I’ve ever seen a group of more punchable faces,” Antonio admitted.
“We’re agreed on that.” Declan laughed, though the sound had a wary sharpness. “The qilin with the orange scales is Kylan, Nimai’s very appropriate new bond. Kesk and Veroni are the sidhe and the sylph. He’s the ringleader, but she’s the one with two brain cells to rub together.”
Antonio had all of half a second to take the group in.
Alabaster Kesk, looking unnervingly like an angel with his gold ringlets and white wings.
Flowing, lovely Veroni all soft grays. Both of them, to his eyes, were stark naked.
At least Nimai and his bond, whose orange scales glinted like jewels on his red skin, wore Faerie weave.
This would be bad enough without a naked duel.