Chapter 6
On the one hand, I liked having all of Inkiri’s attention. On the other, this was a lot of PDA, and I was pretty sure we had everyone else’s attention too.
“I really didn’t do anything.” Halfheartedly, I tried to escape his kisses and soft touches, but Inkiri wasn’t having that. My throat was licked and he clicked happily when I submitted to him, letting him pull me against his chest.
Kinnek clicked his tongue. “It thought all protectors know it’s generally a bad idea to cross into a ko circle when it is being used.” He’d come around the circle and was looking at me with sharp eyes.
Donna spluttered. “Now you’re telling me that?”
Kinnek raised his hands. “Ah, apologies, fair Donna. This ko circle wouldn’t have done anything to you, I promise. It’s something that’s rather used to test someone’s abilities before you teach them. Still, protectors should know better.”
“You ever put me in one of these?” Vergis pointed at the circle we were still standing in. He’d snuck up—walked up—behind his dad.
“Of course, Muffin. You did very well, but then, you’re mine, so that was to be expected. I was very proud, and so was your daddy.”
Kinnek smiled at me. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him how he could take my magical abilities away, but then I remembered the stupid blood needs to be bound to blood speech, and I ate my words. I didn’t want to even think about any kind of gross magical ritual.
“You, however,” Kinnek went on when I remained silent, “aren’t such a straightforward case.”
“I…didn’t really do anything. You do get that, right?” I tried to shrug, but Inkiri had me in his arms, his rough tongue tickling my neck. “That voice in my head did all that.”
Kinnek tsked. “Here, see that?” He pointed at some chalk squiggles on Donna’s patio.
They could have been anything—worms, abstract clouds, overcooked noodles.
“Those indicate sacrifice sources and the efficacy with which a mage will be able to utilize them. After Vergis told me about how you used loogas branches to make rain, I added a…what’s that word, a slip knot to the veil or sources of its ilk, and that lit up like fireworks.
Which is what I expect from a Loathly Lady.
If you don’t like being called a Loathly Lady, even though it best describes how you use the power of the land to get things done, consider yourself a…
dispenser of the magic of the land and assorted inanimate objects. ”
Inkiri clicked.
I frowned at Kinnek. “A…dispenser?”
Vergis grinned. “Magic dispenser. I like it. You push, and magic comes out.”
Kinnek nodded. “Yes, although I don’t know about the pushing. You know, Muffin, it does explain how you’ve been able to use his power.”
“It means he’s better than a conduit.” Vergis tilted his head, and father and son eyed me like a pair of ditzy vultures faced with a tasty bone still stuck inside a living person.
“Does that explain why the humans would want Rory?” Inkiri asked, touching on yet another subject I was already more than done with.
Donna clicked her tongue. “I think all you blokes could just give the poor kid some room to breathe. In fact, what was that thing you said about cleaning my porch, Vergis?”
Vergis groaned. “It’s just chalk, you can see that, right?”
“Muffin—”
“The rain’s going to take care of it.” Vergis finished his coffee in one long swig.
“Well, I’m not waiting for rain when there are magic squiggles on my porch. I don’t want your bagu magic to go and mess with my plants, Vergis. C’mon, I’ll show you where the brooms are.”
“But—”
Kinnek gave his son a stern look. “Muffin, you promised Donna you would clean her porch.”
“You promised her I’d do that!”
Kinnek clicked at him. “Oh, sugar cookie, that’s the same thing. Squeaky clean, please. You know I’ll make you do it over if it’s not.”
Vergis glared at me. “Your fault. I hate mopping floors.”
With that, he stomped off after Donna and Wilson.
Inkiri clicked. “Kinnek, can the humans find Rory? I’ve been worried about that since Esaka.”
I pushed at his chest, and after I pointedly wiggled my feet, he set me on the ground.
It made it so I had an easier time taking part in this conversation, not that I thought I had a lot to contribute to it.
Still, this was important. If I really was a danger magnet, I needed to know. For Inkiri’s sake.
“I’ll not use the magic again if that helps,” I said after swallowing around the lump in my throat.
Kinnek’s eyebrows shot up, but I soldiered on.
“I don’t want anything like what happened in Esaka to happen ever again.
Or…like back at the Stone two years ago.
” I looked up at Inkiri and tried my eye batting.
“I want to see the others anyway. I get why people in Esaka would chase us out of town after that attack, but we can find another place back on Aer where we can all just…be, right? Your House maybe? You could go back to being a prince, and then you’d never have to fight again, right? ”
Inkiri looked at me for a long time. It was worrisome. I’d only ever known him as a bagu of action.
When he spoke, his voice was pained. “Sweet thing…” He reached for my wrist and rubbed the inside of it with his thumb.
“We can go back to Esaka if you want that. Hove would be happy to have us, I’m sure.
Delighted, even.” His gaze hardened. “There is much to do close to the border, and I could show you that I am a protector worthy of being your mate.”
Kinnek chuckled. “You two’re missing each other’s subtext, and it is adorable. Inkiri, I don’t think your mate means to criticize your abilities to—”
“Criticize!” I spun on him. “When did I criticize him? He’s the most… The best! Thing. Person! He’s the best person ever, and I don’t know how I got so darn lucky with him. I never criticized him. Did I?”
Kinnek huffed. “When you told him he should never fight again, butter cookie.”
I looked at Inkiri. “No, that’s not what I mean, I just—you don’t have to fight.
I mean, I don’t want you to fight like some chosen one just because some disembodied voice is all weird about blood and whatnot.
I want you to be safe.” I pointed at my neck.
“You promised me all those scarves, remember? Can’t buy me scarves when you go out and fight the cola ash people. ”
Inkiri’s brow furrowed. “Sadir, do you think you need to protect me?”
“Yeah?”
Inkiri sighed, bowing his head so his horns caught the light.
Kinnek whistled. “Before this continues, I have a question, chocolate chip. I gather that voice told you Inkiri was chosen to be your mate?”
Dang it, had I said that out loud? Was my brain giving up on quality control altogether now?
“It’s…it’s not like I know what to believe.”
That was true enough. After all, believing some voice no one else heard wasn’t a healthy thing to do. I was pretty sure none of this magic stuff was anywhere near healthy. Normal, I needed to focus on being normal. With a dash of boring, maybe.
Kinnek sighed. “Well, let’s abandon belief then and go to what we know.
You use the magic of the land and there are people who want that.
This ko circle—” Kinnek tapped the chalk design with a claw that pushed out from his paw shoes.
“—is pretty strongly secured against anyone from the outside picking it up. Assuming we are dealing with human mages who are after you, they might well be able to track you, at least to a point, especially when you’re not at your strongest.
“The cola assholes likely deduced you were headed to Esaka because, for one thing, it’s a very close hop through the veils, and for another, Vergis didn’t have the time to properly disguise how he had folded through the veils when he got you all out of there.
I don’t think they would know how to track you specifically, Rory, and they might not even have the manpower—the mage-power—to spare for it.
Holding on to power in Kankarraz requires them to regularly display the worst of that power to their people, you see.
They’re a cruel regime, and without the proof of that cruelty, they’d begin to fear their own people. ”
Kinnek’s words sent a shiver down my spine. Kankarraz was their home country, Lissir had told me that. I hadn’t really considered that those white mages didn’t just terrorize Inkiri’s—my—people, but also their own. Was it possible to hate the Koa Esher more than I already did?
Inkiri clicked. “We need not worry him with the details of all that, Kinnek.”
Kinnek shrugged. “We might as well, because who knows when he’ll need the knowledge.” He sighed. “That aside, I’m sure you can agree, Inkiri, that it will be best to put some distance between your mate and possible human pursuers.”
Inkiri nodded. “Of course.”
“Does that mean we can finally go back to Aer? With Lissir and Nokim and Fellisse?” I was suddenly hopeful. I really liked Aer. No purple monsters there.
Kinnek shook his head. “Not quite what I had in mind. I was going to suggest staying at our place. That would put you closer to the land, Rory, and Vergis and I will be able to train you without risking you overexerting yourself again. Did Vergis ever tell you that good conduits are trained, just like good mages? With you, that’s even more important, since you’re a dispenser. ”
I frowned. “I really don’t like that word.”
Vergis rounded the corner of the farmhouse, a broom and bucket in his hands. He looked like the old janitor at my school had whenever we’d done anything extravagant, like using confetti, glitter, or paint that needed to be cleaned after the show.
Kinnek shrugged. “We’ll call you Loathly Lady, then.
It doesn’t matter. What matters is, if you find yourself in a fight again, you and the protectors with you need to know what to do about it, and right at this moment, you do not.
None of you. That makes any situation thrice as dangerous as it should be. ”
Inkiri growled. “Kinnek, my mate is soft and has never before trained for fighting. I gave him my word that I would protect him. I don’t want him to fight alongside me.”
My heart swooped. That right there was why I loved my bagu. Inkiri just got me. Or had my back.
Kinnek held his ground though. “Not relevant when you’re attacked.
The way he finds himself connected to you and your sentenmen will always make him use his magic, regardless of what you and your warrior pride dictate, and that is a reality.
You can ignore it at the risk of what you hold most dear, or you can plan for it.
” Then Kinnek looked down at me. “Although, really, it’s your choice, Rory, not your mate’s. ”
Vergis snorted as he slapped the wet mop down on the circle. “Time to not be a princess for once in your life, Princess.”
There was something in Vergis’s voice that made me stop and think before I spoke.
A flicker of that knowledge burned in my mind.
Vergis was scared that I’d eventually get Inkiri and the others killed if I didn’t know what I was doing.
He was certain that the humans weren’t done with their attempts to get to me, nor the Koa Esher.
He knew he was only one person—badass, but no match for an attack like the one that had happened at the Stone.
That made me reconsider. Vergis being scared of something truly unsettled me.
Maybe there was some trick so I’d be able to know when someone was going to get hurt, and if I could just learn that and not much else, then I could make it so no one would end up bleeding or dead again.
Maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to keep everyone safe, and then we could all head back to Aer.
I’d be able to spend the rest of my days on my back in my blue prince’s bed, and there would be ravishing from sunrise to sunset.
I looked at Inkiri’s chest, at his muscular shoulders, all the way up to those horns and his loving eyes. Yeah, I could imagine the ravishing.
“Dude, you look like you’re about to drool.” Vergis swiped at the chalk, which seemed to want to stick.
Kinnek leaned forward to get a better look at my face. “Yes, you really do. Not unheard of when one is freshly mated.”
All of that triggered my millet bean complexion. “Oh, can we—fine. Fine. I’ll learn spells or whatever. I’m good at learning lines, not that I ever got cast in a lead role. Anyway, it’s fine. When do we need to leave?”
Kinnek looked at his son. “Butterscotch, don’t hurry. I believe our Loathly Lady wants his mate’s barb before we leave.”
“What?! I didn’t—”
“Sadir.” Inkiri’s voice was dark and husky and so seductively British. “Is that true?”
Well, marriage was all about not lying to your husband, wasn’t it?
“Let’s talk about it inside.” I took Inkiri by the wrist rather than the hand. From the low clicking, he liked that. A lot. He followed like an eager bunny might the lure of a juicy carrot.