Chapter Twenty-Nine
Twenty-Nine
“Who’s Charlie?” I asked, looking around as if I’d find another person sharing the back seat with me.
Lex stared at me through the rearview mirror. “The car, obviously.”
“Oh. Right. Obviously.”
It took some doing, but Lex eventually found an abandoned underground garage where they could park their beloved Charlie.
Then we had to backtrack a couple of blocks to Dark Enterprises.
The skies over Midtown were sinking into shadow as we neared the building, and I almost didn’t see Eric when he stepped out of the narrow alley next to the Starbucks across the street.
My steps slowed. Everything about him, from the way he stood to his leather jacket, was achingly familiar.
“Who’s this guy?” Lex muttered.
“Why is Eric here?” Amira asked at the same moment.
“I forgot to tell you,” I lied without looking at either of them. “He has something he wants to give me.”
“Who’s Eric?” Lex asked Amira in a low voice as I started across the street.
“He and Colin are dating. Or were dating. Something happened.”
“Colin was dating him? How? Dude is way out of his league.”
Trying to ignore them, I kept my gaze fixed on Eric’s face.
He watched me steadily, eyes sad. Something moved in the alley behind him and a sliver of fading daylight played across a pair of steel-rimmed glasses as another man stepped into view.
My heart skipped a beat and I came to a halt some ten feet away, watching incredulously as my former attacker moved to stand next to my ex.
The shorter blond woman appeared as well, hair coiled into a familiar braid and eyes cold as she took up a position to the other side.
“What the hell, Eric?” My voice rang furiously against the blank facades of the buildings around us. “You sold us out?”
He sighed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “I didn’t sell you out. They insisted on coming along.”
“Who are these people?” Lex asked as they stepped up next to me, arms folded.
“They’re agents of the Seraphic Conclave.” I pointed at the tall man and the woman. “Those two tried to kill me.”
“They what?” Amira demanded loudly from my other side. “Eric, you’re here with the people who attacked Colin?”
Eric grimaced and looked down at his Chuck Taylors, but it was the tall man who spoke. “We did not try to kill you,” he said in a flat Slavic accent. “If we wanted to kill you, you would be dead.”
“We only wanted to talk to you,” the woman added. “But the knight, here, decided to intervene.” She gave Eric an unfriendly stare that he returned with interest.
“Don’t forget who knocked your asses into the dirt,” he said sharply.
“The Conclave should have spoken to me before sending in a couple of poorly trained Hands.” The woman’s features went white and the man with glasses growled in the back of his throat, but both remained silent as Eric turned his attention back to me.
“I don’t want them here, either, but if things are about to get dicey, we can use them.
Hands are soldiers. Point them at a target, and they’ll fight. ”
“We will not be conscripted into a suicide mission,” the other man started to say, but he stopped abruptly when Eric lifted a hand and pulled a sword of golden fire out of the air.
Next to me, Amira gasped and fumbled for my arm. I gripped her hand tightly in mine, my gaze on Eric.
“I am a sworn knight of the Seraphic Conclave,” he said softly as he pivoted in place and leveled the sword at the other man, “and you are its instruments. You go where I say and do as I command. Is that clear?”
There was a long pause. Finally, the man nodded jerkily, gaze averted. The woman bowed her head in acquiescence, though her mouth twisted as she did so.
“Good.” With a flourish, Eric made the sword disappear as smoothly as he’d conjured it.
“Dude,” Lex said out of the corner of their mouth, clearly impressed, “that was your boyfriend?”
“I think I want to have his babies now,” Amira added, sounding a little dazed.
“He’s so manly,” I whispered, awestruck.
Eric glanced over at us and we straightened self-consciously. “This is Ivan and Corrine.” He pointed to each in turn. “They’re going to be extremely helpful and well-behaved. Aren’t you?”
The two nodded sullenly.
“Wait, wait, wait. What just happened?” Amira turned from Eric to me. “You saw that, right? The…sword?”
“Yeah,” I sighed.
“And what is the Sapphire Conclave?”
“The Seraphic Conclave,” Lex corrected her before giving me a hard, bruising poke in the biceps. “By the way, what the actual fuck? You were dating someone who works for the Seraphic Conclave?”
“Ow!” I protested, ostentatiously rubbing my arm. “Calm down! We’re not dating anymore!”
“Is dating one of these Conclave people a bad thing?” Amira asked.
“Yeah, it’s bad,” Lex replied, still glaring at me. “They hunt down people who work for our company and burn them alive.”
Amira shook her head. “Hang on. I thought you both worked for a secretive tech startup or something. People are being burned alive? And that sword!” She pointed at Eric, eyes now as wide as they could go. “You both saw that sword, right? Where did it come from? Was it on fire?”
“Okay, let me explain,” I began to say before Lex cut me off with a loud groan.
“I can’t believe this,” they muttered as they gripped their mohawk with both hands. “You were dating a sworn enemy of the company. What am I saying? Of course you were. Why wouldn’t you be?” They looked like they were about to scream.
“I didn’t know he belonged to an organization that opposes everything we do!” I shouted, waving my arms around. “Believe me, I wasn’t thrilled when I found out!”
“So that’s what he was lying about?” Amira glowered at Eric, who was watching all of this unfold with a bemused expression. “You monster!”
“How are you such a disaster?” Lex demanded of me.
“Hey,” Amira murmured, abruptly switching gears as she reached around me to touch Lex’s arm. “This was the first guy in a really long time that Colin was excited about.”
“He was literally sleeping with the enemy. That’s not good.”
“I know, but let’s not make him feel worse simply because we have some reservations about his decisions.”
“But how does he manage to make the exact wrong choice in every situation? Like, how is that even possible?”
“He’s doing his best. That’s all we can ask.”
“Hello?” I interrupted loudly. “I’m right here, you know. Stop talking about me like I’m your clueless teenaged son!”
“We’ll stop treating you like a clueless teenager when you stop acting like one,” Lex said sharply.
“We’re very disappointed that you didn’t tell us any of this sooner,” Amira added.
Muttering dire imprecations under my breath, I started moving toward Eric again.
“Don’t you walk away from us, young man!” Lex warned.
Sighing heavily, I turned back around, rolling my eyes. “Stop picking on me,” I whined sullenly. “Eric has a weapon that might stop The-One-Who-Hungers. Okay? Are you happy now?”
“Who’s The-One-Who-Hungers?” Amira asked.
I covered my face with my hands. “Oh my god.”
“These people are clearly idiots,” Ivan observed.
“Why are we wasting our time with this?” Corrine demanded.
“Colin,” Eric said in a clear voice, “can we talk?”
Lowering my hands, I looked at him for a long moment. He gestured down the block and I nodded. The two of us walked a couple of dozen feet away, leaving the others to watch one another suspiciously.
Coming to a stop, Eric turned to face me. “Hey,” he said quietly. There were dark circles under his eyes and new, unfamiliar lines etched into his beautiful face. He looked tired.
Traitorously, my heart ached a little at seeing him like that. I tried to say something, but my throat closed and I could only nod once, stiffly.
Reaching into his leather jacket, he produced a slim bundle of dark cloth. “This is the weapon I told you about.” He held it out without meeting my gaze.
Rather than reach for it, I asked, “Do you know what I thought when I first laid eyes on you in that coffee shop?”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“I thought, This can’t be real. Guys like you ignore me at bars, or block me on apps. You seemed so genuine, though, that I let myself believe there was something there. But there wasn’t, was there? I was right. It wasn’t real.”
Slowly, Eric lowered the bundle in his hand.
“Do you know what I thought when you walked into that coffee shop? All I want is to keep him safe, whatever he’s done, whatever he might do.
The weeks before that, when I was watching you, you looked so sad and alone.
But you kept striving. That’s how Amira put it when she talked about you.
No matter how bleak things got, you picked yourself up and tried again.
I could see that in you, when you walked up to me on our first date.
You were so nervous, but you were hopeful as well.
I wanted so badly to take you in my arms and protect you from everything that had already hurt you. ”
I had to look away as my eyes prickled with sudden tears.
“We both kept things from each other,” Eric said as he moved closer.
“We both thought we didn’t have a choice.
But the way I feel about you isn’t a lie, Colin.
You’re brave, and funny, and so much more of a catch than you think you are.
Even now, with the world ending, all I want to do is protect you. That’s why I’m here.”
I could reach out and touch him, if I wanted to. And I did want to, very badly. My hands twitched at my sides, but rather than grab him and pull him close, I cleared my throat and said, “Show me this weapon.”
He was still for a long moment. Then, holding out the cloth again, he unwrapped it carefully to reveal a knife.
Its metal blade was maybe seven or eight inches long and pitted with rust, its hilt wrapped with strips of hide or leather that had dulled and cracked with age. It looked pretty uninspiring, honestly.
“Wow,” I said. “It’s…a knife.”