Chapter Seven
Eoin
It’s not until Ari and Niamh stop talking about I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here—a show which, to the best of my understanding, rarely features an actual celebrity—that I start to pay attention. In fact, my whole team is oddly silent.
I look up.
Four frighteningly manic grins beam back at me.
It’s so disconcerting that it takes me a second to recognize them, and then I wonder what they’re doing here.
Caolan and Hagen might have a valid reason, but Alistair Smythe and Andrew Turner work for CSG, and I can’t remember if either of them has even been in my office before.
Definitely none of them have a reason for pointing those horrible smiles at me.
“Are you lost?”
“Dude! Finally. Hagen said we couldn’t interrupt because you get cranky when people interrupt you.” Alistair bounds forward like an overgrown puppy—hellhound, I remind myself—and plants his ass on the edge of my desk. What is it with uninvited distractions sitting on my desk?
“There’s a chair right there,” I say, pointing, only to have Andrew slide into it.
“Thank you. This may take some time. We should all be comfortable.”
That worries me more than the creepy smiles did. I glance around at my team, in case this is some sort of prank they’ve cooked up, but they all seem to be as confused as I am.
Which just leaves…
I narrow my eyes at Hagen. “You’ve known me long enough to know it’s not just interruptions that make me cranky.”
He holds up his hands, palms out. “I haven’t done anything! I swear. Not yet, anyway.”
My patience is wearing thin. Very, very thin. “Then maybe someone could tell me why you’re all here?”
“It’s like this,” Alistair begins excitedly, way too much in my personal space.
I roll my chair backward a little. “Noah came back from lunch and said he had a job for Team Bro, and dude, you have no idea how big of a miracle that is. Noah hates Team Bro. He’s like, the anti-Bro.
Which is sad, because Bros are epic, and Noah’s epic too, just in a different way. ”
“It’s true,” Andrew murmurs.
“It’s okay, though,” Caolan assures me earnestly. “Noah might not want to be part of Team Bro—”
“Or want it to exist,” Andrew interjects, smirking.
“—but he believes in utilizing resources properly, and he knows what our strengths are. We could totally do this.”
“But then Hagen pointed out that you’re his bro from way back, and of course that claim of bro-hood takes precedence. We won’t do it without your okay,” Alistair assures me.
They all look at me expectantly.
What the fuck?
“Listen, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m not having a great day—or week, to be honest—and there’s some stuff going on in my personal life that—”
“Yeah, we know,” Hagen interrupts. “Your situationship. That’s why we’re here.”
I’m highly enough placed in the DEA to (maybe) get away with killing Hagen and Caolan, but it would cause an inter-government incident if I killed Alistair and Andrew…
unless I made it look like an accident? Or…
Alistair annoys a lot of people. Maybe the people at CSG would be so relieved, they’d let it slide?
Before I can decide whether my letter-opener or paperweight would make a better weapon, Ari steps in. Literally steps in, taking Alistair’s arm and pulling him off my desk, then standing between the two of us like a hellhound-saving barrier.
“Let’s start again,” he suggests. “Hagen, you explain. As much detail in as few sentences as possible.” He raises his brows meaningfully. Hagen shoots a glance my way, then nods.
“Noah Cage had lunch today with Dáithí and Consort Jared,” he begins, immediately getting my full attention.
Dáithí has lunch with Jared fairly regularly, but I didn’t think he knew Noah Cage more than to say hello in passing.
Plus, he never mentioned having lunch plans.
Sure, we were distracted last night, but—
“Dáithí told them you’d challenged him to set you a task that would prove your commitment to him and turn your situationship into a relationship,” Hagen continues, and my lunch threatens to make a reappearance. He what?
“You what?” Ari exclaims. “Seriously?”
“Wait, Dáithí called it a situationship?” Brayan asks.
Hagen shakes his head. “No, that’s me paraphrasing.”
“Can we go back to the part where Eoin told Dáithí to test him?” Ari demands. “I don’t think we’re giving that enough attention.”
“Can we go back to the reason you’re all in my office?” As if it’s not bad enough that everyone knows Dáithí doesn’t want to be my boyfriend, now they’re all going to know why.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” Hagen throws up his hands in exasperation while Caolan pats his back reassuringly. Alistair tsks.
I eye my letter-opener.
“Anyway, Dáithí asked for help to come up with the task, and Noah figured Team Bro would be perfect for the job. But like Al said, you and I have been bros since way before Noah was even born, so we won’t do it unless you say it’s okay.
” My ex-roommate and longtime friend looks at me expectantly. “It’s your call, Eoin.”
I rub my forehead and try not to let the despair and humiliation I’m feeling show. “Dáithí asked Noah for help testing me?”
Hagen nods. “Yeah.”
“And Noah asked you all to help?”
This time, they all nod.
“Great. Just… great.” I can’t think of anything else to say.
I was so hopeful last night that this might actually be a chance for me.
A last-ditch one, sure, and okay, I had to twist Dáithí’s arm to get him to agree, but it was better than him flat-out dumping me.
This would give me an opportunity to convince him of my sincerity…
not to mention give me more time with him, even if I failed.
Not that I planned to fail. I’ve been a soldier in the King’s Army for a long time, and we don’t consider failure to be an option.
I know I can happily commit to a successful long-term relationship with Dáithí.
I love him, and I don’t want anything more than to spend my life with him.
Passing any test designed to show that is completely possible.
Or at least, I thought it was. But I’m familiar with Hagen and his bros, with their wild plans and shenanigans. I’ve witnessed a lot of them and heard about more. If Dáithí wants them to help him plan this…
“He’s setting me up to fail.”
“Huh?”
I blink, then realize I said at least part of my inner monologue of despair out loud. Wonderful. Just a little more humiliation to add to the pile.
Everyone—including my team, who are somehow supposed to respect my leadership after this—is watching me, so I throw away the last few shreds of my pride and explain, “If Dáithí wants your help, he’s not serious about giving me this chance to prove myself.
He’s humoring me—setting me up to fail so he can just end things like he wanted to and go on with his life. ”
“Actually,” Andrew begins, but Ari interrupts.
“Dáithí wanted to end things? You challenged him to test you? What is going on, Eoin? When did all this happen? Does the king know?”
I’m starting to think my colleagues might be too involved in my personal life. “Why would the king know?” I ask incredulously. “I’m not going to let it affect my work.”
“As exemplary as that is, it doesn’t answer Ari’s other questions,” a very familiar voice says, and if I didn’t already know how disastrous it can be to mess with time, I’d be trying to create a spell to erase the last ten minutes of my life.
“Hello, Your Majesty,” Alistair greets cheerfully. “You’re looking good. How’s your honey doing? I’ve been meaning to call him.”
My hand actually twitches with the need to reach for my letter-opener. Alistair’s big, and he’s well-trained, but I’m a strong fighter myself, and I’ll have the advantage of surprise.
“Jared’s very well, thank you. He mentioned the other day that he hasn’t spoken to you for a while, so I’m sure he’d appreciate that call.
” King Raeulfr is, as always, gracious, even when speaking to an insouciant hellhound.
I square my shoulders and look toward the doorway, only to see that the situation is worse than I thought.
The king brought Brandt with him. Because clearly this mess needed another dragon.
“Your Majesty,” I interrupt. “We were just…” There’s no intelligent way to finish that sentence. “Was there something you needed?”
“We’re here for you,” Brandt declares gleefully, striking horror all the way to my bones.
“What Brandt means,” the king corrects, “is that Jared called to tell me what happened at lunch, and we thought we’d come and offer our support. If there’s anything you need from us while you’re proving yourself to Dáithí, you have only to ask. Do you need some time off?”
“No! I mean… no, thank you, Your Majesty.” How did this get so far out of my control? “You’re very kind, but this is basically the death knell for my hopes. Dáithí has asked Team Bro to develop the test. It’s clear he doesn’t want me to pass.”
Andrew leans forward. “Actually—”
“It’s not like Dáithí to be mean-spirited like that,” Brandt says, frowning. “Petty, yes—we all love how petty he can be. Nobody devises harmless revenge like Dáithí.”
A murmur of agreement runs through the room. We’ve all been on the receiving end of Dáithí’s petty vengeance at some stage or other, since none of us are smart enough to keep from pissing him off.
The king purses his lips. “Did you say before that he wanted to break up?”
I nod. “Yes. Last night, he said he knew I wanted more from him and he felt it would be better to end things between us.”
“Ohhhh.” The chorus of disappointed groans is balm for my bruised feelings.
“That’s when I… well, I guess I panicked, though it didn’t feel like it at the time.
We argued about it for a while, and when he said he didn’t want a relationship with me because I’m not commitment material”—that still stings—“I challenged him to test me. I said he could devise any task he wanted, over any timeframe he wanted, and I’d prove that I was committed to him…
us.” I wince. “I thought it would give me a chance to change his mind.”
“Ballsy,” Alistair says admiringly. “Tell me, are you happy with your current bros?”
“Recruit later,” Hagen tells him. “This doesn’t make sense. You think Dáithí wants us to help so we’ll, what, create a test that’s impossible to pass?”
I shrug. “Doesn’t he? Why else would he ask you?”
“Actu—”
“Noah asked us,” Caolan points out. “Maybe Dáithí doesn’t even know?”
“Nah.” Alistair shakes his head. “Noah wouldn’t have brought us in without checking it was okay.”
“Hagen’s right,” Ari points out. “You told Dáithí the test could take as long as he wanted, right? That’s what you meant by ‘any timeframe’?”
“Yeah.” I frown as I realize what he’s getting at.
“So why would he need them if he wanted something you could never pass? All he’d need to do is set up something—anything—with a long timeframe.
Decades or even centuries. It could be super simple, and if he really believes you’re not commitment material, then he’d expect you to give up on it sooner or later anyway. ”
Huh. That’s true. But… “Dáithí’s too soft-hearted to do something like that. He tried to break up because he knew I was so invested. He’d never string me along if he could give me a clean break.” I sink back into the gloom of knowing Dáithí doesn’t even want to try.
The sound of a throat being cleared brings my head back up. Andrew gives me a wry smile. “If I could have your attention for a moment, I may be able to shed some light on this.”
Alistair frowns. “What—”
“Alistair, I swear, if I get interrupted one more time, I will rip your throat out and laugh from the joy of it.” He holds up one hand, letting his claws out. Vampires are deceptively creepy.
Alistair closes his mouth.
“Thank you. Now, as I was saying, Noah and Jared asked Dáithí if this should be a test you can pass… and he said yes.”
I blink, then blink again. My ears start to ring. “He said… yes?”
Andrew nods. “I specifically asked Noah about this while Alistair was calling the others. The test is to be a fair one, a genuine chance for you to prove yourself… or not.”
The grin that splits my face is so wide, my cheeks hurt. Around the office, there are cheers and back-slapping.
“Well,” Raeulfr says, smiling. “That’s more like it.”
“So, what’s the word?” Hagen asks. “Are we helping, or not?”
I don’t know how wild of a test “Team Bro” will come up with, but it’s hard to care. Dáithí wants me to have a chance at succeeding. Who cares what the test is? “Yes.”