Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nick held the front of the saddle, grateful both for Julia’s obedience and the shade of the trees. He smelled of blood and sweat, and he wondered if it was strange that the horses weren’t bothered by that.
“This happened before.” Nick decided to focus on one thing at a time. “When the merfolk came near the boat while we were still on the ocean. They passed us by while they were searching every other boat out there.”
“Are you on bad terms with –”
“I’m not on bad terms with my family,” Nick interrupted.
“There’s no reason that something meant to protect me should have hidden me from Adonis.
” And it wasn’t the same either. With Desre, one small symbol had activated to repel her power, but this had been all of them at once.
As if all the symbols were working together towards a shared common goal.
“Are you afraid of merfolk?” Valor asked.
“What? No. I know they’re not going to hurt me.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Nick opened his mouth, but the words caught in his throat.
He was back at Vi’s, hours before the party began, fresh off the yacht and rushed into Laurence’s room so he could practice with his tattoo kit before the party.
Laurence silently focused on drawing as Nick’s mind had hurtled through the horrible realisation that every single person he cared about was in another world.
And he had been afraid. He’d been afraid that something would happen to them and Nick wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
His ineptitude against these fantastical creatures would rear its ugly head, and he’d have to watch as his family were harmed.
But Nick had been afraid of that since last year. Since Connor had introduced his boyfriend and Nick realised that all the bad that had happened to Connor had been because of mermen. That the threat of them, of this world, was to be a constant in all of their lives.
Nick shut his eyes. “It’s my fault.”
“It is not an insurmountable issue,” Valor said. “Write a letter, and I will ensure it is delivered.”
“Okay. Let’s do that.” Nick sighed.
The castle came into view before long, and he noticed the mass of tents hitched across rolling fields.
Kits ran to and fro, some on horseback, some carrying boxes and barrels, some marching with a purposeful gait, hands on sword hilts.
The sun was lowering behind a mountain upriver, and Nick gauged there were only a handful of daylight hours left.
“I imagine Ios has persuaded Kit to train with them in the sand arena over there.” Valor nodded towards the side of the castle, outside the walls. “Go to the doctor first before you join them. Kit will be upset to see you in this state.”
Nick followed Valor’s directions to the doctor and ended up washing and changing into fresh clothes that didn’t smell like river water before going in search of Kit.
His arms tingled beneath white bandages, an after-image of faded pain.
He felt drained, like he’d just played two rugby matches back to back.
Kits gathered on the wooden fence boxing in the training grounds, Ios’s familiar slim silhouette among them.
Nick leaned against the wooden plank next to him, catching his first glimpse of Kit.
He wore leather trousers with a long-sleeved shirt, his fine gloves curved around the hilt of a wooden sword.
Half a dozen young kits surrounded Kit, tails lashing, wooden swords in two-handed grips.
Half were shirtless, the other half wore short-sleeved shirts stuck to their torsos with sweat.
The tallest of the bunch dove in. Kit slashed his own sword out in a lazy arc; the attacking kit ducked it, kicking out for Kit’s knee.
Kit twisted away, somehow managing to catch the small kit with his tail and trip him into the dirt.
“Good,” Kit said. “But you were staring at my knee the whole time. Don’t let me see where you mean to attack. ”
Before he’d finished speaking, two kits leapt at him from either side; Kit dodged and allowed them to collide with one another. “Pay attention to what your comrades are doing.”
Kit worked each young kit until they were panting and then gestured to the side where reserves were waiting their turn to jump in and have a go.
Two of the older boys managed to get a good swipe in, and they’d practically combusted with pride when Kit had looked at them with approval shining in his eyes and said, “Excellent.”
Nick propped his elbow on the fence line and positioned his fingers to hide his smile. When the older boys went back, puffed up and boasting, and the other kits rebounded on Kit with renewed enthusiasm, Nick realised the entire aim of the game was to get an ‘excellent’ of their own.
“Does he ever spar with you guys?” Nick asked.
Ios squawked and slipped, recovering just before falling off the fence. Nick’s arm shot out to catch the back of his shirt and steady him.
“When did you get here?” Ios demanded.
“A good hour ago,” Nick said. Ios’s attention hadn’t strayed from Kit a single second. “Are you going to spar with him?”
“If we get the chance to,” Ios said. “Kit always prioritises the younger kits before us.”
A sudden stillness in the arena drew Nick’s attention; Kit had stopped moving and faced him. His clear blue eyes fixed on his bandaged arms. His tail lashed to the side in an agitated arc. The kits surrounding him dodged, hyper-focused on his every move.
Kit turned sharply to his students. “Evus. Lin.” The two older boys who had earned an ‘excellent’ trotted forwards. “Lead the cool down for everyone. Who is trained in first aid?” His eyes swept over the others.
Three children who looked no older than twelve raised their hands.
“You’re to tend to all injuries and report their status to Evus and Lin. You’ll then report to me. Understood?”
Even from a distance, Nick saw the delight in Evus’s and Lin’s expressions.
They nodded, and when Kit turned away, they immediately spoke up, going about their assigned duties with the utmost seriousness.
Kit held out his wooden sword, and three kits raced to take it from him.
He approached the fence in large strides, scanning Nick’s face, then his bandaged arms once more.
“What happened?” Kit asked when he reached them. Ios peered down, noticing the bandages too.
“How about I tell you over dinner?” Nick asked.
Kit nodded sharply. The onlookers dispersed, and Kit neatly vaulted over an empty stretch of fencing.
“Did you talk to one? Which one was it?” Ios jumped down from the fence, sidling up on Nick’s other side as they headed towards the castle. “Can we get those symbols drawn? I want one. Seche says I’m the fastest kit he’s ever trained.” Ios’s shoulder bumped into Nick’s.
Nick winced at the contact. Kit hissed, tail lashing out whip-fast.
Ios dodged. Grinned. “See?”
“It didn’t go as planned,” Nick admitted.
Both Ios and Kit glanced at his bandaged arms. Kit’s nostrils flared, and his tail curled protectively around Nick’s legs. Ios didn’t try to get close again. Kit kept quiet until they were sitting in the mess hall next to a warm fire and Ios, after a pointed look from Kit, left them alone.
“They lied?” Kit asked. “There were no merfolk? They harmed you?” There was a growing anger in his voice, his emotions leaking out to show in more than just his lashing tail.
“They didn’t lie.” Nick explained what happened. Kit listened, and finally he stared at Nick’s bandaged arms as if he could see the symbols beneath the gauze. “Connor can’t find me because I block him, but that’s something different.” Though perhaps more closely linked than Nick wanted to admit.
“I don’t understand,” Kit finally said. “They are your kin, and they mean you no harm.”
“They’re the reason Connor got hurt,” Nick said. “They’re the reason that my brothers and my dad are in constant contact with things that can hurt them. If it wasn’t for Adonis, I wouldn’t even be here.”
Kit watched Nick’s face closely, understanding in his eyes, sympathy in his softening mouth. His tail brushed against Nick’s leg, finding a bare patch of skin above his boot where his trousers had rucked up.
Nick scrubbed both hands over his face. “So because I never got over what happened last year, because I’m still checking windows and doors, because I hate them leaving my sight to go off on the ocean, rather than protection from anything actually dangerous, these symbols are hiding me from the mermen.
And I still blame them. Sitting here with you, I still feel, like, if Adonis had just never shown up, everything would be fine.
Laurence would be planning to go to art school, Dad would be running his café stress-free, Connor would be –okay, Connor’s a bad example because he’d be dead if Adonis hadn’t… ” He trailed off.
“Adonis saved him?”
Nick lowered his hands. “In more ways than one.”
“You care for Connor,” Kit said. “And he is merfolk.”
“He’s mostly human.”
“I saw your brother. Even from a distance, I could feel his influence, and he did not feel human to me.”
Was it time for Nick to start acknowledging all this ‘monarch’ crap? He picked up his fork. “Let’s just eat.”
Kit’s eyes flicked to the side, and he nodded to someone.
A few seconds later, two young kits—one of whom Nick had picked as best Lua brewer—appeared at the table edge with two cups.
One was placed before each of them, and they scuttled away again before Nick could get a word in.
Nick ate and finished the cup of wine before he gathered enough resolve to face his problems.
“I’m afraid that they’ll get hurt, and I don’t know how not to be afraid of that.” Kit’s tail wound its way up his trouser leg, the pliable tufts bending out of shape against the back of his knee. “Especially now that I’ve seen how dangerous it is here.”
“There are few who would dare raise a hand to any monarch kin,” Kin pointed out.
“You did.” The words were out before Nick could stop them. He quickly jammed his legs together, stopping Kit’s tail from retreating. “Desre,” Nick corrected. “Not you.”
Kit’s shoulders remained tense even as he nodded.
“I’m serious. You’re a giant positive in everything that’s happened. All of this was worth it to meet you.” Nick only registered what he said after. After he’d taken a bundle of emotions he’d been refusing to look at head-on and threw them onto the table for both of them to pore over.
Kit met Nick’s eyes, surprise flashing across his face, chased by a deep flush.
Kit’s throat bobbed in a swallow, and he abandoned his rigid posture to lean in.
His elbows found the table, and he reached out, as if trying to touch Nick’s exposed feelings with his gloved hands.
Fortunately for Nick, Kit had proven himself remarkably gentle when left to his natural state.
“I believe bringing the ire of the merfolk upon my head was a fair trade to meet you as well,” Kit murmured. A slow smile crept across his mouth. Pleased. Shy.
Nick stared at that smile. It was unspooling something inside him. Unravelling a tightness that had taken up residence in his chest months ago and had settled in for a long stay.
It clicked in Nick’s head.
“It’s worth it.”
“What is?”
“The risk.” Nick turned up his palm, asking, and Kit slid, not his tail, but his hand over his, tickling his fingers with a light touch. “If Adonis had taken off, if Connor had decided the ocean wasn’t for him, and we’d all stayed safely tucked away in our own world, I wouldn’t have met you.”
Kit watched Nick closely as he spoke, and the emotion that filled his eyes was one Nick couldn’t name.
Kit’s hand dropped to cover Nick’s, fingers curling until he was holding Nick’s hand.
Pushing through his monstrous fear of someone touching his hands.
“You believe that your nightmares, your fears, are worth it…because of me?”
Kit understood at once what he’d meant. Not that his fear had vanished, but that Kit mattered more than it did. Nick’s gaze slid to Kit’s hand grasping his. Gloved and lightly trembling. His tail was tight on Nick’s leg, anxious, but he kept holding on to Nick anyway. Of course Kit understood him.
“Yeah, Kit. I do.”