Chapter 18 #3
“That’s good. Also something that makes me think you definitely are a Loathly Lady, which is so interesting, considering you’re a man.
” He clapped his hands. “But that’s myths for you.
They get details wrong all the time. Anyway, Inkiri, you should feed this mate of yours.
Vergis and I are going to take care of that monster.
” He pointed, and I looked over Inkiri’s shoulder to see a purple jaguar-monkey thing, the same kind of beast that had almost eaten me in a women’s changing room.
It was prowling near some brambly blackberry bushes that sat nestled in fog like much of the rest of where we were.
“Oh, shoot.” I put my arms around Inkiri’s neck.
Kinnek whistled. “Don’t worry about it. Those aren’t that smart to begin with and they’re pretty easy to hunt.
Head inside for some food. Donna makes a wonderful breakfast companion.
” He pointed at a small farmhouse with a barn next to it.
The chimney was trailing white smoke, and the geraniums that were on their last leg in flower boxes outside the window made it look somewhat bucolic.
I cocked my head. “That’s where Donna lives? It’s so small.”
Vergis pulled his knife from its sheath, and his eyes were already tracking the purple monster when he said, “It’s bigger on the inside.”
“Oh, okay. I guess I best…get carried to meet her.”
Vergis rolled his eyes and snorted, but Inkiri seemed to take my words as a compliment. We started walking away from the tent and toward the building.
“Hey, by the way,” Vergis said, “do you remember doing anything to me? Back in Esaka? Thing is, I can tell that beast out there is about to die, and that’s new.”
Kinnek tossed his hair back over his shoulder. “Yes, it’s a very unusual thing. You really need to look at it as a gift, muffin, I told you.”
I sucked in a lungful of air. “They were going to take you. The cola ash assholes—I mean the Koa Esher. They wanted to hurt you. You know. Hurt you.”
Kinnek’s eyes narrowed, and all humor evaporated from his demeanor.
“My darling buttercream pie, did I not specifically and repeatedly tell you that you are not, under any circumstances, to let any of the Koa Esher near you? That you are not to let your guard down when you are fighting one and are to use lethal force only? Excessive lethal force if you’re ever in doubt?
Which part of that, my sweet chocolate tart, do I have to explain to you again? ”
Vergis deflated as much as Vergis could deflate. “I wasn’t—”
Kinnek hissed. “I’m inclined to believe the Loathly Lady here. We will go over it once that beast is dead, my caramel cream pie, and I’ll tell you again how to handle the Koa Esher.”
“I am not—” I said.
Inkiri clicked at me. “I suggest you don’t get involved in this, Sadir. Maybe we should find food.”
Vergis looked at me like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Kinnek turned away from the beast. “Wait. You said the—what did you call them?—the cola ash assholes…mmh, the cola ash-holes were about to touch my son. What happened then?”
“Right.” I cleared my throat. I was feeling exceedingly awkward having this conversation while being carried in my mate’s arms and wrapped in a blanket, but play the hand you were dealt, I figured.
“Nokim was about to die, and that voice in my head was telling me it could save my knight if only I told it to.”
Kinnek tilted his head. “Knight? That’s knight with a ‘k’?”
“Yeah, right. So then it healed Nokim, who gets hurt a lot of the time. Like, too much I think. Anyway, then the voice almost left, but I just knew Vergis was getting so furious about Nokim. He must’ve seen how badly he’d been hurt, but he couldn’t have known he was going to be okay, so he went a little smashy, only he was out of bullets.
I knew one of the Koa Esher would get an opening and grab him, take him back across the border. ”
Vergis’s jaw dropped.
Kinnek froze. Then he walked to his son, and for a second I was worried I was about to see him slap Vergis. He didn’t. Instead, Kinnek hugged Vergis fiercely.
“You cannot do that to me, muffin. You can’t. Hear me well, you can never let them take you. Also, you’re grounded until I feel like you have learned your lesson. Rory, what then?”
“I, uhm, called the voice back? Only I called it with my mind.”
Vergis looked guilty, grateful, shocked.
“Sadir.” Inkiri hugged me closer.
I swallowed. Remembering all this was…intensely unpleasant. Everyone here pretty much knew what a group of crazy mages who were breeding for magic would do to a hangu like Vergis.
“Well, the voice came back, and it said something funny about asking Lady Death for help. Which it did. Only there was supposed to be a price she’d collect for helping, and I said—still in my head.
Honestly, it’s possible I lost it a bit—that I was happy to pay that.
Except Death apparently didn’t want me to pick up the tab.
Someone else would have to pay, she said. I guess she picked Vergis.”
Kinnek came back over to me and took my hands in his. “I owe you for protecting my son. I’m in your debt now, Rory, and in a way, so is he.”
I felt horribly self-conscious but did my best to not let it show. “Just don’t make me sleep in a tent ever again.” This was too much attention. I’d done what anyone would do, even if Vergis could be prickly and murdery at times.
Kinnek shook his head. “I will if it helps you. It got you closer to the land. Closer to the very soil. Yesterday, you were pale, and today, you have color. That’s why I suggested it.” He giggled. “Cola ash-holes. I like it. Snickerdoodle, that beast out there is getting impatient. Let’s go.”
Vergis nodded, and went out hunting with his dad. I smiled at him when he looked over his shoulder, and unless I was hallucinating, he smiled back. Huh.
“Do you think there are waffles?” I asked Inkiri. I hadn’t had waffles in over two years and had no idea why I was thinking of them now.
He smiled at me. “Let’s go and find out.”
He carried me across the rain-damp grass toward the house, and as he walked, the blanket slipped off my feet. I was still wearing my cat socks, which sort of made me forgive him for the entire ordeal of sleeping in a tent.
Considering who I’d shared the tent with, I might even do it again sometime, and when we did—if we did—we had to make sure it was raining again. In case I got loud.
For now, I was content being in Inkiri’s arms and knowing he was mine alone.