Chapter 27
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
MAL
“Not that I’m complaining, but I’m a little surprised you didn’t simply kill everyone and come back to tell us you’d sorted the problem yourself,” Clayton joked nervously as he followed Mal through the cavern.
Clayton talked a lot when he was nervous, Mal noted. It was cute. He also got clingy, but that was new for Mal. Up until the present, nervous Clayton was pointy and loud, like a feral cat who’d had to make itself seem far larger than it was to protect itself for far too long.
Clayton had twined his fingers with Mal’s in a death grip, and his other hand was clutched in the back of Mal’s jacket as he continued to chatter to fill the void. As Mal listened, he unconsciously changed the tough leather of his jacket to something more forgiving to anxious fingers.
The warmth of Clayton’s hand twined with Mal’s was grounding and affected him like someone was giving backscratches to his soul.
If something like Mal could have one of those.
Mal wanted to put Clayton on like a backpack, but he was too big to do it unless Mal made himself taller, and that wouldn’t work in the realm they were currently in. He needed to stay as physically versatile as possible to deal with the ever-shifting terrain, so he couldn’t be too large.
It made sense now why he’d nearly discorporated after getting dragged to the fae realm. Astraea had yanked all of them away from their trajectory to the pocket dimension the boat was in and forced Mal to foot the bill for their original trip, the course correction, and the journey to the fae realm.
Mal would be more upset about it if it hadn’t forced Clayton to admit that he cared about Mal.
Mal stumbled to a halt. Why the fuck did he care what Clayton thought? He should be nothing more than an easy meal to Mal, but at some point after arriving in Boston, it had shifted from that to something far more interesting.
Mal actually liked Clayton. He genuinely enjoyed being around him.
Clayton, with his weird family and his broken boat that stayed afloat due to the friends Clayton had made without even trying.
It was charming, to say the least, but it shouldn’t have been enough to stop Mal from pulling a dine and dash, considering how hungry he’d been.
Not two days ago, Mal had been ready and willing to eat Clayton whole and walk away without another thought.
Uncontrollable rage swelled inside him at the past version of himself who’d come close to ending Clayton’s life. It was a living, pulsing creature, and it wanted blood. There was no one to attack but himself, and the emotion raged and tore through him impotently. Mal was all but drowning in it.
Would he really have killed Clayton? Black ichor dripped from the hand not holding Clayton’s as his claws dug into his palm.
“What’s the matter? Why did we stop?” Clayton tugged on Mal’s arm, and the hint of panic in his voice told Mal it wasn’t the first time he’d asked.
Mal turned to face Clayton and examined him. His anxious face held wide, pretty eyes and pale skin that showed off every precious freckle. Mal touched Clayton’s face, careful not to cut him with his claws. Mal could have drained him to a husk many times over without trying.
“I won’t ever let anything happen to you,” Mal stated.
Clayton’s skin went from white to an adorably flustered red in an instant. “Wh… what..? I-I don’t need you to protect me. Don’t be an asshole.” He glared down at his feet, but Mal saw a hint of a pleased smile around the corner of his mouth.
Mal had meant it. He would keep Clayton safe from everything, including himself.
“So, what are we going to do when we get there? If you didn’t murder everyone around the boat and rescue the kids, there must have been a reason, and we both know it wasn’t a sudden burst of morals.”
See? If Mal ate him, who else would give him so much sass? He just wanted to wrap Clayton up inside his body and never let him out again.
“There are two demons with the kidnappers surrounding the boat. The kidnappers are fae, by the way,” Mal said to Naerith and Elena. “I think they’re using this dimension as a hideout.”
Elena scowled. “That would explain why Astraea hasn’t done anything. The gods don’t have control outside their own realms. So if some of our people wanted to kidnap children, they’d need a safe place to operate from. They wouldn’t be able to operate under her nose. ”
“Hold on, we need to rewind back to the demons,” Clayton interjected. “That’s one hell of a detail to gloss over. We can’t fight demons. Even you would have a problem with them, Mal.”
“Is that so?” Mal gave Clayton his best smug smile, and Clayton completely missed it, causing Mal’s smile to become a pout.
“Dammit, we need to get Marshall and Jack back here, and I just alienated Marshall. What are we going to do?”
“We don’t need them.” Mal tried to interrupt Clayton’s freakout session, but was ignored.
Clayton began to pace between the stalagmites and stalactites, weaving agilely through them without paying attention to the terrain. Mal was about to intercede to make sure his accident-prone lover didn’t take himself out by mistake when he realized there was no need.
In the Real, Clayton was an awkward, stumbling mess, and Mal had quickly grown accustomed to it, but since they’d left, Clayton hadn’t needed the constant catches and interventions necessary to keep the man from falling flat on his face.
Mal glanced at Clayton’s parents. Perhaps it was a fae thing?
If Astraea didn’t like the god of the Real, the feeling was likely mutual.
Marshall had lost his powers when he’d arrived in the fae realm, so if Clayton had been similarly affected in the Real, then returning to the fae realm would likely only benefit him.
Being in a pocket dimension wouldn’t have a negative effect because it was unaligned with the gods. The only problems they faced here were from the hostile environment itself.
Just as Clayton turned to pace back toward Mal and his parents, a section of the ceiling broke away and landed just behind him.
“Holy bloody kittens, that was close!” Clayton yelped and threw himself at Mal, huddling under his arm like a frightened child.
By all the laws of Clayton, he should have been flattened, or at least severely damaged, but as Mal ran his hands over his lover, he found Clayton completely unscathed.
Hypothesis confirmed.
“I told you to stay close, Red. This entire dimension is going to actively work against us, so we all need to stay vigilant. Anything could happen.”
“So we have kidnappers and demons to deal with, and the land itself is trying to kill us? Fantastic.”
“We’ll be fine. You have me, after all.” Mal poked Clayton’s nose and chuckled when Clayton went cross-eyed and wrinkled his nose.
“You’re not a dreamwalker,” Clayton muttered without heat.
“No, I’m better, so stop making me jealous and have some faith in me, okay?”
“Jealous? You’re jealous of something? What on earth could you possibly be jealous of?” Clayton tried to push away from Mal, but Mal snagged a hand in the front of Clayton’s shirt to keep him from getting too far.
“If you actually need me to answer that question, either you’ve not been paying attention, or you’re an idiot.”
“Assume it’s the former. I’ve had too much expensive schooling to be the latter.”
Mal snorted. “I… care about you.”
“Do you really? Because it sounds like that was closer to a question than an answer.”
“Well, excuse me if I’m not used to this,” Mal waved a hand back and forth between them. “Caring isn’t part of my wheelhouse.”
“So it’s fine for you not to know what’s going on, but if I’m confused, I’m an idiot?” Clayton crossed his arms in front of him and rolled his eyes. “Men. So typical.” He shared a glance with Elena, and she nodded in solidarity.
“I’m trying, okay?”
“I’ve got a great idea,” Naerith cut in. “How about you two both try later. Like after we’ve escaped this maze, killed a few demons, and rescued your kids?”
Oops.
“Sorry. This is new to me,” Mal admitted.
“S-same.” Clayton pulled free of Mal and stared sheepishly at a cluster of rocks. “So about killing two demons… What’s your plan, Mal? I assume you have one?”
“It’s simple. I’ll eat them.”
“I beg your pardon. You’ll what?”
“Eat them.” Mal enunciated both words to be an asshole.
“Sure, why not? Go ahead and have a nice little snack, and we’ll just pop over and finish off the kidnappers, shall we?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Naerith said, and Elena nodded in agreement.
“I’m sorry, are we all living in the same moment right now? Mal, are you seriously planning on eating two demons by yourself?”
“What, like it’s hard?” If nightmares were afraid of Mal, demons were terrified.
The stronger the monsters were, the more fuel Mal had to defeat them.
The upcoming fight was going to be epic.
“Just trust me, okay? Keep the kidnappers occupied while I take care of the demons. I’d have to kill all of them at once if I did it alone, and I want at least one kidnapper alive for questioning to find out where the other kids are, okay? ”
Clayton nodded dumbly.
“You’ll trust me?” Mal didn’t need to hear Clayton say it out loud, but he wanted it.
Clayton took a deep breath and said, “I do. I trust you. Let’s go.”
Relief flooded through Mal, and a tension he didn’t know he was holding fell away.
His lover trusted him. He’d have to make sure to keep that trust.
They continued through the cavern with only a few mishaps. Mostly falling rocks, but there was one notable time where a chasm formed under Clayton and Elena, and he’d snatched her up and leaped away to stable ground.
He was beaming with pride and ran up to Mal, “Did you see that?!”
“Nice job, Red.” Mal gave him a congratulatory ass squeeze. Clayton squeaked and let the matter drop.
Mal wasn’t sure if he should tell Clayton his hypothesis about Clayton’s terrible luck now or later.
It seemed pretty important, but it didn’t feel like the right time.
If he did tell him, then he’d have to go into the part about who Mal thought his parents were, and then they’d be standing around arguing in hostile territory again.
It would be better to wait.
Once they’d made it out of the cavern, they ended up on a grassy plain under a vast night sky.
“Be careful,” Mal warned. “The sky is only an illusion, and so is the ground. They randomly reverse, so be ready when it happens.”
“What are we supposed to do when they reverse?” Naerith asked.
“Stay along the left wall. When the room rotates, run up the wall. Keep going until the room stops moving.” It was a laughably easy challenge to overcome.
The only real danger was to anyone walking in the middle.
When the room flipped, they’d fall to their death.
As long as they were quick, anyone walking next to the left wall would be fine.
“I don’t see any walls,” Clayton said.
“They’re behind the illusion. Just stay with me and run when I tell you.”
“Be careful. I’ll probably fall and take you with me,” Clayton half-joked.
“I don’t think you will. You’ve been pretty stable since we left the Real.” Mal hinted. If Clayton figured it out on his own, then all the better.
Clayton hmmed and took Mal’s hand. “I’ll hang on to you just to be sure.”
“Naerith, love. Should we start shamelessly flirting too? It seems like it’s in fashion in the Real.” Elena batted her eyes at her husband dramatically.
“Any time, my precious reason for living. I breathe only for you.” Naerith put a hand on his chest and mimed a widely beating heart.
“Oh, shut up,” Clayton snapped. Mal noticed Clayton continued holding his hand, so he kept his mouth shut.
The room only rolled over once as they traversed the plain, and to be on the safe side, Mal scooped Clayton into his arms and dashed up the wall, depositing Clayton onto his feet safely.
Naerith and Elena nimbly skipped their way up the wall like it was something they did every day. It was nice not to be travelling with amateurs.
When they landed beside Mal and Clayton safe and sound, Naerith complained, “Elena, if you really loved me, you would have carried me to safety too.”
“Next time, beloved. I didn’t want to show off in front of our new friends, but it looks like they won’t mind, so I won’t hold myself back anymore.”
Since Naerith was twice as broad as Elena, Mal was mostly certain they were joking.
They exited the plains between one step and the next. There was no transition, just a blip as reality shifted them to another zone.
“Ugh, not this one,” Mal groaned.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Clayton went on alert, fists up like he was about to punch an invisible attacker.
“Put your hands down. There’s nothing to hit, unless you can punch emotions. This is probably a dreamwalker trap. It’s supposed to dredge up internal bullshit that might cause you to turn on your companions.”
“Why would that be a trap for dreamwalkers? They’re universally known for being well-adjusted.” Once again, Clayton jumped in to defend his precious dreamwalkers.
“Just because everyone knows something doesn’t make it true,” Mal said testily.
Clayton really knew how to punch Mal’s jealousy button.
“Some dreamwalkers are balanced inside, but a lot of them are simply repressing their inner garbage. If a dreamwalker comes in here unprepared, they’re likely to tear themselves and anyone else with them apart. ”
“So what do we do?” Clayton turned to their companions, only to see they’d vanished.
“I had no problem in here. This zone spat me out almost immediately, but you…” Mal was suddenly talking to thin air. “Red?” He spun around, but there was nothing but Mal and mist.
Fuck.