Chapter 16
Theo decided he was pretty done with the day.
He was in the back of Peter’s car, Lord Laurette having taken the passenger seat while Peter was driving.
Theo was wedged in the middle, Carl on his right and Gertrude on his left, although she was sitting half on Cloudtree’s leg.
Cloudtree was tall and wide, and it didn’t help that Carl was too.
Theo cradled his school bag closer while facing forward.
Peter took a right turn. “Uh, sorry.” Carl did his best to get back to his corner of the seat. Peter’s ice blue eyes appeared in the rearview, taking in the situation at a glance.
It was more of that for the next five minutes it took Peter to get to the linguistics department and neatly take one of the professors’ spots there.
“We could still all be having cake,” Laurette said before getting out. “I so enjoy cake and watching young love. Or is it old love? Ah, sophisticated love.”
Carl nodded as he unbuckled his seat belt. “Yeah.”
Laurette shot him a sharp grin when Carl wasn’t looking.
Peter didn’t get out right away but turned around, looking from Theo to Gertrude, who was making Cloudtree get out on his side. The tip of her hat almost caught the side of Theo’s head.
“Are you all right, Theodore?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Theo thought he saw a smile on Peter’s face, but if it had really been there, Peter had smoothed it away quickly.
“I upset you. It left a sour taste in your mouth. I understand that, and I apologize for having caused that feeling.”
Theo unbuckled his own seat belt. “I can hear the ‘but’ coming in your tone of voice. Are you going to tell me that you don’t really care because I was safe? You know what, we’re adding something to the contract that says if you’re being asinine, I get to make a wish.”
“You would like to make a wish?”
Theo didn’t dare look into Peter’s eyes.
He had an uneasy feeling that if he said yes, he’d be talked into making a wish.
Then, Peter would go do his thing, like when he’d gone to take care of Bernard.
It would leave Theo with a wish fulfilled, but he’d be upset and worried at the same time, and it wasn’t a trade worth making.
Life had no right to give them one Bernard after another, nor to let Peter be stupid enough to play the hero all the time.
“I’d like to amend the damn contract.”
Before Peter could respond, Theo clambered out of the car, choosing Carl’s side, not least because Carl was being nice enough to hold his door open.
He was pretty sure Peter was staring after him and thinking about how to add wishes to a contract, which surely wasn’t a thing that went into contracts.
“This is where you’re studying.” Carl looked around, his gaze falling on the big linguistics building before he closed the car door.
Theo nodded. “I don’t really go in there though.” He turned and pointed in the direction of the library. “Corvin works back there, and most of my classes are that way too. It’s a small campus though, at least compared to other places.”
Laurette had drifted closer to them, and he nodded at that. “So true. But our university is old, built with tradition in mind. It doesn’t need to be large to pass on knowledge to a select few who choose to come to our town for their learning. How have you found it here, Theo?”
“I like it.”
Theo meant that. New Elvenswood had not been his first choice. In many ways, it had been his last chance. Then, after meeting Peter, it had become something else entirely. Fate morphing from darkness into a far brighter shape…
Theo swallowed. I’m being sentimental. We have an arrangement. No need to turn that into something it’s not. Yes, Peter’s nice, and I know he cares for me. But nothing is ever certain in life, and good things don’t last forever. I know that. I’ve seen it, and I’ve lived it.
Laurette cocked a brow, almost like he could read some of Theo’s thoughts, and Theo flinched.
“Let’s keep it likable. No accidents or such on campus. Peter, you and your lover behind me and Gertrude. You stay with them.”
He said the last to Carl, who wasn’t the kind of person to blush easily, or at least hadn’t been that kind of person before today. Theo had to admit that he looked good though, dressed in his suit and with the color high in his cheeks.
“Yes, of course, Lord Laurette.” Once Laurette had walked away to talk to Peter in a hushed voice, Carl whispered, “That’s the first thing he’s ever said to me.”
“Good for you. Wouldn’t have thought that’s your type, Carl.”
Carl’s lips pressed together, and his head bobbed forward. “It’s not like that. It’s just—do you ever just feel good, having someone around you who tells you what to do, how to do it, and when to do it? Someone who’s in charge and for whom it’s effortless?”
“Kinky.”
Carl shook his head, ignoring the light tone in Theo’s voice. “I don’t mean it that way. I know humans see it as something sexual, but I can’t believe you wouldn’t enjoy having another person to look to for guidance, even if you aren’t a werewolf. Kira and I argue about that sometimes.”
Theo fumbled the shoulder strap of his bag.
“I never really thought about that.” Which was a lie.
Peter telling him what to do when Theo couldn’t quite muster figuring it out was nice, but…
he didn’t want to admit it to Carl. At least that was what he told himself, all while pushing a fantasy his brain helpfully provided of Peter calling him Puck and giving exact instructions about what to do out of his head.
Once Peter was done with his chat with the Elven lord, he came over to them, put an arm around Theo, and rested his hand on the small of his back.
“Are you ready?”
“Of course I’m ready.” Theo crossed his arms. “Are you?”
Peter chuckled. “I’m never quite sure. I’ll follow your lead.”
Something about that irritated Theo, but he didn’t stop to dwell on it; didn’t have the time. They headed toward the cafeteria and got there quickly enough. It wasn’t a long walk, after all.
By now, the real lunch rush had cleared as well, and the place was almost as quiet as it had been when Theo had gotten there earlier that day.
With Laurette, Cloudtree, and Gertrude still catching looks and some attention, Theo didn’t have to worry about weirding anyone out.
He looked around and checked a few more group chats he didn’t normally take part in.
He didn’t see Corvin or Mike in the bushes, and there were no exciting updates in the chats. He texted Corvin and got no response. The two of them didn't come out either, not even when their group was right in front of the building.
“Maybe they’re inside,” Peter said, clearly thinking along the same lines.
“I can smell siren, I think.” Carl sniffed the air. He looked toward the bushes on their right. “Let me check.”
Laurette turned to where Carl was headed, which was when Theo saw his frown. “No running off, please. Stay with the group. We’re right behind you.”
Carl pointed. “I just—I think, erm, I think they were over there.”
“My stepbrothers don’t tend to hide in shrubbery. Though they have at times seen fit to toss me into the thorns,” Cloudtree said, a hand going to his pecs. If he didn’t wear a shirt to covers those, yeah, thorns would hurt, and not in the fun way.
Laurette turned and looked at Theo. “Call them, please.”
Theo didn’t think he was any more adept at reading a room than the next person, never mind the compliments Celeste had given him on his people skills.
But he heard something in the Elven lord’s voice he didn’t like, and next to him, Peter let out a slow, steady breath—the kind that wasn’t natural but forced.
“What’s wrong?” Theo pulled out his phone and called Corvin. The call didn’t even go through, almost as if Corvin had turned off his phone. Theo went to his call list and tried Mike to the exact same result. “I…I can’t get them. What’s wrong?”
Gertrude rattled the chain she was still holding, tugging Cloudtree back from where Laurette and Carl were looking at the bushes. “There’s magic in the air,” she said.
Meanwhile, Peter had drifted closer to Theo, his arm around Theo’s shoulders a comfort he wished he didn’t need.
He watched as Carl sniffed around by the stairs, earning some bewildered side-eye from students who all faded into the background.
Ever since Bernard, Theo had felt apart from these people who should be his peers, and he wasn’t even sure he minded anymore.
Laurette turned while Carl was still looking around. “I think they have been taken.”
“Taken?” Theo asked, even as Peter’s hold on him tightened.
“To Faerie. I don’t understand why, but that’s the magic I’m getting. Like teleportation, like binding human to Fae so they’re easier to pull through.”
“It…it would not surprise me to hear it,” Cloudtree said. He was looking guilty. “My stepbrothers enjoy hunting. They talked about coming to the human plane, though I never thought they would. I didn’t think… It’s possible they followed me, perhaps to spoil my fun.”
“You thought you were going to have fun when you walked up to me?” Theo asked, his voice icy.
Cloudtree looked at him with big purple eyes. “I thought I could free you, bring you back to yourself. I was hoping for a kiss, or perhaps some little favor.”
“Were you?” Peter said. “I find that hard to believe. Little favors are far more than a kiss for your kind.”
Cloudtree straightened. “I know that. But I do not think it just. I didn’t mean to come here to bring a lover back with me. I meant to come here and stay.” He looked at Theo. “Sensing your distress was mere coincidence, but I knew I had to help if I wanted a home here. It is neighborly.”
He said the word as if it were foreign, something he’d seen on a page but never said out loud before.
Laurette sighed as he rubbed his hands together. “Well, emigrants are rare, but not unheard of. What is proper though, is a petition. Since I have claim on this area, it’s proper to petition me.”
He gave Cloudtree a pointed look. The Fae blushed.
“Well, I thought to give aid. That’s all.”
Theo shook his head. “That doesn’t even matter. Where the fuck are Corvin and Mike? Where did your brothers take them?”
Cloudtree raised his chin. “Stepbrothers.”
“Faerie.” Peter’s voice was a growl, and his expression was hard. “They’ve been taken to Faerie.”
Laurette nodded. “Pretty much. Which means we’re going to have to do some rescuing.”
“I’ll come,” Carl said right away, having come back over from where he’d been trying to get a scent.
“I don’t understand… Faerie?” Theo looked up at Peter. “That’s a real place?”
Peter narrowed his eyes. His arm around Theo held him firmly. “Yes. But don’t worry about it. It’s no place for humans.”
Before Theo could tell Peter that he could stuff that, especially with Corvin being there, Laurette said, “Yes. It’s not a place for vampires either, but I presume you want to come along?”
“Michael is my employee.” Peter shrugged. “I have to.”
I don’t believe this. “You have to? You fucking have to? Well, I have to too. Corvin is my friend, and I’m not letting a friend be taken to some mythical place.”
“Theodore—”
Theo pulled free of Peter’s hold and moved to stand next to Carl, who paled. Cloudtree raised one glittery eyebrow at them.
“Don’t you even fucking try, Peter. Me staying behind when you do fuck knows what in Faerieland is not in the contract, so there. Carl, back me up here.”
Carl visibly shivered and ducked his head. “I…I… Platonically.”
“This is very much adorable, but we don’t have time to waste here,” Laurette said. “Peter, back to your car, please. We’re going to my place to grab a few things. Those swords, for a start. Then we’ll hop over from there. I have a fairy ring in my garden.”
“We’ll need hammers,” Gertrude said.
“Madam!” Cloudtree sounded shocked.
Laurette nodded. “Hammers’re good. Come on, chop-chop, no time like the present.” He sighed. “I loathe having to go on rescue missions on a Tuesday.”
They all started walking, fast, and Peter—typical Peter—fell into step next to Theo, so Theo turned to the Elven lord.
“Which day of the week is your rescue mission day, then?”
Laurette grinned at him. “Wouldn’t you like to know? But I can’t tell you in case you decide to get yourself kidnapped by accident just to get my attention.”
Theo frowned at him. If anyone’s coming to save me, it better be Peter. “Wasn’t planning on that.”
Laurette laughed, the sound more like music than anything else. “That’s what I like to hear, Theo.”