Chapter 18 #4
Kinnek shrugged. “Well, I didn’t want to put your mate and my son’s sentenmen in an uncomfortable position with the second high counselor of the Raiken. I just wanted to fill you in on what the cola asshole in the bunker said, Rory. He’s been readily telling us everything.”
Kinnek looked at me. I didn’t like that look. The cola asshat had probably talked about me, and not the harmless gossipy kind of talk.
Inkiri heaved a breath. “Maybe he doesn’t need to know, Kinnek.”
And really, if weirdo husband said that, he was probably right, so I nodded.
“I don’t need to know.”
Kinnek fiddled with his bagu clothing, which consisted of a lot more fabric than his usual shorts. He seemed amused. “You two really are quite a match. I’ll be direct.”
“Do you have to?” I asked.
“No, but I want to. The cola asshole in the bunker said that the other cola assholes want you a lot, but so do the humans. The cola assholes thought about stabbing the humans in the back, but then they came to a solution that would benefit the both of them.” The way Kinnek said that made me think I really, really didn’t need to know more.
He reached out to take my hand, which was weird considering I was still sitting between Inkiri’s legs and leaning against him, but okay, just another step toward bridging the cultural divide.
Kinnek took a deep breath before he said, “The humans want to cement the joining of Earth and the place the monsters come from. According to them, it needs to be done with blood, specifically yours. Their idea from the get-go was to sacrifice you to one of the monsters. Let it eat you alive. That seemed important to them—that you be alive. After some conversation and negotiation with the Koa Esher, they are now pretty certain that a pair of legs will do just as well, and that the Koa Esher can have the rest of you.”
The blood drained from my face. Inkiri clicked and clicked and rubbed my skin, now cold rather than cool. I curled my legs in under me. The presence had said something like that, hadn’t it, about how they would just love splitting me in two. That hadn’t been hyperbole.
The realization that I was having something like a panic attack was distant. The overwhelming fear was immediate.
I’m here, your knights are near, and you need not be afraid.
The presence stepped into my mind with the soft force of sunlight shining through a window.
Your mate is with you as well. Those things the humans want, they must not happen.
The presence did something that didn’t exactly switch off whatever thing had been happening to me, but it made it ebb away faster.
“Shit,” I said. “Shit.”
Kinnek nodded. “Pretty much that.”
“Are you well?” Inkiri was feeling me over. He was more tense than he’d been a moment ago. But then so was I. He’d been right, I would’ve been way better off never knowing this.
“I wouldn’t say that, just…” I gestured to my head. “Magic.”
Inkiri kissed the temple I indicated. “We’ll protect you, Sadir.”
I nodded. I knew that. But I was till scared. “W-what now?”
Kinnek stood. “Maybe you put on pants as well and come down to dinner.”
“Or you could stay in bed, Sadir, if you prefer.” Inkiri kissed me again. “I will bring you up some food.”
I shook my head. “No, not that. What happens now with the…the guy. In the bunker. And the other guys outside.”
Kinnek looked over his shoulder. “The second high counselor has not been told what I just told you yet, but I will tell him soon. He’ll want to leave extra protectors here, I’m sure, and if you do in fact decide to settle back on Aer, it’ll be good for them to know to be on guard.”
Yeah, the Koa Esher might not give up when it came to getting me. I sat up straighter. “Can humans get to Aer? The mages, the human ones who did this? Who stitched the veils together?”
“Some already have,” Inkiri said. “The veils are no longer as impermeable, and just like bagua can walk through the fusing points from Aer even without a mage, so can humans from Earth.”
That changed everything. Esaka had been terrible for several reasons. They had wanted to take me and hurt my guys, and they had succeeded in hurting Nokim. Nokim simply got in the way of bullets far more often than seemed right, and maybe I should ask Kinnek—or Vergis—to talk to him about that.
But more than anything, Esaka was people’s home.
There were kids there. Sonyo came to mind, the little pupil at the Raiken who’d been so interested in strange human me and had gotten me a good half dozen beautiful scarves.
If either Koa Esher or human mages—or worse, both—came after me again, they might hurt others in the process.
People who had nothing to do with any of this might become collateral damage, and it would be like when I’d started the apocalypse all over again.
I pushed myself up off Inkiri’s chest and knelt on the bed instead, hands folded in my lap.
No matter what I did, where I went, I might not be able to escape.
I had a feeling that the fear that had driven me to run and never spend too long in one place had probably saved me.
Maybe…maybe all the monsters had been so interested in me because they had sensed something about me, some need to…
eat me. Maybe just like Inkiri had heard the mate call, they heard like a dinner bell when they saw me, even if they had no idea that it wouldn’t just give them dinner but also a foothold on Earth.
The presence, still there, gave a subtle nod.
Well, darn it all. I didn’t like being right.
My mind was reeling. I couldn’t put other people in danger, I just couldn’t. Not after what I’d already been a part of, unwilling or not. I couldn’t let the monsters eat me and become a permanent fixture here on Earth either, and the only way to avoid that was if I wasn’t there anymore.
The thought, bleak and terrifying, was the only thing that made sense. I remembered Vergis and the pigeons. He’d probably help me out, if I explained it right.
The presence curled and coiled through my consciousness, unsettled, but I pushed it out with some effort, something I hadn’t realized I could do until that moment.
Kinnek flicked my nose with his finger. “Don’t be an idiot.” He was looking at me, his arms folded in front of his chest, his expression stern.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“I know that look. Don’t be an idiot. They didn’t manage to feed you to the monsters the day they merged the spheres. The day your mate call snapped into place. Doesn’t that tell you something, snapdragon?”
I blinked. Then my eyes went wide. He’d been teaching me magic, and while I wasn’t as good as him or Vergis, I had a grasp of the basics. The mate call was magic, and it was strong. A strong connection from here to Aer. Also, the presence had basically told me already.
“Aer and Earth are bound, but the monster place and Earth aren’t. For that place, it’s like a ko circle you haven’t fed enough sacrificial power to. It sort of works, but not really.”
Kinnek smiled. “Look at the human, Inkiri. An expert in magic all of a sudden.”
Inkiri clicked. “He’s a survivor, and one has to be smart to survive what he survived.”
I lifted my head. “We can get the veil to the monster world closed, can’t we?”
Kinnek nodded. “I think so, yes.”
I pointed an accusing finger at him. “You didn’t tell me that was an option!” I pointed with the other hand at my husband, who was still sitting there, naked and at ease. “Nor did you.”
Inkiri shrugged. “Magic is Kinnek’s field of expertise, and he asked me not to.”
“You asked him not to?”
“Well, snapdragon, are you going to walk into danger and help close the veil to where the monsters come from?”
My jaw dropped. “Yes, of course!”
Kinnek grinned and nodded. “See? Took me a while to get you to where you’d say that to my face, sugarplum. Doesn’t it just feel so very right to want to go out and fight the monsters and the cola assholes and the humans they are in league with?”
I paled. “Well, when you put it like that—”
The door opened again. Vergis didn’t cross the threshold, but he stood just outside it and glared.
Was it his happy glare? I decided to go with the belief that it was his happy glare.
“He forgot to say that we’ll all come along.
Clearly, everyone in this house has turned philanthropist all of a sudden, and we want to keep humans safe now.
Endangered species that they are, would be such a loss, yada yada.
You two fucking again or no? I’m getting my earplugs if you’re fucking again, no matter what anyone thinks. ”
Kinnek clicked his tongue. “Muffin, just because me and your daddy are very quiet in the bedroom doesn’t mean everyone has to be.”
Vergis’s eyes widened. “You aren’t—you know what? Never mind. I don’t want to talk about how noisy anyone in this house is. It’s not a contest. Bye.”
The door fell shut again. I couldn’t hear Vergis, but I imagined he was silently stomping down the hallway to the stairs.
“Well then,” Kinnek said. “You two have another go—”
I turned billet bean red. “No, we’re good.”
Kinnek shrugged. “If you say so. I’ll continue showing Zeddira around and telling him everything the twisted little mage in the bunker told us.” He opened the door, but looked back at me. “I’m so very proud of you, snapdragon. You’ve become a Loathly Lady to be reckoned with.”
He giggled at the face I made when he called me that, but left us alone again. I made a mental note to lock the door the next time me and weirdo husband were doing anything in the bedroom. Not that he was bothered. He was still comfortably lounging, not concerned about hiding anything.
I looked at him. “We could get the beasts to go away.”
He nodded. “We could keep them from coming. Those who remain would have to be dispatched, but there wouldn’t be any new ones after them.” His expression hardened, and I knew what he was going to say.
I decided to preempt it. “You’ll keep me safe, right?” I gave him my best puppy eyes. I hoped he’d like that.
“Of course, sweet thing. We all will.”
I wanted to tell him that I was going to keep him safe too. I wasn’t a fan of the magic I could do, and having the presence in my head wasn’t my ideal state of being. But if it meant I could make sure none of my guys died protecting me, I was okay with that.
There was a bright intensity in Inkiri’s gaze. He really, really liked the idea of me asking him to protect and care for me.
“Uhm…”
“It would be a shame if Vergis got his earplugs for nothing, wouldn’t it, sweet thing?” He tilted his head. “Unless—"
Well, what was a mate to do? I reached for the hastily fastened buttons of my shirt and flicked them back open. “No unless. It sure would.”
Inkiri’s sexy smile was to die for, and it was all mine.