Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Connal woke before first light.
Luke lay beside him, one arm caught between them and his body angled toward Connal.
Sometime during the night, he had moved close enough that their legs tangled beneath the blankets.
A faint line remained between his brows, the last sign of vigilance sleep had not erased.
Connal remembered Luke’s hands in his hair and the pleasure in his voice.
He remembered the quiet afterward too, when they had fallen asleep tangled together.
For several breaths, Connal allowed himself to watch. He understood duty. He understood victory. The quiet pleasure of waking beside his mate was something entirely new.
Connal brushed his fingers along Luke’s arm. Luke exhaled, and the line between his brows eased as he moved closer in his sleep. Connal let his fingers linger against Luke’s warm skin.
A flicker of movement near the doorway drew his gaze from the bed. Power gathered beneath his skin before he recognized one of the palace’s pixie messengers hovering there.
The pixie glanced toward Luke and lowered his voice. “The meeting has been arranged. Tyson asked that you come as soon as you are able.”
Connal wanted to let Luke sleep and claim several more hours alone with him before the dangers of the human realm demanded their attention again. But Koios needed time to examine the drive before Hale expected Luke to contact him.
“Tell Tyson we are coming.”
The messenger nodded and disappeared into the corridor.
Connal looked back at his mate. Luke had survived two attacks, crossed between realms, and still slept as if part of him expected danger to follow. The knowledge made Connal reluctant to disturb the brief peace Luke had found.
Duty had never cared what Connal preferred.
He drew his hand down Luke’s arm. “Wake.”
Luke drew a deeper breath. His eyes opened a fraction, unfocused for only a heartbeat before fixing on Connal.
“You always wake people like that,” Luke murmured, his voice rough with sleep, “or am I getting special treatment?”
Connal let his gaze travel over Luke’s bare chest before returning to his face. “There are more pleasurable ways I would prefer to wake my mate.”
Luke’s mouth curved. “I’m listening.”
“Tyson has sent for us.”
The smile remained, but Luke’s eyes sharpened. “Koios is ready?”
“Yes.”
Luke pushed himself onto one elbow. “When?”
“As soon as we are able.”
“Of course.” He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “Story of my life.”
Connal drew his fingers along Luke’s back before the warmth of the bed could leave him entirely. “You have led a poorly timed life.”
A quiet laugh escaped Luke. “You have no idea.”
Then his gaze moved toward the backpack on the floor. Within a breath, he was fully awake and preparing for what came next.
Connal recognized that readiness. Luke carried no sword and possessed no magic, but danger called something familiar from him. He met it with the same focus Connal had seen in seasoned warriors before battle.
“We must leave the safety of this realm for the human technology to work,” Connal said. “We will not go alone.”
“I figured. Tyson’s not exactly the ‘drop you off and wish you luck’ type.”
“He understands the danger.”
“Good.” Luke swung his legs over the side of the bed. “If something goes sideways, Tyson can call in help without exposing me.”
Connal rose with him and closed the distance between them. The human world held too many threats Connal could neither sense nor understand. Whatever the drive contained had already placed his mate in danger twice.
“You will remain at my side.”
Luke looked up at him. “I wasn’t planning otherwise.”
The easy certainty in his answer quieted some of Connal’s concern.
Connal rested one hand against the back of Luke’s neck and drew him close enough for their foreheads to touch. Connal kissed him once, then reluctantly released him.
Luke’s jeans and shirt waited folded on the oversized chair, clean and dry despite where he had discarded them the night before.
He stared at them. “Let me guess. A magical castle laundry service?”
“It dislikes disorder.”
Luke grinned. “Then it’s going to have opinions about my best friend.”
They dressed quickly. Luke then opened his backpack, checked the inner compartment containing the drive, secured the zipper, and lifted the strap over his shoulder. At the door, he stopped.
“Speaking of Gomez, I told him I’d see him before we left.”
“Then we will see him.”
Gomez’s chamber stood directly across the corridor. Connal opened the door, and they stepped inside together. Gomez was awake when they entered his chambers, though the blankets gathered around his waist and the sleep still lingering in his face suggested he’d only recently awakened.
Fizzwick sat beside him with a half-eaten pastry clutched between both hands.
Gomez’s gaze dropped immediately to the backpack. “Already?”
“Koios is ready to examine the drive,” Luke said.
“You’re not going alone, are you?” Gomez shot a glance at Connal before returning his focus to Luke.
“Connal and Tyson are coming with me. We should be back before I contact Hale at nine.”
Gomez turned to Connal. “You’re bringing him back?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent confidence. Please make sure he returns with all the same parts.”
“I’m standing right here,” Luke said.
“Then you heard me too.”
Luke shook his head, but he crossed to the bed and squeezed Gomez’s shoulder. “I told you I wouldn’t disappear.”
Some of the humor left Gomez’s expression. “And you didn’t.”
“I’ll see you when we get back.”
“Be careful.”
Luke nodded and returned to Connal. Together, they entered the hallway. Light brightened along the walls ahead, guiding them deeper into the castle. Luke barely seemed to notice. He walked with the controlled urgency of someone already preparing for the dangers outside the Unseelie.
They found Tyson waiting farther down the corridor, precisely where Connal expected him to be. Asterius stood beside the attaché, looking offensively cheerful for first light.
Luke glanced at Connal. “He’s coming too?”
“I expected at least one of my brothers.”
Asterius pulled Connal into a boisterous hug and clapped him on the back. “And naturally, you hoped it would be me.”
“I did not.”
“Brother! We are off on another adventure.”
Tyson’s gaze flicked briefly between them. “You’re ready?”
Luke nodded. “Yes.”
A faint smile touched Tyson’s mouth, gone almost as soon as it appeared.
“Of course,” he said smoothly. “Then let’s not keep Koios waiting.”
Asterius opened a portal in the adjoining passageway and held it while Connal drew his sword and crossed first.
One step carried him from the quiet of the castle into a narrow concrete passage smelling faintly of oil and stale air. Machinery hummed somewhere beyond the walls. Connal searched the shadows and the two visible entrances before signaling for Luke to follow.
Luke crossed immediately. Tyson came behind him, and Asterius brought up the rear before allowing the portal to close.
Magic felt different in the human realm—muted and distant beneath layers of concrete, metal, and machinery. Connal disliked how little he could sense here.
Luke surveyed the unfamiliar space, locating the exits and every possible approach.
This was his world.
Tyson waited until Luke finished his assessment, then led them through an unmarked door and down a narrow flight of stairs. A corridor waited below, lined with identical doors beneath dim, functional lighting.
At the end of the corridor, Tyson stopped before the final door. “Koios keeps his circle limited.”
Luke’s mouth twitched. “I can relate.”
Tyson inclined his head and stepped aside.
Connal moved toward the door with Luke beside him.
It opened before either of them touched it.
The room beyond held several workstations, their screens casting a low glow across the concrete floor. Machinery hummed around them, threaded with a current of fae magic familiar to Connal even if he could not tell how Koios had bound it to human technology.
Koios stood at the central workstation with his black wings partially spread behind him. When Connal first met him, those wings had been slowly breaking the human body forced to carry them. Now they rested easily behind him, healed and strong.
His hands moved between the screens and controls with casual certainty. The purpose of the machines eluded Connal, but Koios’s skill required no explanation. He handled them as naturally as Connal handled a blade.
Asterius grew quiet beside him. His usual humor disappeared as he watched Koios work. Koios had stood between their king and death. None of the brothers would forget it.
Koios finished whatever held his focus, then turned. He acknowledged Tyson and Asterius before looking at Connal.
“Connal.”
Connal inclined his head. “Koios.”
Koios’s gaze moved to Luke and the brown backpack over his shoulder. “You brought the drive?”
“Yes.”
“Then we should begin.”
Luke stepped forward but made no move to open the backpack. “Is any part of the system you’ll use connected to an outside network?”
Koios pointed toward a workstation set apart from the others. “That machine is isolated from every external network and from the rest of my equipment. If necessary, it can be destroyed without compromising anything else.”
The answer matched the precautions Luke had required, but he continued. “What happens when you connect the drive?”
“The first examination will be exploratory. Nothing stored on it will be allowed to run while I determine what is there.”
Connal remained silent. These defenses belonged to Luke’s terrain. His mate would know whether they were sufficient.
Luke opened the inner compartment of the backpack. His hand remained inside for a moment before he withdrew the drive.
“Tell me what you find before you open any of the files.”
“Agreed.”
Only then did Luke place the drive in Koios’s hand.
Koios inserted it into a reader attached to the isolated workstation. A list appeared on the nearest screen, followed by several lines of information Connal could not interpret.