Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Unseelie healer took one look at Luke where he sat slouched in one of the oversized chairs and ordered everyone out of Connal’s chamber.
No one moved.
Gomez remained planted beside Luke, glowing flowers still tangled through his hair. Connal stood close enough that his thigh pressed against Luke’s knee. Even the pixies refused to leave, hovering above Gomez in an anxious cloud.
“I require room to work,” the healer said.
“You have room,” Gomez replied.
The healer’s gaze shifted to Connal.
“I am not leaving my mate.”
“Of course you aren’t.” She pointed toward the far wall. “The rest of you can wait over there and attempt not to bleed on anything important.”
Tyson caught Asterius’s arm and pulled him away before he could object. Keir and Zer followed more willingly, with Zer keeping one hand near his hair where Avaneel had disappeared.
Luke forced himself to remain still while careful hands examined his ribs, throat, wrist, and damaged fingers. Nothing appeared to alarm the healer.
“Bruised ribs. Strained wrist. Several minor burns.” She lifted his injured hand and frowned at the torn nail. “This will be unpleasant.”
“It already is.”
“I meant for me. You are a difficult patient.”
Gomez snorted. Connal did not.
The healer spread something cool over Luke’s fingertip. Pain flared, then faded beneath a wash of tingling numbness. Magic moved through his ribs next, gentle enough that Luke felt the damage easing rather than vanishing.
His gaze traveled across the room. All of the brothers looked as if they had fought their way through a building. Connal stood closest, blood drying near his temple.
But they were all standing.
Asterius was attempting to steer another healer toward Tyson, who appeared equally determined to send her back. Zer murmured quietly to Avaneel while Keir guarded the chamber doors.
Everyone who had gone to the roof had come back.
Hale had not.
Luke looked down at his bandaged hand before the thought could settle any deeper.
The chamber doors opened. King Silenus entered, his attention moving first over the wounded before settling on Keir.
“The object you recovered has been secured by the gargoyles.”
Keir inclined his head. “No one touched it directly. The magic inside it remained active when we left the armory.”
The king’s gaze dropped to the mark circling Keir’s wrist. “The gargoyles tell me the object caused the marks you wear to react before the gate collapsed.” His gaze moved among the four brothers. “Until now, I believed them to be little more than ornamental.”
No one answered, which was answer enough for the king.
Silenus surveyed the crowded chamber. “This conversation requires privacy.” His gaze moved around the room. “Tyson, the healer, the pixies, and Gomez will leave. The Queen’s warriors and Luke will remain.”
The healer secured the last of Luke’s bandages with a quick snap. At the king’s direction, she gathered her supplies and started toward the doors.
Gomez folded his arms. “I’m not leaving him.”
“I’m fine,” Luke said.
Gomez looked pointedly at his bandages.
“Fine enough,” Luke clarified. “Besides, I think you might be the only one who can convince Avaneel to let a healer check her after whatever she ate on that roof.”
Zer drew Avaneel from his hair and placed her carefully into Gomez’s hands. The tiny pixie immediately began explaining that she had eaten only a little bad magic.
Gomez’s resistance faltered. “I’ll be right outside. And someone will let a healer look at her, or someone will make me speak to her in my outside voice.”
He followed the healers from the chamber, carrying Avaneel protectively between his hands. Tyson and the other pixies went with them, their usual chatter subdued.
“Thudlez,” Silenus called.
The hobgoblin popped into existence beside the entrance to the chamber. “Your Majesty.”
“Remain inside and guard the doors. No one enters until I allow it.”
Thudlez closed the doors and took up position in front of them.
Only then did Zer look at each of his brothers in turn.
Keir nodded first. Asterius followed, his usual humor absent. Connal’s fingers tightened around Luke’s before he gave the same silent agreement.
Zer faced his king. “There is something we were forbidden to reveal.”
Silenus’s expression did not change. “By whom?”
“The Queen.”
“Explain.”
“Before she sent us to serve you, someone from the human realm breached the barrier around the castle’s vault and stole her ascension staff. She ordered us to search for it while we carried out our duties here, but we were forbidden to reveal its loss.”
Silenus looked from Zer to each of his brothers as he absorbed the confession.
“And the marks at your wrists?”
“The Queen placed them upon us,” Zer said. “They were meant to recognize the staff’s magic and lead us toward it when its power was used.”
“Did the marks identify the staff as the source of the gate’s power?”
“No,” Connal said. He pulled back his sleeve, exposing the mark. No light moved beneath it. “They reacted to the magic but gave us no direction. When the gate collapsed, they went silent.”
Silenus crossed to him and examined the sigil without touching it. “You entered my service knowing that one of the Queen’s most powerful relics had been carried into the human realm.”
“The Queen had already ordered us into your service when the staff was stolen,” Zer said. “She added its recovery to our mission and commanded our silence. Until today, we had no reason to believe that silence placed you or the Unseelie in danger. That is no longer true.”
Silenus held his gaze. “So you chose to break that silence.”
“I did.” Zer glanced at his brothers. “We did.”
The tension held for another long moment before Silenus inclined his head.
“You exercised the judgment your Queen entrusted to you. I will not fault you for obeying her orders before circumstances demanded otherwise.” His voice hardened. “But there will be no more secrets concerning threats to this realm.”
“There will not,” Zer said.
“We cannot know until the staff’s magic is used,” Silenus said. “Their connection may be dormant rather than severed. For now, the fragment is the only lead we possess. It will be examined.”
Not the answer any of them wanted, but at least they would no longer be searching alone.
Silenus turned toward Luke. “Now we must discuss what comes next for you.”
Luke glanced toward the chamber doors. “Then I would ask that Gomez be included, Your Majesty. Whatever comes next for me will affect him as well. He is a brother to me. We’re a package deal.”
Silenus considered the request, then inclined his head. “Very well. Thudlez, admit him.”
Thudlez opened the chamber doors. Gomez was exactly where he had promised to be, waiting in the corridor after surrendering Avaneel to the healer. He hurried back to Luke’s side, and Thudlez closed the doors once more.
Gomez reclaimed his place beside Luke’s chair. “What did I miss?”
“A lot,” Luke said.
“Helpful.”
Silenus waited until Gomez fell silent. “Tyson’s contacts will continue monitoring Hale’s company. The human authorities will investigate the attack, and we will determine whether any part of the tracking system exists outside that building.”
Luke nodded. It was necessary work, but Hale’s death had ended more than one threat. Whatever Luke’s job had once been, there was nothing left for him to return to.
“Today revealed a weakness in the Unseelie’s defenses,” Silenus continued. “We have relied upon humans to overlook what they do not understand. That is no longer sufficient.”
“No,” Luke agreed.
“I require someone who understands both human threats and this realm. Someone capable of recognizing where those worlds intersect before the intersection becomes another weapon.” Silenus regarded Luke steadily. “I would have you serve as an adviser and liaison to the Unseelie Court.”
Luke glanced at Connal. Hope had entered his expression, but Connal said nothing.
He was leaving the choice to Luke.
“What would that mean?” Luke asked.
“You would work with Tyson to maintain our human contacts, identify threats to our people, and help us move through your world without unnecessary exposure. You would retain access to the human realm whenever your duties required it.”
“And Gomez?”
His best friend’s eyes widened. “Me?”
“I meant what I said,” Luke replied, then glanced at his friend. “We’re a package deal. If I have a place here, then Gomez needs one too. If Gomez wants to stay, that is.”
Gomez’s surprise softened into something Luke refused to examine too closely.
Silenus considered him. “And what would his role be?”
“People underestimate him. He notices what they say when they think no one important is listening, and he makes connections no one else would.” Luke glanced toward the glowing flowers still woven through Gomez’s hair. “Besides, the pixies have already claimed him.”
“That is true,” Silenus said gravely. “As has my mate.”
Gomez touched one of the flowers. “Do I get a say in this?”
“Yes,” Luke and Silenus answered together.
Gomez’s grin returned. “Then I’m in.”
Silenus returned his attention to Luke. “And you?”
Luke looked at Connal again. This time, he allowed himself to imagine more than the next mission or the next threat. He imagined returning to the human realm because he chose to go, then coming back because he had somewhere—and someone—waiting for him.
“Yes,” Luke said. “I accept.”
“Then welcome to the service of the Unseelie Court,” Silenus said. “Both of you.”
He turned toward the doors, and Thudlez moved to open them.
Zer followed his king from the chamber, taking Keir and Asterius with him, leaving Gomez alone with Connal and Luke.
Gomez lingered beside Luke. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He squeezed Luke’s shoulder carefully. “I’m going to find Avaneel before she convinces everyone that eating bad magic counts as a snack.”
When the doors closed behind him, Connal knelt in front of Luke’s chair.
“You are certain?” he asked.
Luke sighed. “Do I have to convince everyone?”
“Only me.”
Luke reached for him. “Come here.”