Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SEVEN
Caolan
Two weeks after David’s birthday, things are going…
as well as can be expected. The migration is progressing and should be complete within a few days.
Officially, that’s good news, but the knowledge that my homeland is soon going to be permanently sealed off as it decays into nothingness is…
distressing. I’ll never be able to go back there, and the closer we get to that day, the more painful I find it.
David has been wonderful. I’ve never mentioned how conflicted I am, but he knows.
He knows when I need hugs and when I need to be distracted in other ways, and he’s always there for me.
He still maintains the fiction that we’re just sexually satisfying each other, but in every way that counts, we’re paired.
I’m not sure what happened to him to make him so leery of what’s between us, but I can wait until he’s ready. He’s worth it.
He wears the gift I gave him all the time.
At first, he was taking it off to shower, but when I explained that the nature of the spell that preserves it makes it—and the chain it’s on—impervious to water, he stopped taking it off at all.
When we lie in bed at night, the soft glow of the leaf is a comfort to me.
I may lose my homeland, but I’ll have David.
In the meantime, the search for our stolen baby dragon is still underway.
éibhear and Tish have done an excellent job of hiding her, and without knowing where she is, we’re loath to mount an assault on any of the compounds we’ve identified.
The last thing we need is for them to move her—or worse, for her to be injured in the attack.
We have agents working to find information, and they’re slowly but surely trickling data back to us.
Today, David and I have a meeting with the teams that are managing the resettlement.
Things have been going fairly smoothly, but there are some small issues that need to be resolved, so we’re getting both sides together to talk through them.
Technically, David and I don’t need to be there, but it seems King Raeulfr’s announcement of our relationship has turned a spotlight very brightly on us.
Noah told me we’re the latest hot celebrity couple and we’re being shipped as Dalan.
I’m not entirely sure what that means, but people have actually recognized me on the street.
Even humans—this has spilled into their world, although they seem to think it’s part of a fantasy.
They get very excited about it, and some have asked me to sign things.
Ultimately, it means David and I are now required to attend a lot of meetings and events where we’re not really needed.
We’re glad to do some of them, like the visits to the temporary settlements of my people.
They were so happy and excited to see us together and talk to us.
In that instance, the king and Rabhya were right about our relationship being a beacon of hope.
But this meeting is a waste of our time.
My timekeeping is getting better, especially now that I understand how to use the reminder function on my phone.
The king’s senior spellcasters finally found a way to make the translator spell work on written words as well as spoken ones, and it’s made a huge difference to us.
We’re still not good at hand-writing things, but there isn’t much need for that anyway.
We can use phones and computers, where each letter can be created with the touch of a button—or “key,” as Sam told me they’re called.
I don’t understand why it’s a button on an elevator and a key on a computer, but as long as it works, I don’t care that much.
Right now, I’m waiting outside the elevator for David. He went downstairs to get us coffee to fortify us during this meeting while I compared notes with Andrew, Gideon, and Garin on the latest intelligence reports.
“You know,” Andrew says conversationally, leaning against the wall beside me, “you could wait for him in the office. Or even in the meeting room. Doesn’t it make you feel weird to be staring at the elevator like this?”
“No more than you feel weird when you check the time every two minutes when Noah is in a different room,” I reply. It took me a while to realize what he was doing, but once I noticed, it became impossible to ignore. “Why are you here, anyway?”
“I’m keeping you company,” he says, sounding offended. “Don’t you want my company?”
I’m saved from answering when the elevator doors open and David steps out. He has a cardboard tray with two paper cups and a paper bag on it. I hope it’s cake, although knowing David as I do, it’s probably toast or a healthy muffin. He’s so adorably sensible.
He smiles when he sees me and starts in our direction.
“David?” Candice calls. “Do you have a sec?”
The smile turns rueful, and he goes over to her desk.
I like Candice. She’s the receptionist and is never too busy to answer questions or help with technology, even when it turns out to be a stupid thing.
And she’s been endlessly patient with the dragons.
David said she’s very atypical for a demon in that regard.
“We need to hire someone to help Candice,” Andrew says. “The job needed two people even before all this happened.”
I nod, because David has said the same thing—and so has Sam. “Percy doesn’t want to bring anyone new in right now,” I tell him. “David was going to see if some of the interns could help, but—”
“Davy!” The shout rings through the reception area, and I look back toward the elevators. A man and a woman, both sorcerers, are coming out of one. The woman has her arms outstretched toward… I follow her gaze.
David? Is Davy a derivative of David? It doesn’t suit him at all.
Beside me, Andrew hisses. Startled, I glance over and see his fangs and claws are out and his face is drawn into a vicious mask. I draw up my power. If these people are a danger…
“Who are they?” I ask. Every muscle is tense, and I want to go to David, but while his face is pale, he doesn’t seem to be guarding against possible attack. Candice looks uncertain, her gaze swinging between David, the newcomers, and Andrew and me.
“His parents,” Andrew growls. “Come on.” He strides off, and I rush to keep pace.
We reach the desk and David just as the newcomers—David’s parents—do, and I push aside my surprise.
I didn’t realize David had parents. Well, I knew he must—I know enough about the Earth species to understand that—but he never speaks of them, not even in passing as I do mine.
I assumed they were dead. After all, he raised his sister, Jane.
“…can’t be here,” David is saying. Someone who doesn’t know him would say he’s calm, but there’s a faint note of strain in his voice, and one of his fingers is twitching against the cardboard tray. He’s on the verge of losing control.
“Get out,” Andrew snarls, not bothering with calm or politeness. The two enforcement agents stationed in reception start toward us.
“But, David, we came to celebrate with you! You’ve finally found someone to share your life with,” his mother protests.
Her gaze skims uneasily over Andrew, who’s hissing again, and lands on me.
“Look, here he is! It’s Caolan.” She holds her arms out to me and steps forward, then hesitates.
I’m not certain if it’s the look on my face, which I’m sure is very unwelcoming, or the fact that she’s afraid to get closer to Andrew.
David sighs. “You’ve seen the media coverage.”
His father blusters. “It’s the only way we hear anything about you. You never call us. Do you know how hurtful and embarrassing it is to learn from our friends that our only child has found love?”
Only child? But what about Jane?
He shakes his head. “I’m not your only child.”
His mother blinks. “Of course you are. I think we’d remember if we had another one.”
The father frowns. “Wait… wasn’t there a girl at one point? We had to leave the Duke of Devonshire’s black-and-white ball because you were giving birth.”
The mother raises a hand to her mouth. “Oh, yes—and after all the effort to get an invitation! I was heartbroken.”
I think I might be ill. These are David’s parents?
Poor David. And poor Jane…. No wonder David raised her.
“That’s all behind us now,” the father says hastily, perhaps because none of us seem the least bit sympathetic about their past plight.
In fact… I take hold of Andrew’s arm, just in case he decides to attack.
It’s David’s prerogative to land the first blow, and as many after that as he wants.
“We’ve come because we want to host a celebration for you! ”
David puts the cardboard tray on the reception desk and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You want to use me and Caolan to rack up some social credibility, you mean.”
“Davy—” his mother begins, but David’s had enough.
“No. Leave now. I’m giving you one minute to go before I have you thrown out.
And if you so much as mention that you have any connection to me, I’ll let Andrew hunt— No, you know what?
I’ll give an interview describing exactly what my childhood was like and why Andrew had to rescue me from it.
You’ll never be invited anywhere again.”
“You had a wonderful childhood!” the mother declares indignantly. “You never had to go to school or have a bedtime like all the other whiny children. Instead we took you to all those lovely parties!”
So much has just become clear. Do these people not know David at all?
“David’s told you to leave,” I say, letting go of Andrew and stepping closer to them.
I channel a tiny bit of my power to give the illusion of being bigger and more menacing.
It’s a child’s trick but seems to work on them.
They shrink back. “And I believe your minute is up.” I gesture to the hovering enforcers.