Rite
Friday evening, I sat next to Tanyn on the soni-jet on our way down to the Fall.
Mangold sat next to me, Zyra next to him.
Across from us, Nayden was lounged back in a corner seat, arms crossed on his chest, legs extended in front of him, ankles also crossed, his chin tucked into his neck. He was hot-guy dozing.
On the opposite end from him were Uly and Estra.
She was a half-fae, half-demon with sheet-straight, long, glossy black hair that had a very high, wispy-edged bang cut into it. Her bone structure was classically demonic, but her eyes were the prettiest lilac I’d ever seen, which was totally fae.
I found her surprising, because she was cultured and cool (I didn’t mind saying it, she reminded me of me).
Somehow, I expected her to be a bouncy, easygoing female who was so much of both, she let the bro stuff slide off her back.
She was not.
In the brief time I’d been in her presence I saw that, again, like me, she gave as good as she got, when she wasn’t making it plain she was simply tolerating their chicanery.
Onward with the positioning in the jet, Hurley’s bulk was stretched across Tanyn and my laps (luckily, I got the head end), as Hurley had become the master of getting pets from both his daddy and (good gods, but there it was) his new mommy.
Across from us were Gayle and Cormac.
She’d sat down first. Immediately after, he’d sat down beside her.
And for the first fifteen minutes of our flight, she spent her time frowning down at her Palm, on which she was scrolling.
Cormac had spent that time watching her scroll and scowling.
As such, totally invading her privacy.
I turned my head to Tanyn, who felt my regard and looked down at me.
I was about to open my mouth, but he shook his head.
Ugh.
But he was right.
I needed to stay out of it.
Tanyn reached to the tablet at his side, woke it up, and I saw a dizzying amount of text on the display, with numerous headings and subsections.
It had to be a contract (the worst) or a bill up for vote in the Assembly (probably not much better, or alternatively, unimaginably, and by the looks of it, truthfully, it could be even worse).
“You know, we haven’t considered this,” I started, and got his attention again. “But you could avoid that kind of thing”—I indicated his tablet with my head—“by dumping this whole king gig and moving to Nocturn with me.”
“Dumping the whole king…gig?” he asked, his eyes alive with humor.
I loved it when he thought I was cute.
“Yes. That,” I confirmed.
“And what would I do in Nocturn, baby?” he asked.
I grinned at him. “Be my kept male.”
His gaze warmed on my grin, but he replied, “This idea holds merit, but right now, the next in the line of succession is Arnaud.”
I wrinkled my nose.
It was his turn to grin, and he did so while he bopped said nose.
Lord in Hellfire, when he was like that, I so wanted to pounce on him.
“Stop scrolling.”
Cormac’s growl took my attention.
And by the by, along with some grunting, I’d discovered over the last several days, all Cormac did was growl.
He was not a male of many words, and the words that came out of him gave the impression he wished he didn’t have to trouble himself to say.
He was also a male whose brood dial was constantly set on high.
Like his eyes were green, his personality was brood.
He was totally a cavemale, and I wouldn’t admit this out loud, but for some reason, I found this attractive.
Of course, I’d never give up my cool and collected male for anything.
Still, it was attractive.
“I said, stop scrolling,” he repeated.
As she did before, Gayle ignored him.
So he plucked the Palm out of her hand, then shifted so he could shove it in his back pocket.
“Hey, give that back,” Gayle snapped at him.
“I will, if you stop scrolling,” he replied.
She glared at him.
Then she bent to the bag at her feet and pulled out her tablet.
Before she even got resettled in her seat, Cormac plucked that out of her fingers too.
“Hey!” she snapped, more annoyed this time.
“You’ll scroll on that as well,” Cormac explained.
“You can’t tell me not to scroll,” she proclaimed.
“I can when it distresses you,” he fired back.
I could tell Gayle was in no mood to put up with Cormac’s version of thoughtful, so I decided to wade in before it got any more heated.
The soni-jet seated fourteen, it was long and narrow, the seats were comfortable but there wasn’t a lot of space, and we didn’t need a full-on row because none of us could escape it.
“What are you scrolling?” I asked.
Cormac answered for Gayle. “She’s obsessed with the tapes.”
Even I could descend into an epic scroll session from time to time, but life was full, so it was rare.
And I knew Gayle was the same way, so this was a surprise.
“Why are you obsessed with the tapes?” I asked Gayle.
She averted her eyes.
So again, Cormac answered for her. “She’s hit some shit algorithm where Edgians are bitching about you.”
Ah hells.
It was not lost on me they were still talking, as it wasn’t lost on me they’d never stop. Mira had sent me a few e-comms to give me a heads-up about it. Her team monitored them, of course, not as closely as they did in the Fall, but she wouldn’t be doing her job if they didn’t.
However, she’d managed to place a glowing article in a popular on-pane magazine. It came out today, perfect timing for me and Tanyn to officially appear together for the first time at the party tomorrow night.
This article, of course, even glowing, gave fodder for beings to like me, or dislike me more if that was their predilection.
And so it goes.
“I don’t care about that kind of thing,” I reminded her.
“Well, I do,” she replied.
I knew what was worrying her.
The beings of the Fall adored Laura. Her ratings started sky high and stayed that way. She was the most popular of all the royals, including Aleksei, who had been a favorite since he was born.
What was happening to me was new to Gayle.
Since she was loving and loyal, she didn’t like it.
“I love it that you worry about me,” I said. “But you know, even Laura is going to do something folks don’t like. Actually, she already has, and she survived it. We all have to get used to it.”
“And get used to ignoring it,” Cormac added.
Gayle turned on Cormac. “And you’re used to it? If so, how? Because Land’s Endians think you light the stars at night.”
“True,” he allowed (yes, still growling), “but I’ve lived under a microscope since I was born. Even if they didn’t think that way, I’ve learned not to pay too much mind to what they do think.”
I kept a keen eye on him after the “lived under a microscope” comment, because I wondered if that exposed something, even a little something, about Cormac.
That brood?
I speculated if it was a cloak, or a shield, hiding something he didn’t want anyone to see. Or he was using it just to hide himself, because he didn’t want anyone to know the real Cormac Claymore.
“Which is a good way to go,” Estra butted in, leaning forward to look at Gayle. “I mean, obviously, I have no clue and never will, except knowing and loving Tanyn, who’s been both celebrated and raked over the coals.”
Another reason I liked Estra?
It was obvious she knew Tanyn well and cared deeply for him.
“But you could even get hooked on the good posts,” she went on. “And that could be bad, because if everyone is convinced you can do no wrong, you might convince yourself you can do anything, and no one is free to do whatever they want whenever they want to do it.”
Very wise.
Gayle felt the same way, I knew, when she nodded to Estra, turned back to Cormac and lifted a hand with her palm up his way.
“I won’t scroll. I’ll play a game or something.”
Obviously, he found this acceptable, because he handed back her tablet and her Palm.
She set her Palm aside and bent her head to her tablet.
And Cormac kept eagle eyes on her while she did.
Okay.
I was totally seeing it.
He might be gruff and unapproachable, along with trying to hide the fact, but he was into her.
I looked to Tanyn.
He tipped his head to the side in a See? gesture.
I saw, so I wrinkled my nose again, but it was a happy wrinkle this time.
He repeated the bop.
By Beelzebub.
We’d skipped morning sex again that morning.
I needed to be under him.
Soon.
I looked at my Palm.
We were landing at Aleksei’s penthouse, all of us going our separate ways (except Nayden, who, as ever, would be heading up security on me and at the flat, because Tanyn might be with me, and his own detail would be there, but this was my turf and that was Nayden’s).
This meant we’d have to fly from there to my place, which would take another ten to fifteen minutes, depending on traffic.
So I had to wait about an hour to fuck my male.
I wasn’t sure I could make it.
But alas, I had no choice.
Hurley trotted in first, even before Nayden got the nod from the warrior who had been in my flat checking it was clear for Tanyn and I to enter.
Tanyn and I followed, Nayden said goodnight, and I wandered into my flat, feeling like I’d been away from it for a year.
I also wandered in loving the decision Tanyn and I made to keep it.
Doing so meant—yes, he’d been right—when I was home, I could be home.
But also, keeping it felt like I wasn’t giving up as much.
In fact, it turned my thoughts on their head regarding the whole matter.
Yes, there were things I would miss.
But I’d gained Berg Castle, which was gorgeous. I’d also gained the citadel, where I’d only been once, but it was still special to me. And I had not only Tanyn, but all the beings he brought with him.
So maybe…
No definitely…
I was coming out ahead.
“You want a glass of wine?” Tanyn asked.
I knew what he wanted, because he’d dropped his overnighter and garment bag on the sofa and was moving directly to the wine closet.
Oh.
And I loved it that Tanyn felt so at home in my space, he knew he could help himself to the wine closet.
Hurley was lapping up the water in the water bowl I asked Mom to come over and put out for him when she’d come over to make sure all was good for Tanyn and I to arrive. Hurley was slopping the water all over the mat Mom had set it on.