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I scramble out of the car and watch Theo quickly disappear up the path. Without waiting for Edith to follow me, I trudge along behind him, in much less of a rush to find out what is going on here. Edith keeps up, though, and, thankfully, manages to keep her worries to herself as we walk together into the tavern and through the kitchens.
Mauvy isn’t in there, and when the door swings open and we make our way into the tavern proper, I can see why. Everyone is there except Seldon, who won’t be in for another hour or so for his shift.
But Caelan, Tor, and Mauvy, along with more than a few of the regulars, are watching with all too keen an interest inmyTheo and the smarmy bastard stroking his arm and laying his hand on his knee, like he has any claim to him.
Still flustered and flushed in the face, Theo seems to have taken the guy over to the empty hearth. The high-backed chairs give the illusion of privacy but the angle allows us to still keep an eye on them. Was that strategic on Theo’s part?
I hate this guy on sight, unreasonably loathing his presence in my domain. My only comfort is that Theo is determinedly keeping his distance, shuffling the chair along the flagstones wheneverDariusgets too close.
Sliding onto the bench seat next to Caelan, I nod over to my friends, the mages, watching from their table with curious,dour faces. Their disapproval only adds to the icy lump in my stomach. Do they know something I don’t? Or are they just being protective because of their friendship with me? Why is my fae-tuition so fucking silent about this?
“Did you know about this bloke?” Tor leans across the table to ask. I shake my head and drain the beer Caelan has slid in front of me.
“Nope.” The “p” pops loudly, and I rap my fingers on the table. “I did not. I assume you didn’t either?”
Tor snorts. “My bet was on him being a virgin. Turns out my little brother has some secrets.Shocking.”
The man, who I guess is handsome, in a preppy and uptight kind of way, has both of Theo’s hands clasped in his now. I can’t see his face, but that doesn’t matter. The irrational and insane part of me reasons—I don’t need to see his face to rip it from his skull. A hand on my arm yanks me back to the seat roughly before I even realise I am standing.
“Look dude, I get it. But you need to let Theo deal with this one. He looks fine.” Caelan murmurs in my ear. And sure enough, Theo does look fine, maybe a little worried at most. Knowing that the lot of us are watching, he shoots us a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. I still grunt and elbow Caelan roughly, not appreciating his sensible attitude at all right now.
“I scanned him when he came in.” Edith murmurs against my ear, now standing behind me with a gentle, yet firm hand on my shoulder. Theo is making his way over to us, waving to the clumps of guests calling out to him. He’s become a fixture here in such a short time, and everyone is more than keen to make sure he is okay. “But there was nothing. No ill intent, nothing. Almost… blankness.” That certainly is odd, but I don’t have time to reply because Theo is shuffling his feet in front of us.
“As much as I dolovebeing the centre of attention here, I’m going to take Darius back to the house.” At the collectiveintake of breath, Theo sharply cuts his hand through the air and glowers at each one of us individually. “I owe him a conversation without you fishwives hanging about.”
His smile softens when he looks at me again, no doubt because the sick feeling in my guts is written all over it. With no choice other than causing an embarrassing scene that I know Theo won’t appreciate, I bob my head along with everyone's murmurs of agreement.
The only thing that keeps me in my seat as the pompous asshole follows him out the front doors is the way Theo deftly avoids his hand, and the way he turns back to mouth “I love you” to me across the room.
“Are you going to tell me what that last thing was about?” Tor’s eyes swing back to me the moment his brother leaves eyeshot. I pour myself another pint and drain it.
“Absolutely not.”
Caelan chuckles on one side of me, jostling me as he lightly kicks his mate under the table. Mauvy and Edith plonk themselves down to join us, and we sit and force idle chatter for a while.
We catch up about the farm and how Caelan had trusted Tor with a chainsaw for the first time resulting in them all narrowly escaping with all their limbs, and Edith tells us all far too much about her latest rendezvous with a Tree Spirit in the Woods.
But I think she only shared that tidbit so I’d shut her up with bottles of wine to hide around the Woods for her travels.
After half an hour or so of mundane chit chat, the conversation shutters.
“How long do we give them?” Mauvy eyes the door with a fierce frown on her face, fiddling with the ends of her braids worriedly.
“As long as he needs. This was Theo’s thing the whole time, people not trusting him,” I counter.
“It’s nothimwe don’t trust.” Caelan’s voice is more shrewd and harsh than I am used to hearing from him. “It’s that other bloke. Darian.”
“Darius. And yeah, but Theo won’t see it that way,” Tor counters, sighing heavily and shifting uncomfortably at having to be the reasonable one.
“Theo won’t seewhatthat way?” Seldon, having slid in through the back door unnoticed, now elbows his way between Edith and Mauvy on the other side of the table. He is dressed for work. Just not necessarily for work here, with his creative liberties on the already liberal uniform of a button up in white or black and clean trousers.
His cropped and perfectly pressed white shirt is in stark contrast to Edith's all black. But his high-waisted trousers, complete with pleats and wide belt, mean that he isn’t flashing too much skin. It’s a fine line Seldon likes to tread with his work attire. Flipping his head as if he were tossing his fiery red hair over his shoulder, he eyes everyone in turn, waving his hand to encourage us to continue our gossiping.
I rap a quick rhythm out on the hard wood of the table and avoid his gaze.
“Theo’s boyfriend’s here.” Tor's voice is pointedly expressionless. Seldon’s pointed features scrunch in confusion.
“Uh, do you mean Roan, because I can see that.”
