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Caelan pulls Tor into an embrace, kissing his temple and rubbing his back. Roan is still as a statue next to me. The arm that had been secured around my shoulders drops. He folds his hands in his lap, his back rigid. He’d flinched at my brother's words, though. I think I’ve pissed him off. My face heats, the rush of blood making my neck itchy.
“I’m sorry. I know. It was stupid. I just didn’t… I didn’t want to face it? Any of it? Like if I didn’t talk about it, none of it was real. Darius, the message, the wholerelationship, and then my powers returning, or changing, or whatever. And I didn’t want anyone to see me that way again… you know. All broken and different and stuff… I, uh. It’s a thing. I’m working on it.” I drop my hand under the table to squeeze Roan’s thigh. He presses his calf against me, but that’s it.
“Well, that’s enough bombshells for me this morning.” Edith stands, snagging a piece of toast from the picked-over breakfast trays.
“Theo, my darling, I am very glad that you are well after your ordeal. And I want to learn the exploding fire thing. I have a few people I would like to practise on.” She hurries around the table to give me a squeezing hug from behind. “I will see you all later.” We watch her leave, and Mauvy turns to the mages.
“She’s going for the book, you know that, right?” Caelan points out to the completely unconcerned mages.
“Indeed, we do. But never worry. We’re a step ahead of the witch. But we, too, must be away. Things to do, elements to master, and all that.” With that, and a dramatic flurry of cloaks, Alain and Tarook leave, too.
Tor shoves himself away from the table to pace around the space between the benches. He mumbles to himself, arguing hisown points. And then he turns sharply on his heel, stalking his way around to my seat.
For one horrifying moment, I look at my brother's staggeringly handsome andangryface towering above me, and I think he’s going to hit me. Instead, he reaches for my shoulders, yanking me upright and hauling me to him in a breath-stealing hug.
“I am so fucking mad at you, Theo. You need totalkto me. Tell me shit. Not so I can protect you or baby you. But because I’m your brother, and I love you, and we’re the only family we have left.” I think Caelan and Roan and the others at the table would violently disagree with his fervent whisper in my ear, but I let it go. “But no matter what, baby brother, I am grateful you’re safe. That you’re here.”
He leans back, holding my shoulders tight. Tears glisten in his eyes, making their vivid blue turn icy. My own tears are only being held back by the tight seal I have on my lips, so I nod and pull him back in for a tighter hug.
Seff, ever the snuggle slut, and never one to let an opportunity for a group hug pass, launches himself around the table to wrap his beefy arms around us. Caelan and Roan join the pile next, followed by Seldon, who I think might be trying to feel up my brother just a little. Mauvy takes the longest to join in because she drags a stool over so she isn’t just hugging man-butt.
It’s a different kind of cocoon from the one I made myself after my first kidnapping. Unrestrained love wraps around us all like a bond. Safe. Welcome.
Home.
Roan
I am not theonly one who’s been watching Theo with a careful eye over the past few days.
The first day, after an extended goodbye—which burned my ears when I had the misfortune of overhearing them in their room—Caelan had returned to the homestead while Tor stayed at the tavern.
Theo had insisted on spending the day in the garden, puttering about between the beds, threatening people with his trowel if they tried to get him to rest. Realising that Theo wasn’t going to give up, Tor had joined him in the gardens. Not working, obviously. Instead he’d laid in the sun on a lounger he’d dug out from somewhere. Seff was already long gone by then; his dad had called him about something at work and he had to leave. He hadn’t been happy about it, swearing up a storm and leaving a message for that Rafe guy. Not that it had mattered, since the guy is staying at the tavern for a bit.
Rather irritatingly, I still had to show my face in the tavern but still popped out every hour or two to check on Theo and Tor, just to reassure myself that he was still there and safe.
He’d been exhausted when we collapsed into my bed that night, snuggling under my arm and passing out before his head hit the pillow. I’d stayed awake most of the night worrying that he was repressing his feelings with work again. I tossed and turned, the knot of fear in my stomach ballooning until I finally fell into a fitful and unsatisfying sleep.
All my worrying was for nothing though. Yesterday morning he’d woken up and called Dr Brordieu first thing. Apparently, being kidnapped and held at knifepoint constitutes an emergency house call, so the doctor made the trip out to visit with Theo before lunch.
They’d talked for hours, choosing the privacy of the house, while I had kept myself busy annoying everyone behind the bar. It was mid afternoon, and Dr Brordieu was only just leaving when more visitors arrived, only much more inconvenient and unexpected.
The police.
I hadn’t even considered the possibility of the police being called. After all, the beings and creatures of the Whisper Woods deal with their own. So long as we keep to ourselves and don’t interfere with the rest of the land, the authorities don’t bother us. So, unless there is agoodreason, say… someone using their magic to pilfer the funds of some of the most influential and wealthy beings in the land, the police stay out of our matters.
It’s safe to say we were all startled when two detectives from Twin Heads, one human and one a canine shifter, came knocking on the tavern doors. They had been tight-lipped at first, but then we had been, too, when they asked after Theo.
Eventually, after they realised they were getting nowhere, they relented and informed us they were investigating on behalf of the Loqueaur City P.D., who were investigating Darius for investment fraud and manipulation by magical means.
When they raided his apartment, they found Theo’s name repeatedly amongst his belongings. With the evidence of Darius’s and Theo’s past relationship, Theo’s estrangement from his father and subsequent disinheritance, it had seemed fishy that his father was then a victim.
Thankfully, we had at least two dozen witnesses to corroborate Theo’s innocence and Darius’s fate. Then Theo had pulled out the big guns, a phone he had hidden in his room with masses of unhinged texts he’d received from Darius.
I almost raged out when I saw it, sitting there in front of the detectives in the small staff quarters at the back of the tavern. Theo had placed his hand on my arm, telling me with his eyes to hold it together, and he’d explain later.
The detectives were leery of the entire situation, and if they hadn’t been under pressure from up high, it would have definitely been written off as Whisper Woods business. But they were under orders, so they collected their statements and took Theo’s phone as evidence.
He’d gladly surrendered it, almost relieved to have the thing gone from his possession. When they left, they’d heavily suggested that he not go too far in case they had any more questions.
