Seeing Red

by Lyra Evans

  Cobalt, meanwhile, was not wearing swim trunks. He was still wearing the same pants as earlier, though his shirt hung open to reveal a long strip of bare, blue-brown skin, ridged perfectly over abs. His Soul Stone shone in the low light, calling to Niko with its quiet, intoxicating melody. Niko was certain he was the only one who could hear it, and that made it all the more painful.

  “You’re not joining me?” he asked, and the moment of hesitation that stretched between them was indication of both of their surprise. Niko didn’t generally need or want company when he swam to clear his head. But the last case they’d worked together, Cobalt had joined him. And he’d gifted Niko with the sight of his Waterdancing form. It was slightly altered by the unusual salts in the pool at the precinct, but Cobalt had taken Niko’s breath away regardless.

  Cobalt moved to the edge of the pool and dipped his toe in, at which point Niko noticed he wasn’t wearing shoes. A hissing inhale, and Cobalt removed his foot from the pool. Even a brief moment touching the chlorinated pool water was enough to suck moisture from Cobalt’s normally glowing skin. He immediately looked drier, and the discomfort showed on the planes of his perfect face.

  “I do not think that wise,” he said. “The chemicals in this water could do any number of unpleasant things to me, and I’m afraid I’m not eager to find out what those are. If you don’t mind, I’ll just keep you company from the edge.”

  Niko nodded shallowly, unsure if he was disappointed or relieved. Maybe both.

  Setting the tube of salve on the chair by his clothes, he turned back to the edge of the pool. Toes curling over the lip of the flagstone deck, he took a deep, centering breath. On the second inhale, he dove, arms out before him, into the water at the deepest point. Silence crashed into a muted flurry as Niko broke the surface of the water, and soon he was slipping smoothly through the water to come up on the other end of the pool.

  When he surfaced, throwing his head back and spraying droplets out behind him from his hair, he heard a gentle clapping. Wiping water from his eyes, Niko glanced over at Cobalt.

  “Nice form,” Cobalt mused, leaning back comfortably in the chair.

  Something rebellious rose in Niko. “You can do better?”

  Cobalt’s eyes glittered. He pressed his lips together briefly. “Is that a challenge?”

  It was sheer idiocy to challenge a Selkie to a swimming competition, diving or not. But Niko was sometimes a complete moron. “I’m just saying you might have swimming down pat, but diving is kind of closer to flying, isn’t it? I don’t see how you’d have opportunity to practice.”

  Cobalt’s pale eyebrow arched on his dark skin. “I’d rather compare it to falling than flying,” he said.

  Niko tread water. “So that’s a ‘no,’ then?”

  Turning to take in the details of the waterfall, Cobalt considered. “I shall take up your challenge, Pet,” he said in an undertone. The words were so quiet the sound of the waterfall nearly drowned them out. But Niko felt them under his skin. “What are the stakes?”

  “Anything,” Niko said, word rushing from his chest like wind knocked out of him. “Anything at all the winner wants.”

  Cobalt got up and crouched by the edge of the pool, holding his hand out over the water. “Shall we call it a deal?”

  His body was on fire. Or rocketed with electricity. Niko wasn’t sure. Cobalt was offering him a deal? A Deal, capital D. And the terms were so broad, so open to abuse and twists and loopholes—it was a Fae’s wet dream of a deal, really. And nightmare.

  Niko hesitated, staring at Cobalt’s outstretched hand. Cobalt knew the risks of such an agreement. And yet he offered Niko his hand freely. There was only one possible explanation.

  He trusts you.

  Without awareness, Niko had swum over to Cobalt, floating now within inches of his offered hand. Blue eyes meeting silver, Niko raised his own hand with such a slowness time itself might have come to a crawl. Their hands connected, palm to palm, fingers wrapped around each other, and Niko felt his own magic surge through him. It rushed like water from a broken dam into Cobalt’s palm and linked them both into the agreement. In Cobalt’s eyes, Niko saw the briefest flash of purple as the magic filled him. He had never noticed that happen before in anyone else.

  They held each other’s hand for a long moment, much longer than necessary to seal the deal. When Niko realized it, he released Cobalt’s palm gently and pulled his hand back beneath the water with the same agonizing slowness as he’d reached out. Cobalt touched his palm with his other fingers, as though his hand was forever changed from the experience. He seemed in awe.

  “So, let’s see it then,” Niko said, swallowing against the tightness in his throat. He sounded shaky.

  Cobalt smiled. “I never said I would prove my skills now,” he answered. “Not in a pool, and not in this kind of water.” He moved back to the edge of the lounge chair and sat down. “When this is all over, Pet, I’ll show you what it means to dive.”

  The flame of rebellion was back, perhaps sparked by the shock of being tricked by a Selkie. “Sounds like you’re stalling to me.” Niko shrugged with false disinterest. He wasn’t sure why he felt so frustrated by Cobalt’s refusal to come into the water now. He wasn’t sure what it was that eroded his nerves and patience every time they talked. Except he was. He was sure. He knew exactly what it was that was bothering him, he just didn’t want to admit it. “No guarantees we’ll survive until this is over.”

  Before Cobalt could respond, Niko sank down to the bottom of the pool, holding breath deep in his chest in an effort to pressurise the hollow space there until it burst. But as he tried to linger at the bottom, the weight of the water and the sky above bearing down on him, the hollowness only intensified. Spinning through the water to surface again, Niko coughed out an exhale to find Cobalt staring intently at him from his perch on the chair.

  “We will survive this,” Cobalt said, more serious than before.

  Niko brushed his hands through the first layer of water, idly enjoying the feel of it rippling against his skin. “You might. Starla and Coral and Uri might. Ash and Fir, I plan on ensuring that, if I can. But I’m the main target here, and the Woods is unyielding. If it comes to it, and I need to die to take her down—” He shrugged again, steeling himself for the possibility. He’d prepared himself to die at Sade’s hands when he went undercover. This wasn’t terribly different, except he didn’t have the support of the entire police department.

  Cobalt stood tall at the edge of the water, a statuesque sentry, made of stone and determination. “I will not let anything happen to you, Niko,” he said. “I promise you, you will survive this.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t have a great track record with promises, do you?” Niko said before he could stop himself.

  The words fell like stones around him in the water, plinking through the surface and sinking fast. The energy that radiated off Cobalt suddenly went cold, shrinking around him. Niko wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  “What promise have I not kept?” Cobalt asked, quiet and even.

  “You said you would be back ‘soon,’” Niko muttered, biting back the words he really wanted to speak.

  A tight beat, then Cobalt said, “I admit it took me longer than anticipated, but I did return. And I came straight to you. As I promised I would.” He sighed heavily. “I know I’ve caused you hurt, Niko, and I know your life has been particularly difficult these last weeks, but I am trying to repair it. I am trying, Niko. But you refuse to tell me how you are feeling, and if I do not know what it is you need, I cannot always be certain to provide it. But I will provide it. Whatever you want, I want to give it to you. But accusing me of not keeping my word feels like a determined attack on who I am. You know what my word means to me.”

  Tension built in Niko until he couldn’t hold it back anymore. The wires of his body were wrought tight to the point of breaking, and they did. They snapped all at once.

  “Then why won’t you give me your fucking Sou
l Stone?” Niko said, and he hated himself almost instantly. But once the words were on the air, he could not take them back. Cobalt looked as though he’d been slapped. And everything poured from Niko. “You promised me it was mine. Said I was your Soul Mate, that you’d just be borrowing it, giving it back. But you haven’t even offered. You put that in my chest and made me whole, then took it fucking back and left me hollow.” Tears stung his eyes. He slapped them away, but the chlorine on his hands only made it worse. “So what is it? Am I your Soul Mate or not? Change your mind? You say you won’t leave me, but you’re keeping it so you can transform and go back into the water at any time. So which is it, Cobalt?”

  Nothing in the world was happening then. No sound came from anywhere around them. No crickets chirping, no raccoons scuttling by, even the waterfall seemed to halt. Niko heard nothing at all but the sound of his own ragged breathing. There was a void around Cobalt, like he’d sucked in all the sound from the world in his shock. Niko hazarded a glance and found Cobalt not looking livid like Niko expected. Instead, he had his eyes shut, his head down, and he seemed almost flat. Like he was trying not to show emotion.

  It was a long time before Cobalt spoke, and Niko was far too stubborn and stupid to try and fill the silence in between them. As the seconds stretched away, he felt deeper and deeper in a bottomless hole, but for the life of him he couldn’t make himself apologize or dismiss his own claims. Because it hurt him every day. There was no way to explain the feeling of emptiness in him because he hadn’t realized until Cobalt gave him the Soul Stone in the first place that he was empty.

  When Cobalt finally did speak, his words were so quiet Niko struggled to hear them. “There is a tradition, in my culture, of grand gestures,” he said, “when offering one’s Soul Stone to one’s Soul Mate. I was forced into a corner during our last case, put in a position where keeping my own Stone would endanger not just me, but also you. I gave it to you in the manner I did because I knew it was the only way to keep it and you safe.” He paused, fighting with his jaw. He breathed in a slow breath, and Niko saw the intense struggle of it. He was swallowing down who knew how many thoughts and words and feelings. “I have not offered it to you since returning because I wanted it to be special. I wanted to heal the hurt I had caused you in my absence, to clear your name as I know it is important to you, and to plan a way in which I could adequately display to you how much you mean to me.” Another tight swallow, a forced breath, and Cobalt finally said, “But every time I try to convince you of my feelings, of my devotion to you, you seem to balk. You pull away.” He reached to his chest before Niko’s eyes, and Niko watched, unable to breathe, as Cobalt removed his own Soul Stone and held it out to Niko. “I meant it when I said it belonged to you. It still does. So take it, if you wish. I have not changed my mind about being your Soul Mate. But I wonder sometimes, Niko, have you?”

  Wanting to drown, Niko held still a moment, eyes screwed shut. He fought with himself so violently he thought he might burst. Breaking through the tension, he slashed at the water.

  “I don’t know!” he cried, unable to make sense of anything at all. “I don’t know what it means to be a Soul Mate! Maybe this is too hard. Maybe I’m too broken, too fucked up to be anyone’s Fated. Maybe I can’t do it. You want to give me what I want, but maybe I don’t fucking know what I want! Maybe I shouldn’t get what I fucking want for once—” And then, like a sledgehammer to the back of his skull, the plan struck Niko. He stopped, wrung out and worn out and panting. “What she wants,” he breathed, pulled out of the moment. “I have what she wants. So give it to her.” His eyes found Cobalt again, still holding his Soul Stone out, and the Selkie’s crystal eyes were brimming with an emotion Niko was desperately afraid of seeing there. “Fuck,” he said, pushing himself out of the pool. “I—I don’t—fuck!”

  Cobalt pressed his Soul Stone back to his chest with a slow nod. “Yes,” he said. “I agree.” He exhaled slowly, deeply. “Go tell them your plan before you it escapes you.”

  Niko hesitated still, and maybe that was indication enough of how much he did want Cobalt, how much he cared. In another life, Niko wouldn’t have stopped for even a second. But he searched Cobalt’s eyes and couldn’t make that terrifying emotion disappear.

  “But I—” he started. “Cobalt—”

  A strange commotion suddenly sounded from inside the house. Niko and Cobalt both turned sharply toward the sound. Niko’s heart rooted him to the ground, but Niko being Niko, he never really listened closely to his heart.

  He ran into the house.

  Chapter 28

  “What the fuck!”

  “Get out! I don’t know who you are—”

  “You don’t understand—just let me—”

  “Yes? Police? There’s an intruder in my home—”

  “Oh? Calling the cops again, are we?”

  “What do you mean—”

  Moving like a whirlwind, Niko returned to the main living area, his swim trunks still dripping slightly. His heart beat the rhythm of a call to arms in his chest, and he grabbed for the gun in his bag. Starla and Coral were struggling in the entryway, pushing against the door to keep someone out who seemed to have every intention of getting in. Niko drew his weapon and spread his feet to proper stance without even thinking about it.

  “Star, Coral, get out of the way,” he called. As Starla and Coral turned and saw the gun, dashing aside to be out of firing range, Cobalt appeared from outside.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, but Niko’s mind was focused on the man who stumbled into the entrance now the pressure opposite him was gone.

  “Hands where I can see them!” Niko called out, and the man caught himself on the closet door, looking up with wide eyes. He froze and flinched, holding one hand out to calm Niko.

  “Whoa, Niko, it’s me!” he said, but Niko didn’t recognize him. He had pale blonde hair and blue eyes, his porcelain skin dappled with freckles. At his throat was a black leather collar, and when he held out his hand to halt Niko’s actions, Niko saw a black leather cuff peeking out from beneath his button down shirt.

  A beat passed, and Niko lowered his weapon. “Preston?”

  Gun no longer trained on him, Preston heaved a sigh of relief and reached for the collar around his neck to remove it. Once he’d taken it and the cuffs off, his dark hair and dark eyes were back to normal, his features returning to the ones Niko had come to know.

  “Preston?” Starla said, and Niko realized she’d been crouching by the banister to the stairwell with Coral for cover.

  “Nice to see you again too, Starla, my love,” Preston said flatly, brushing out his hair and trying to recover his breath. He moved immediately to the front door, noticing it still open, and closed it. “I do love a warm welcome.”

  Starla emerged from around the banister, Coral following with more wariness in her expression. Preston set the cuffs and collar aside, and Niko felt his chest unfasten, easing the tension.

  “You came,” Niko said, moving toward him as though he could scarcely believe Preston was there. A smile spread on Niko’s face at the shock. Preston was too valuable an asset not to be grateful he was there, but as thick silence fell over everyone else present, Niko realized it must seem odd for him to be happy to see the Werewolf. Not days earlier he’d hated Preston, wanted him locked up for good. And yet now he found himself almost reaching out to greet Preston in a way he hadn’t even managed for Cobalt. His—he wasn’t sure now. The words he’d spoken outside crashed down on him again, and with them came a wave of shame.

  “Miss me already, do you?” Preston asked quietly, his casual arrogance almost meant as a joke. He glanced up at Cobalt, standing behind Niko, and the look in his eyes changed somewhat. Niko didn’t understand it.

  “I wasn’t sure you would,” Niko admitted. It had been an effort to convince Preston, and Niko hadn’t frankly thought he’d managed.

  “Well, I figured if the Woods are about to be burned down, I should get out of th
e forest while I can,” he admitted. “Be on the right side of history, you know.”

  “How self-sacrificing,” Coral muttered, and Preston shot her a look.

  “And why are you here again?” he asked.

  She frowned, and Starla intervened, shaking her head. “What’s with the disguise? You mated to someone since I last saw you?”

  Preston laughed a sound undercut by bitterness. Niko wasn’t sure the others noticed it. Or maybe he was imagining it entirely.

  “Oh Starla, you know me. I’m a lone wolf, literally,” he said. “Besides, who out there would have m—”

  His words cut off abruptly as Uri came down the stairs. “What the fuck is going on down here?”

  Preston was frozen in place, his eyes shining almost golden as he stared at Uriah. Niko looked between them, but Uri didn’t seem to have much reaction. He stopped at the bottom stair and studied Preston, his lips slightly parted. A slight furrowing of his brow indicated confusion, but it was nothing like the expression on the Werewolf’s face. Niko saw his nostrils flare just slightly. The look in his eyes could only be described as awe.

  “Who are you?” Preston asked, words full of breath.

  Uri raised his eyebrows. “Detective Uriah Fern,” he answered professionally. “Who are you?”

  Preston’s mouth quirked upward at the edges, pulling slowly and smoothly. “Preston,” he answered. “Niko mentioned you, but he never mentioned—” He stopped, taking a long, slow inhale and biting his lower lip. “You smell—delectable.”

  Uri’s eyes widened; he seemed taken aback. The slight warming of his cheeks told Niko he wasn’t offended, though, and the way he reached up and ruffled the hair at the back of his head was likely a good sign. Niko understood now, why Preston had thought he smelled so good, confusing the both of them. Werewolf senses were so sensitive, so precise, but the origins of a scent were not always clear. Werewolves trained from youth to understand the information from their senses, particularly their noses. But Preston had never gotten that.