by Lyra Evans
“It’s just your body,” she’d said to him, in those dark nights at the beginning, when he still wasn’t used to the wounds, to the recovery. “It’s not you. Take it as a strength, not a shame. He can’t break you like he can the others.”
But he’d borne it like a shame nonetheless. Even now, after proving Sade impotent, humiliating him, and taking from him the information he’d held over Niko in the first place, Niko still felt ashamed of everything that had happened. He felt ashamed of letting himself be hurt, letting himself be touched and fucked and so many other things. And he bore the shame of getting off.
And then he thought of Cobalt, and how he’d fucked Niko against the wall in that room, how he’d bound Niko’s arms and pinched his nipples and hurt him without hurting him. And even the edge of that memory sent a thrill through Niko’s body. And then the feeling of Cobalt cleaning him, tending to him afterward shook Niko again. He still didn’t understand it. He wasn’t sure he could.
But none of that mattered. What had happened with Cobalt was a release of tension, of pent-up frustration. It was a momentary lapse of judgment, and Niko knew it couldn’t go anywhere. It wouldn’t. Cobalt was a professional associate, and he would return to his Court at the close of the case. Niko would do what was necessary, including allow Cobalt full reign over his body while they were undercover, but it was for the sake of the case.
And the ache in Niko’s chest was something he would simply have to get used to. Or bury down deep, like everything else.
He got up and walked in to the bathroom, splashing some water on his face to help him regain control of himself. The walls of the bathroom were glass, revealing pretty much everything to anyone looking in, so Niko refrained from glaring into the mirror, from talking himself down, from doing anything but channel his mess of emotions inward. He schooled his face back to a stoic mask and went to the living area.
“Have you looked at your name and details?” Cobalt asked, looking up from the police files Niko had collected at the station. Niko shook his head. “You’re Kilo Beech. It sounds like a place more than a name.”
Niko walked over and took the ID Cobalt held out to him. His stomach settled, his muscles yielding slightly, and his mind eased as he had something to focus on. Something concrete and relevant and important. A voice at the back of his mind whispered truths to him, but he told himself firmly he was not doing what Uri accused him of. He was not simply disappearing into a case because it was easier.
“Not the best one they’ve given me,” he said, trying not to think too hard on ‘Kiran’ and how he’d become ‘Kiki.’ “It was short notice, though. Do I have a job?”
Cobalt flipped through the pages. “You’re my personal assistant,” he said, reading the information. “Seems a bit on the nose, does it not?”
Niko considered it. “I guess if I’m your long-term, live-in pet, it would make sense that my job would be to work for you,” he said. “Possibly, that’s even how the relationship started.”
Cobalt’s mouth pulled to the side in a coy smirk. “That sounds like the plot of a romance novel,” he said.
“Read many of those in Azure’s Court, do you?” Niko asked, studying the details on his ID and committing them to memory.
“I have many interests,” was all Cobalt said in response. “I seem to be a restauranteur. Looking to open a new eatery in Maeve’s Court, I suppose.” He mulled over the information a moment. “They’ve named the restaurants for me, which is somewhat disappointing.”
“What are they?” Niko asked because he should know, but his mind caught on the strange wistfulness in Cobalt’s comment.
“The Other Door, The Goblin Market, Nimbus, and Carnelian,” he said. “Isn’t carnelian a gemstone?”
Niko nodded. “It’s mostly used to enhance pleasure and sensation in Nimueh’s Court. It serves best for sense magic, so I suppose that restaurant might claim its use to enhance the experience of the food.”
Cobalt seemed far off a moment, his eyes wandering toward nothing. “Ah yes,” he said finally. “I remember its effects. Quite clever.”
The quality of Cobalt’s voice as he relived his memories of his Landwalk in the pleasure district of Nimueh’s Court caused a cascade of incomprehensible feelings in Niko’s chest. He picked at one of the pages outlining their covers as a distraction.
“Looks like they haven’t named the one you’re looking to open here, though,” he said. “You can name that one.”
“Shall I?” Cobalt asked.
Niko shrugged, aiming for disinterested but landing instead on hesitant. “It might help you sound more believable in your role, if you have something to say about the restaurant you’re supposed to be opening.”
Cobalt studied him. “Perhaps I’ll call it The Well,” he said. At Niko’s lack of reaction, he continued, “In Selkie lore, at the time before the Tides, there was a great war of the Landwalkers. Much blood was shed, many warriors fell, and bodies littered the shoreline of the Great Ocean. Blood ran so thick it stained the ocean waters and touched the Great Reef. Seeing the death on Land, the Reef swelled the Ocean around it, waves surging to the shores and dragging the fallen warriors into the heart of it. The onslaught of water was so intense it halted the fighting, with warriors seeking to escape the surge of the ocean rather than down one another.
“The Great Reef took the lost souls of the fallen and absorbed them into itself to protect them. But the First Tide had so frightened the Landwalkers they sought to destroy the Reef to regain their land and protect themselves. The Reef responded by restoring life to the fallen souls it had collected. It gave them bodies and magic and bid them to protect it and their new home. Thus the Selkies were born. They rose to fight the Landwalkers, and the fighting was terrible. Worse than the war that caused the Reef to push out in the first place. Seeing this, the Reef surged again, claiming yet more land beneath its waves than before. Again, the fighting stopped, but this time the Selkies proposed a compromise. They would return to the ocean and stay there, the Reef pulling back the waters to return their lands, provided the Landwalkers ceased their assault on the ocean and kept their bloodshed away from the sea. To guarantee their cooperation, the Reef promised to keep the Tides, the water rising twice a day, every day, to remind the Landwalkers of the consequences of their actions.”
As Cobalt spoke, a vivid story played out in Niko’s mind, a set of dramatic tableaus depicting the battlefield at the edge of the water, the surging of the sea, and the rise and birth of Selkies. It was rendered in colour and movement like nothing Niko had ever seen with his mind’s eye, and he felt strangely transfixed by the power of the story.
“Where does the Well come in?” Niko asked, still simmering in the shallows of the tale.
“The Great Reef surrounds a deep water well, known to Selkies as The Well,” Cobalt said. “It is from there that the first Selkies were born. Now, whenever a Selkie finds herself expecting, she travels to The Well and catches a fish from its depths. In a ceremony as old as our people, the expecting Selkie will consume the fish from The Well. Through this, every child Selkie is born with a unique Soul Stone and the powers, gifted to the First Selkies by the Great Reef, to Dance in the Water and Walk on Land.”
For a long moment, Niko sat quietly, feeling the push and pull of the waves beyond the balcony of their room. It was a beautiful story. They all were, really—the Stories of Old. The origins of all the species and races. Werewolves told stories of the Moon and their Endless Night and the Hunt. Witches and Wizards spoke of the first magic users, the people to discover the power of gemstones and runemagic, and how they were born of the Old Gods, gifted powers to bend nature to their will. Even Fae had their own set of tales, born of the Goddess Danann and servants of her first three children, the Goddesses of Time. They were meant reign over the Past, the Present, and the Future, standing as watchful judgment over all Fae to keep the balance of the world. It is by their rule that Fae magic insists on a trade, an equal exchange to ma
intain balance. Fascinating and beautiful. And mostly bullshit, Niko was sure.
There had been little balance in his life, as he saw it, and magical rules aside, there was little evidence to his mind proving Danann and her daughters existed at all. Perhaps Cobalt believed in the Great Reef. Perhaps the Great Reef was real. But did eating fish from The Well really give Selkies their Soul Stones? Had there ever been a Selkie to test the theory? Niko doubted it. The idea of using your unborn child as a metaphysical experiment was somewhat wrong, Niko thought, but the point still stood. He wasn’t about to suggest that to Cobalt though.
“You think it’s just a pretty story,” Cobalt said, somehow reading Niko’s mind. Niko started slightly, his jaw tight. Cobalt’s face bore a small smile, though. “Just a myth.”
“No,” Niko said quickly, unsure why he was denying it. But the fact that Cobalt could read that about him so easily made him uncomfortable. He shook his head. “I just—do you think maybe it’s a little personal for an undercover mission? Too close to who you really are? And if a Selkie is involved in this, they might recognize the origins of that, no?”
Cobalt thought on that. “I suppose,” he said. “Though if a Selkie is involved, they likely know my face anyway, and the alias will serve no purpose at all.” He leaned against the sofa, spreading his arms over the back of it. Niko tried not to lean back too, to feel Cobalt’s arm as if it was around him. “Perhaps you’re right, though. Perhaps it is too close to what I might actually name a restaurant. I do like the idea of food giving people soul…” He fell silent a long moment. “Perhaps I shall go with Blue.” He paused again, his eyes on Niko now, tracing along the pieces of his midnight hair. “Yes. Blue.”
A knock at the door derailed Niko’s thoughts, and he got to his feet to go answer it. Checking the peephole, he found Ylli, the bellhop from before, pushing a rather large cart topped with several plates. Niko opened the door for him, and he nodded with a smile.
“Room service for Mr. Snyder?” he asked. Niko gestured for him to come in. Ylli pushed the cart into the room. “Shall I set the table for you, Sir?”
“Please,” Cobalt said, his voice a quiet rumble that shook Niko down into his belly.
Ylli set to work and laid out the various plates on the table, adding crystal glasses, cloth-wrapped cutlery, and even a small vase in the centre with a floating lotus in it. When he was done, he bowed deeply and pulled his cart back toward the door.
“If everything is to your satisfaction, Sir, I will leave you to your dinner,” Ylli said. Cobalt got to his feet to survey the table. Niko realized how hungry he was when the savoury scent of steak reached him. His stomach rumbled loudly, to his horror.
“Thank you, Ylli,” Cobalt said, handing him another tip for his efforts. Ylli took it graciously, his face a mask of happiness.
“My pleasure, Sir,” he said. “You can press the button by the phone whenever you like for me to come retrieve the plates and clean up,” he added. “I hope you enjoy your dinner, Sir.” He bowed once more to Cobalt, nodding carefully to Niko, then disappeared out the door.
“This isn’t going to work,” Niko said, studying the elaborate array of dishes set for just three of them. Cobalt looked up at him in confusion. Niko frowned. “No one will believe you’re a millionaire restauranteur.”
Cobalt raised one eyebrow. “Why not?”
“You’re too kind to be rich,” Niko said without pause. “And certainly too kind to buy someone just to torture and kill them.”
Cobalt took a step toward him, moving slowly like a shark through still waters. “You wish me to be cruel?” he asked, his voice low and rippling with suggestions. “Should I have held Ylli against the wall, my hand to his throat, demanding what took him so long?” Niko stood motionless, his back to the glass wall of the bathroom as Cobalt advanced on him. “Or do you still think I should have ordered nothing for you? Perhaps you want me to bind and gag you, and set you at my feet while I eat, making you watch and beg for the slightest taste of the food on my lips,” he breathed. He crowded Niko to the wall, his scent overwhelming Niko again. He leaned, his forehead almost touching Niko’s, his hands on either side of Niko’s shoulders to imprison him. “Say the word, Niko, and you’ll have what you want.”
Blood pumping viciously through his body, Niko felt his cock harden and his breathing grow laboured. He pictured himself at Cobalt’s feet, naked and bound by rope and leather, a circle gag in his mouth as he waited for Cobalt give him what he wanted. And it was nothing at all about food.
“I want to bring Indigo’s murderer to justice,” Niko said, forcing the words out through clenched teeth. “I want to take down the Woods. That’s all.”
“Is it?” Cobalt asked, and Niko could taste him on the air. His cock twitched, and it took every ounce of his will to stop himself bucking into Cobalt.
“Nothing else matters,” Niko said. “So you’re going to have to start treating me more like a pet and less like a partner if you want this to work.”
Without hesitation, Cobalt threw Niko’s arms up above his head, pinning them to the glass wall. “In public I’ll molest you without your permission as much as you like,” Cobalt said, his voice gravelly. “But in private, where no one else can see, I’ll never treat you as anything less than you are.”
The words hung on the air for a moment, ringing in Niko’s head. Cobalt brushed the edge of his teeth over Niko’s ear but did nothing else. Another knock at the door disturbed the palpable magnetism between them, and Niko shut his eyes as Cobalt pulled away.
Niko took a moment to compose himself, trying to will away the visible erection he now sported. When he thought he was calm enough, he checked the door again. Starla stood somewhat impatiently on the other side. He pulled it open and let her in, but her eyes travelled the length of him before taking in any other details of the room.
“Interrupting something, am I?” she asked with a quirk of her brow. Niko glared at her. She turned to the rest of the room as Niko closed the door behind her, and with a sniff at the air, she exclaimed, “Oak and Fir, that smells delicious. I’m starving.” Starla sat herself down at the table without hesitation, sparing a simple glance at Cobalt. “Swanky room and pricey new threads…I guess you really do have the cash to back up this persona.”
Cobalt took his own seat at the table opposite her, leaving a spot between them for Niko. He shot a glance at Niko, inviting him to join them without words, and Niko pulled out the last chair and sat down, chewing on the inside of his cheek. Starla pulled off the silver covers of each platter one by one, revealing the steaming food Cobalt had ordered for them. There was a perfectly grilled rib roast, cut to show the impeccable rich red centre, surrounded by herbs and a thick gravy. A platter of roasted rainbow carrots garnished with a crust of a kind Niko couldn’t identify, a serving bowl of sautéed mushrooms Niko was sure were more expensive than the steak, and a plate of assorted stir-fried vegetables were arranged around the roast. A hand-carved wooden bowl filled with a lush salad sat to one end of the table, and a bottle of wine stood opened and breathing by Niko’s plate. There was one last dish sitting at the opposite end of the table, still covered with a silver top.
“I hope this is to your satisfaction,” Cobalt said, apparently addressing Starla.
“Oh, you do know how to treat a girl, don’t you?” she answered, already serving herself some of the roast and potatoes. Cobalt’s eyes, however, lingered on Niko, and he had a strong sense that the food was for his sake more than Starla’s, despite what she had demanded. “What’s under that last cover?” Starla asked, reaching for it.
“Dessert,” Cobalt said, gently pressing it down to stop her revealing it. Starla met his gaze a moment, then with a smile Niko couldn’t place, she went back to her meal.
“Bit much for three people, isn’t it?” Niko asked, picking up the plate of carrots and serving himself a few.
“Speak for yourself,” Starla answered, taking the carrots from him and heaping the
m onto her plate. “Oh Ash, Fir, Birch, and Fern, this is fucking delicious,” she said, taking a bite of the steak.
“Not hungry, Niko?” Cobalt asked. Niko opened his mouth to answer, but his stomach took that precise moment to rumble loudly, betraying him. Cobalt’s smirk was almost enough to make Niko try to deny it.
Instead, he said nothing, grimacing as he served himself some roast. He filled his plate, though not to the level Starla did, and tucked in. And she was right; the food was good. Simply prepared but still the best meal Niko had ever eaten in his life, which wasn’t a terrible feat. He ate quickly, suddenly ravenous the moment the first bite touched his tongue, and barely noticed when Cobalt poured out a measure of wine into both his and Starla’s cup.
“We’re on the job,” Niko said when he finally did look up to his glass.
Cobalt shook his head. “It will enhance the flavour of the food,” he said. “This isn’t for getting drunk.”
“Cheers,” Starla said, holding her glass aloft and taking a long sip. She held it out after swallowing, studying the liquid. “I don’t know much about wine, but that’s some good shit.”
Niko lifted his glass to his nose, breathing in the aromas and trying to cleanse his senses of everything else. He took a sip and let the liquid spill down his tongue to his throat. It was smooth and rich and unlike any wine he’d ever had before.
“How much did this bottle cost?” he asked, staring at the label.
“Do you like it?” Cobalt asked in response.
“I don’t see why that—”
“Yes or no?” Cobalt insisted.
Niko pursed his lips, setting the glass down. “Yes,” he said.
Cobalt’s smile grew. “Then it doesn’t matter. The cost was worth it.”