by Holley Trent
Asher could only blink.
He rolled closer still, stopping barely six inches from Asher’s toes. “You pulled me out and ran.”
“I…”
“You always told me you’d never learned to swim.”
Asher swallowed and dragged his tongue over suddenly dry lips.
Heat flooded his face as he realized Keith was watching his mouth.
He’d told Keith that lie numerous times. Keith had told him to go swim because it was hot, but Asher hadn’t wanted to leave him for anything except to scavenge for food and water. He’d been afraid he wouldn’t be able to get back to him, or that he’d lose him in an instant. Keith was the only friend he’d had, and he’d become quite fond of him in those rare moments he was coherent. His scandalous sense of humor had always made Asher’s ears burn.
“You swam out there and dragged my heavy ass to shore.”
Asher’s nod was slow, like his head was fastened on with rusty hinges.
“Thank you.”
“You shouldn’t thank me. I tried to leave you there. I was going to abandon you like driftwood and go about my business.” He hadn’t wanted to be seen. Asher was in that place to hide from fairies, and humans, too. He’d sat with Keith for far longer than he should have. He hadn’t been able to stop looking at him—the first human he’d ever seen so close in the flesh.
He’d left when Keith had started tossing his head and murmuring, hinting that he was going to wake soon.
Asher had taken off, carefully picking his way across the deepest sand so as not to leave prints behind.
Asher shrugged jerkily. “You paid me back, anyway. Pushing me away from that tree, and…and look at the thanks you got for it.”
Keith’s knee bobbed spastically. He tightened his fingers over his armrests. Tilted his head.
Asher swallowed again.
“Where are you going?”
“I…” Asher crooked his thumb toward the library. “I was going to check in with Lora, maybe, and see if there was anything the chieftains need.”
“There’s nothing to do. Everyone’s in their respective corners letting some of the noise on the web ebb before we move forward. We’re all just giving ourselves room to think right now.”
“Oh. Well, that’s smart.”
“Mm.” Keith tilted his head toward the room he’d come from. His room. Asher had walked right past without realizing that room was on the way. He’d broken himself of the habit of always checking the doorway for Keith. “Come here.”
“Why?”
Keith didn’t respond. He went into his room and left the door open.
Sighing, Asher followed. If his peers were in a bracing period, he wouldn’t disturb them. He’d wait for signs that he could somehow be of use.
“Close the door, will you?” Keith called from the bathroom.
It clicked shut.
Water pelted against the bottom of Keith’s shower.
“I can come back later,” Asher yelled to him.
“Just wait. This’ll only take a few minutes.”
Asher plopped into the armchair out of sight of the shower and drummed his fingertips atop his thighs. He didn’t know what he was waiting for or what Keith wanted. He hated not being able to predict next moves. Uncertainty had always driven him into hiding in the past, but he was trying not to be that coward anymore. He was far more capable than he could have ever believed back then.
He picked up the book Keith had left open on the nightstand and peered at the spine. A Compendium of Norse History. In the margins of the section Keith had been reading were handwritten notes. Asher recognized the neat print as Muriel’s. She’d circled a biographical section and written, “Two generations before Ótama. Clans merged then. Your father’s distant kin.”
The content seemed entirely too personal, but Asher couldn’t stop thumbing through and reading all of Muriel’s interesting commentary and also Keith’s rare musings in blue ink. He’d marked statements that merited further research. Asher had never known Keith to be the studious type.
There was probably much he didn’t know.
Asher was so engrossed in thumbing through the pages of the book that he didn’t hear that Keith had turned off the water and gotten himself back into his chair. He was lingering in the doorway with a towel covering his thighs and another draped about his shoulders.
Grunting, he moved into the room and toward the dresser. “Nan told me I should look into college when all the mess is over. Didn’t give it any thought when I was a kid. I always assumed I’d stick around here and do whatever Tess needed.”
“Your sister has many capable people close to her.”
“Yeah.” Keith grabbed a clean undershirt and pair of boxer shorts from a drawer. “I was gone for so long. What’s a little while longer?”
“They’d miss you. Tess, especially.”
“You’re just saying what I want to hear, Asher.”
“No, I’m telling the truth.” Asher slid a slip of paper into the book to hold Keith’s place properly and returned the tome to the nightstand. “She adores her big brothers, even if you vex her. I know you were concerned she would hold a grudge after all that happened. You and Jody were supposed to be keeping an eye on her when she was taken. You were just kids yourself, really. I truly do not believe Tess is the sort who takes people to task over things that are no longer under their control.”
“She’s a Hall, and she can hold a grudge longer than all of us combined.”
“But not where her brothers are concerned.” Asher pulled his feet up to the chair’s edge and wrapped his arms around his shins. As a child, he’d been obsessed at the idea of having a sibling—just one would have been enough for him. He’d known even then the probability was low. Fairies weren’t especially fertile and his parents spent most of their time apart, but he’d hoped for a miracle.
He didn’t care what anyone said. Loneliness was a sickness.
The landline phone installed near the bed buzzed. Keith, still wearing his towels, moved over and hit the speaker button. “Yeah?”
“Hey. It’s Jody. Is your cell phone off?”
“No, but I’m in my room. Can’t get a reliable signal this deep into the mansion. What’s up?”
“Wanted to check in since Lora’s not taking my calls for whatever reason.”
Asher pressed his lips tight. He didn’t like that the couple was on the outs, but it wasn’t his place to say anything.
“Where are you?” Keith scrubbed a towel over his wet hair. With his face obscured, it was far easier for Asher to appreciate the very nice aspects of his form. The biceps and shoulder muscles that contracted as he worked his arms over his head. The tapered waist and chiseled abdominal muscles. Physical therapy had served the man well, and he’d been aggressive with it. Keith had needed something to do with that overabundance of angst, and free weights evidently gave him an outlet.
“Motel outside of Fallon,” Jody responded. “Not quite ready to enter the city limits yet, and I may run an errand or two before I deal with them. There are a couple of other groups within driving distance of here that I need to hound for council representatives. The moment I get near the Fallon city limits, those folks’ll know. The ones that have accepted the idea that Tess may have some authority over them aren’t going to give me too hard a time. I’m more worried about the holdouts who are pissed about Dan’s forced adoptions and still want to blame Nan for them.”
“They’re just a loud minority,” Keith said.
“Yeah, but they’re the sects I really need to see. They have to have representation in the council or no one outside the clan is going to believe the rulings are legitimate.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure out how to sway them. You’re good at that. Can’t believe you went out there alone, though.”
“Oh, I’m not alone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ótama’s here.”
Suddenly, Ótama’s voice was in the sp
eaker. “Greetings!”
Keith’s face went sheet-white. Asher had never seen it turn that color before. The man was notoriously difficult to shock. “Jody,” he warned.
“Listen. I know. I’m going to catch shit from every person in that mansion when folks figure it out, but I’m not above cheap tricks. Ótama was the best negotiator her people had, and she’s the reason all of us are here in this country in the first place. At the very least, they’ll hear what she has to say.”
Asher got a sinking feeling. He didn’t want to announce his presence to Jody, so he picked up the closest bed pillow and tossed it in Keith’s direction to get his attention. “Where’s Lachlann?” Asher mouthed.
Keith shrugged and turned his hands over in a what the hell does that have to do with anything? fashion.
Asher dragged his hand down his face. Oh no.
He let his feet down to the floor. He needed to go find that fairy. Asher didn’t know how much of a secret it was that Lachlann considered Ótama his mate. Ótama certainly didn’t know, and Lachlann hadn’t yet made any overt movements to elucidate her on the matter.
If she’d taken off without a word, he was going to be a beast until he saw with his own eyes that she was safe. The very least Asher could do was distract him.
“We’re sort of in a holding pattern here,” Keith told his brother. “After collecting Dan, we gathered up a bunch of folks named on Shea’s list last night and this morning and have them held separately in different parts of Norseton. Most don’t know why they’ve been collected. We’re going to try to extract whatever information we can from them individually and then once everyone in Norseton knows we’re moving on this, we’ll escalate things.”
“The Mollers?” Jody’s voice was tentative.
Knowing what he did, Asher understood.
Obviously, Keith did, too. His expression was grave as an undertaker’s. “No. Keeping an eye on them, though, and monitoring Eleanor. We know it’s a delicate situation.”
“Thanks.” Jody’s voice was almost too soft to hear, and Asher knew that wasn’t due to a poor phone connection. He could hear the loud bleat of vehicle horns in the background.
Keith grunted. “Nan and Tess are doing what they can to turn down the chatter in the web in a way that no one notices.”
“I am helping!” Ótama announced.
Jody chuckled, mood obviously lifted. “Keep an eye on them. Don’t let them burn themselves out.”
“Got it.” Keith stopped in front of his door and blocked Asher from the handle. “Check in when you’re ready to engage the Fallonites and let me know if you’ve rounded up any other delegates, too. I’m curious about who’ll volunteer.”
“Yep.” Jody disconnected.
Keith looked at Asher.
He hadn’t said a word, but that icy stare always made Asher run his mouth in defense.
“I…need to go find Lachlann and distract him, because if he realizes Ótama isn’t here, he’s going to freak out, and the last thing any of us need right now is a rampaging fairy muddling a plan that’s already in flux because we—”
“Have a seat, Asher.”
Asher blinked at him.
“Have. A. Seat,” Keith whispered.
“I know English. You needn’t over-articulate.”
“You seemed not to understand me the first time.”
“I understood you,” Asher snapped.
“So, then you’re refusing my hospitality?” Keith lifted a brow.
“Hos…pitality?”
Keith turned his chair away from the door and gave Asher a nudge away from it. “Let Lachlann do what he needs to. Getting in his way is pointless and is only going to drag out the inevitable.”
“So, you know then?”
“That Ótama is his mate? Yeah. Heath told us.”
“Oh.” Asher couldn’t help but wonder who else’s business Heath had been dispensing. “But don’t you think the timing is poor?”
Keith scoffed and tossed the towel from his hair toward the hamper. “Yeah. Really fucking poor.” He set the underwear he’d collected onto the bed’s edge but hesitated in putting them on.
Asher knew he didn’t need assistance anymore and wouldn’t dare ask him if he did, but Keith’s pause was curiously long.
“Keith?”
“It’s bad timing, huh?” the Viking murmured.
Asher gave his head a confused shake. “I think we agreed it was? Are you feeling well?”
“Come here.”
“You need my help?”
Keith’s nod came slowly. “Yeah. Help me.”
Asher moved with conviction, already reaching for the boxer shorts.
Keith grabbed his wrist, diverting him. Tugging him to face him. “Help me.”
“I don’t understand. I was trying to, but you—”
Keith tugged Asher forward by his collar and tilted his head. “Did you know that some Vikings had a fairy trade?”
“What?”
Keith grunted. “Yeah. Weren’t too many of you out and about, I guess, but whenever they stumbled upon you, they’d take you as plunder. Fairies with little or no magic, I guess.”
“So what was the point?”
“I guess they were pretty.” His grip on Asher’s collar tightened. “I’m not saying I condone the practice, only that I could see why they would think they were valuable.”
Asher’s throat was too tight for him to swallow. He didn’t understand where the conversation was going and couldn’t even guess.
“I think you’re probably the prettiest thing in this building right now.”
“What?”
“You don’t even try, do you? You get up, run your fingers through your hair, and that’s all you need to do to entice people.”
“I’m not trying to entice anyone.”
“But you do anyway, don’t you? You got Mallory to pay attention to you.”
“She’s just comfortable around me. I’m safe for her.”
“You know it’s more than that. She’s got as much vanity and pride as any Viking in this place.”
“Are we going to argue about Mallory again? Because—”
“She’s pretty, too. Hmm?”
“I’m…not going to argue otherwise. She’s beautiful.”
“Yeah. Way out of my league, probably.”
“Says the clan prince.”
“A clan prince with very few redeeming qualities beyond who I was born to.” He tugged Asher a little closer, unsettling him. Jarring him. Making his brain crank slower.
Asher knew he should say something, but didn’t know what. He didn’t know if he was supposed to rebel against Keith’s invasion into his personal space or just accept it.
“Is…this a raid?” Asher asked him. “Are you taking me for a treasure?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
“Do you want to be my treasure?”
“I’m already Mallory’s. You can’t take what’s hers, and I’ve decided that I’m hers. I’m sorry.” He mouth said all that, and his brain had meant it. Asher did intend to take his place in Mallory’s bed and at her table. He was going to hold all her secrets and be her kids’ most ardent champion. Three children. He’d never expected he’d be lucky enough to have even one, but he’d be getting three with her. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t sired them. He’d be proud to stake a claim, anyway, and he’d fight for it, too.
But Keith was trying to upset that.
“You can be mine, too,” the Viking whispered. “That’s allowed. Did you know that?”
Keith’s lips were so close to Asher’s. If Asher were to speak, they’d touch.
He wanted to be Keith’s. And Mallory’s.
He wanted to be both of theirs, and he’d wake up quite happy every morning sandwiched between the two of them, or even just on the edge of the bed pinning one of them in, or… Hell, he’d be content at the foot of any bed they were in. All that mattered was that he could be close to them.
“You don’t even get along,” Asher said. “You’d say anything to get what you want.”
“I’m not that cunning.” Keith’s eyelids drifted downward. For a moment, Asher wondered if the exchange was already boring him and if he was ready to move on to other conquests, but then a coy smile spread across his lips. He smoothed his hand down Asher’s chest and belly, and gripped the top of his waistband. “Why don’t you take these off?”
“To what end?”
“The fact I asked you to should be enough, but if you need a more compelling reason, then take them off because I’m planning on fucking you.”
Asher drew away, and Keith actually removed his hand to let him.
He sat still as a statue in his chair, arms settled casually over the rests, gaze dominating, yet serene.
“We…can’t,” Asher said.
“We can.”
“Behind Mallory’s back, you mean? No, even if we agreed to try, this feels—”
There was a knock on the door.
Keith’s smile somehow managed to go even more rueful.
“Do you know who that is? Afótama?”
“Yep. Why don’t you get it?”
Confused, Asher made his way to the door and cautiously pulled it open a crack.
On the other side stood Mallory. Impatient. Unsettled. Arms crossed over her chest. She looked as uncomfortable as Asher felt.
“Are you going to let me in?” she murmured.
“Well, yes, of course. But…what are you doing here?” Asher got out of the way in a hurry and somehow quelled the urgent temptation to pull her against him as she passed. He wanted to hold her. Put his hands against that heated skin and ply it until she melted beneath him—touch her until her only worry was whether or not she was going to get to come.
“He could tell I was in the building.” Mallory gestured to Keith and locked the door. She didn’t move away from it. She shoved her hands into her pockets and looked from one man to the other, considering both.
“He’s like that because he took a shower,” Asher blurted.
Her lips tightened.
“I didn’t assist.”
“He doesn’t need anyone’s help,” she said low.