Chapter Twenty
Thesittingroomwasemptywhentheyreturned,thefireinthefireplaceextinguished.
“Kade?” Florian called, letting his hands fall away from Elodie’s as he looked around. Cluttered as the home was, it didn’t look like there was another room. He wasn’t in any of the chairs, either. “Kade?”
“He must have gone back outside,” Elodie sighed. “And probably couldn’t get back in.”
“Shit,” Florian muttered, heading for the door. “Are you out here, Kade?”
He took a few steps outside, but almost immediately stumbled to a stop. Their shelter had been set up outside of Elodie’s tree, and a thin line of smoke rose up into the air from its other side—but he barely had time to wonder why it was there as Kade came out, nearly running up to him. He looked—almost scared? Worried?
“Florian,” Kade breathed, wrapping his arms around him. He wasrelieved, Florian realized, but the realization only made him more confused. “You’re okay. God, I was so worried about you. Are you alright?”
“I mean—yeah?” Florian stammered, absently patting his back. “I’m a little tired, but I’m okay. You don’t have to be so worried, Kade.”
“Worried?” Kade exclaimed, pushing him back to look at his face. He seemed bewildered. “Of course I wasworried, Florian, you’ve been gone for days.”
“What?” Florian said, frowning. He looked back into the tree where Elodie was watching them from just outside the doorframe. “No way. A couple hours, maybe, but...”
He trailed off.Hadit been days? It didn’t feel like it had been that long, but wherever they had been certainly wasn’t the Veil and wasn’t Earth. Elodie looked utterly unperturbed. “How long were we gone for?” he asked her, but she only shrugged.
“Three days,” Kade said quickly, his tone suddenly blunt. “It’s been three days.”
“It’s a different plane of existence, so some time dilation isn’t out of the realm of possibility. I’ve never had to worry about how long it’s been before,” she said, and Kade’s face darkened to a scowl.
“Jesus. I’m sorry, Kade, I had no idea,” Florian stammered, looking nervously between them.
“I—” Kade started, anger flashing across his face. But abruptly he let Florian go and took several steps away, facing the tent. Even from where he stood only a few steps from the threshold of Elodie’s home, Florian could hear Kade breathing hard, his hands first balling into fists at his sides, then coming up to press to his face. He wanted to go to him, but his feet were frozen to the ground with uncertainty. He had no idea how to even begin trying to comfort Kade, if he could even do anything at all.
“I’ll give you some privacy,” Elodie said dryly, slowly starting to close the door behind him. “Why don’t you come back in once everything is settled?”
“Sure,” Florian replied, his eyes still lingering on Kade. How did he always end up doing something to hurt him?
Slowly he took a step closer to him, then another. “Kade?” he said softly.
After a moment of visibly hesitating, Kade turned to face him again. The anger had left his face. Now, he only looked defeated, and that was somehow worse.
“You were gone for three days, Florian,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I had no idea where you were, if you were okay... I didn’t have any way to get home. I couldn’t do anything but wait and wonder if you were ever going to come back. I thought I was going to go crazy.”
Florian winced. He had known going in that if anything had happened to him, he would be taking Kade with him—but to have it laid out so clearly now filled him with guilt. He could get back to the Winter Court on his own without a problem, but Kade was completely reliant on him to get through the Blight. If something had happened to him, if he had never come back...
“Please don’t do this again,” Kade continued, his voice rasping, and when Florian looked back up, he was on the verge of tears. “Please don’t go somewhere I can’t follow.”
He blinked back his own tears. What could he say? He couldn’t promise that to him, to anyone.
“I’m sorry, Kade,” Florian repeated, gingerly reaching out to press himself to Kade’s chest and wrap his arm around the other man’s waist. “But I... I don’t know if I can guarantee that. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Kade’s arms tightened around him. “I need to keep yousafe.”
“I know. I’ll try,” Florian said softly. It was the most he could promise.
For a long moment Kade was silent. His tension was all but palpable against his skin. Florian could feel his heart thudding fast from where his cheek was pressed to Kade’s chest. Finally, though, he felt more than heard Kade swallow hard, then say in a voice barely above a whisper,
“So what did you find out?”
Florian sighed. It seemed so pointless now—to have left Kade alone and worried for three days just to know the identity of the spirit—but he needed to know, to be certain.
“I’m gonna sit down,” Florian muttered, stepping away from Kade, who released him from his arms. They sat down cross-legged, facing each other—Florian was acutely aware they mirrored how he and Elodie had sat across from each other in the same way, and for some reason it made him uncomfortable. He stretched his legs out instead and began to explain.
