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Luis settled himself, pulling a blanket up to his neck and stretching luxuriously. Corny tucked himself into his makeshift pallet. His room looked different from the floor, like an alien landscape full of discarded paper and dropped CDs. Leaning his head back, he stared up at the water stains on the ceiling, spreading from a dark center drop like the rings of an old tree.
"Hey, I'll get the light," Luis said, getting up.
"We're still waiting for Kaye. And your brother, right?”
"I tried to call again, but I couldn't get him. I left your address with Val—that girl he was going to stay with—in case he calls her or just shows up. I hope he did what he said he would do and got on a train.”
Luis stopped. "You know, though, Val said something else that was weird. She's got a friend among the exiled fey in the city. She said that he'd been paid a visit from your Lord Roiben himself a couple of days ago. Must have been before Roiben's visit to the Seelie Court.”
Corny frowned. His tired brain couldn't make any sense of that. "Huh. Weird. Well, I guess now all we do is wait. Kaye knows her way in. We'd all be better off if we could get some real sleep.”
Luis hit the switch, and Corny blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the room. Lights trimming nearby trailers made it bright enough to see Luis kneel back down.
"You're gay?" Luis whispered.
Corny nodded, although Luis might not see that in the dim light. "You knew, didn't you? You acted like you knew. You kissed me like you knew.”
"I figured it didn't matter.”
"Nice," Corny whispered.
"No, I don't mean it like that," Luis said, kicking his feet out from under the afghan. He laughed softly. "I mean, you were bespelled. Girls, boys, you didn't care. If it had a mouth, you were kissing it.”
"And you had a mouth," said Corny. He could feel the close proximity of their bodies, noticed every movement of his thighs, the clamminess of his hands inside the gloves. His heart beat so loudly he was afraid that Luis could hear it. "It was smart, though. Quick thinking.”
"Thanks." Luis's voice seemed slowed somehow, like he couldn't quite get his breath. "I wasn't sure it would work.”
Corny wanted to lean in and taste those words.
He wanted to tell him it would have worked, even if he hadn't been bespelled.
He wanted to tell him that it would work right now.
Instead, Corny flipped over, so that Luis couldn't see his face. "Good night," he said, and shut his eyes against regret.
• • •
Corny woke from a dream where he'd been paddling, doggy-style, through an ocean of blood. His legs would tire, and when he missed a kick, he would drop under and glimpse, through the red, a city under the waves, full of friendly beckoning fiends.
He woke as his leg kicked ineffectually at the blankets. He saw a figure near the window and for a moment thought that it was Kaye, sneaking in so as not to disturb his mother and stepfather.
"Brought us right to your hidey spot, he did," a voice hissed. "For just a lick of nectar.”
Cold air drifted down to chill Corny.
"I get it," he heard Luis whisper. He was the figure, but Corny couldn't see who he was speaking with. "I'll trade. Ethine for my brother. I'll bring her to the front door.”
Corny's whole body tightened with betrayal.
Metal flashed in the moonlight as the creature handed the key through. Corny felt like an idiot. He'd thrown it right to them.
He stayed very still as Luis walked toward the bed, then grabbed his leg. Luis fell and Corny rolled on top of him. He ripped off the glove with his teeth and brought down his fingers, spread like a net, to inches above Luis's face.
"Traitor," Corny said.
Luis bent his head back, as far from Corny's hands as he could get. He swallowed, his eyes wide. "Oh, shit. Neil, please.”
"Please what? With sugar on top? Pretty please, let me fuck you over?”
