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Vic wasn’t the only Martinez brother with dreams. Jesse was making a decent amount at this side hustle and was even considering expanding the garage into the lot next door and opening a little auto sales site.
Adam was halfway through Morgxn’s “Make It Out Alive,” belting along loudly in what he knew was completely off key, when he looked up from the hood to find the Knight of Swords watching him.
Adam started and pulled his magic around him, but he couldn’t muster another reaction.
He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. The song blared on and he could not move.
“Page?” she asked, looking concerned.
His heartbeat thundered. The world shook, just a little, at the edges of his vision.
“Page,” she repeated and something in her commanding tone forced him to finally snap out of it. “I recommend that you take air. Now.”
Adam sucked several long breaths in and out before he could choke out, “Sorry. You. Surprised. Me.”
He counted backward from ten, then reached for his phone to turn off the music.
Impatience rolled off her like storm clouds off the front range, but to her credit, she managed to contain it.
He let her keep on waiting. She had eternity and had probably just taken a few years off his life.
As his heart rate slowed he noticed her appearance.
She looked different. She’d modified her glamour.
Normally she showed little concern for human sensitivity, but today she looked like a rich housewife, in high white boots unscuffed by anything as mundane and plebian as walking and a ski jacket with a fur collar that probably cost a few months’ worth of Adam’s rent. The leather and fur had to be fake. Elves would never skin something to make clothing.
The jacket was a bit much for the season, which told him she was in mom mode. Her hair was braided into a pale rope. Her ears remained pointed, but they were alone.
Her son, North, lived somewhere in the Alps. As far as Adam knew the knight only made concessions to her style of dress when he was involved.
North was half human, which meant he likely shared a mortal’s vulnerability to raw magic. She must wear this sort of glamour for him, because she had to. That meant he’d never seen his mother’s true face.
The cold blue feeling the realization put in Adam’s chest settled the last of his breathing.
“Why are you here?” he asked quietly. “Is North okay?”
“It is kind of you to care, despite your current status.” She looked to the car. “This is your occupation?”
“Yes. This is what I do for money, to pay what we call bills.”
She narrowed her eyes, telling him she was close to sensing his sarcasm, but she dismissed it and moved on.
“I am here because North has become withdrawn. I think he may be lonely. Would you speak with him?”
Adam blinked.
He’d wondered about the boy. As far as Adam had seen, he lived alone, when his mother wasn’t there. No servants. No pets. No friends.
Lonely wouldn’t be the half of it.
The Knight of Swords came across as the elfiest elf. She’d shocked Adam when she’d introduced him to North. He still didn’t know the whole story, but she claimed that somewhere along the way she’d fallen for a human soldier, who’d died in a war she hadn’t named.
The boy was shy, which made sense given his limited exposure to the world beyond his icy mansion. The knight schooled him in protocol and sword stances, readying him for a court he might never see and a life she might never let him live.
“Have you considered what I asked the last time we spoke?” Adam asked.
“That he might find friends at the king’s school for mortals?”
