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I shift in front of him in case the tug makes him pop wood, then give Darwin a warm stroke through our bond.
He tightens his arm around me and pulls Gabe a little closer as well.
Loyal glowers at the three of us. “I challenge Teddy Nowak. I challenge her right to enter Faery. I challenge her fitness to handfast a prince of the blood when she has none of her own. She is of no family. I challenge her to duel for her place and her name.”
Well, fuck. I guess he really is still sore about his car.
Chapter56
And Snowy Summits
“This is Falconer’s doing,” Darwin growls, pacing back and forth across the library I’ve picked to study in today.
It’s the smaller of the two libraries on the Faery side of the Ember Palace, but I like it better. Its windows look out over the meadows of Faery. When we opened them, a warm breeze, scented with nettles and wildflowers, blew in to stir up the vanilla and leather smell of old books.
The only smell more conducive to studying is the rich malt of tea, which is filling the room as well from a cart set with a huge silver samovar, a dozen china teacups, and about a hundred different types of loose-leaf tea. The cart creaked in on its own after we settled in here, so I’m pretty sure the Ember Palace has a clan of hobs.
There was a pile of huge cushions in one corner. They’re now spread across the floor. I’m lying on one, my head pillowed on Gabe’s abs. Gabe is on his own cushion and Charlie’s on another as they quiz each other.
A curious collection of people have claimed other cushions. The twins arrived to have breakfast with us and brought their own study materials. They have finals at the all-girls grammar school they attend in Edinburgh next week. Darwin’s grandfather also appeared for breakfast and followed us into the library. He made a little throne out of cushions and pretended to read for a few minutes before his chin dropped to his chest. Darwin put a wool throw over his grandfather’s knees and we’ve let him sleep.
A boy about our age named Struan showed up not long after we settled down to study. He’s dark-skinned and dark-haired, wearing jeans and a jumper with “Douglas Academy Music School” emblazoned across the chest. Struan’s shaggy fringe shadows his eyes, an even brighter green hue than Charlie’s. His eyes have slitted pupils, like a cat’s, and they follow Orlaith whenever she’s not looking at him. He brought his own book but I haven’t seen him turn a page yet, even though we’ve been working for a couple of hours.
Or we were working until a white-haired, black-eyed fae let herself quietly into the library. She gave Darwin a warm hug and he introduced her as his nurse, Eibhlin. She handed him a parchment scroll, sealed with wax, and kissed him on the cheek before putting a gold bell on the tea cart and telling him to ring if he needed her.
Darwin broke the seal, read the scroll, growled about a formal challenge, and started pacing.
“Or Loyal’s just real pissy about his Veyron,” I offer.
Darwin shakes his head. “He’s scared of you. He wouldn’t dare challenge you on his own. Falconer put him up to this. I can only imagine what they’ve promised him.”
Another Veyron would be my guess.
Remembering back through Darwin’s explanation of the fae court, I place the name. Falconer is Tyr’s uncle, head of House Eythin. Presumably also related to Phoebe. Darwin identified Falconer as a likely head of the tar-and-feather brigade if Darwin’s Empyrean spirit is ever revealed.
Loyal’s not in House Eythin. Ironically, since he’s challenged my blood right to handfast Darwin, he has so little fae blood he’s not properly part of any house. But his great-great-great-grandmother is the head of one of the major houses and she raised Loyal in the court after his mother died.
After Loyal’s challenge mercifully ended the interminable dinner, Darwin spent an hour telling me everything he could about Loyal’s strengths and weaknesses before I finally distracted him with a blowjob. The four of us crammed into Darwin’s bed last night, which was bigger than the bed in my room at least, but nowhere close to the size of the bed in our flat. I ended up draped over Gabe, after several orgasms, and slept just fine. But both Charlie and Darwin were complaining over breakfast about their stiff body parts. None of which were below the waist. Darwin promised to sort out a bigger bed before tonight.
If there’s an expandable mattress charm, one of us prolly best learn it.
“Does it make a difference who’s behind it?” I ask after watching Darwin pace for another minute.
He runs his hand through his quiff. All the boys got fresh trims before dinner last night, while I was primping with the girls, and they do look sharp.
“If it’s the beginning of Eythin moving against us, yes,” says Dark.
He doesn’t even lift his chin off his chest. Sneaky bastard.
“Is it, sir?” I ask.
Dark folds his hands over the plaid Darwin’s spread across his knees. “More posturing than an attack, I’d think. But if they can bar you from Faery and break up the quaternion, it would be quite the coup.”
The glance Darwin casts at me holds so much anguish that I roll up off the floor and hug him. “Stop it. I’m not going to lose to Loyal.”
He holds me tightly, one big hand kneading the nape of my neck. “I can’t help you in a formal challenge, Teddy. I can’t protect you.”
I go up on my toes so I can press my forehead to his. “I know. And I know that hurts. I’d feel the same if someone challenged you. It’s gonna be okay.”
