Knight in Leather (22 page)

“I’m done. Shop’s closed. I only get one.” He knew that instinctively the same way he knew that Dasha was his mate. There was no explaining how he knew. He just heeded what his magic told him.

“Just checking. Oh!” She turned to her husband. “Did King Nick ever turn up to grab Gareth to fix that furnace issue?”

“Aye. Popped in this morning, and then popped right out without saying two words to his niece.”

“Why do you think he didn’t he say anything?”

“Could have had something to do with the doe eyes a certain young princess was giving our Gareth.”

“No way!”

Prince Heath scoffed and broke a hushpuppy in half. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to Gareth so I don’t know if there’s been another mate match or…” He made a rolling gesture with his hand.

“If she just thinks he’s cute.”

“You said it, not me.”

“How old is she?” Ethan asked.

“Not even twenty,” Princess Simone said.

Thom whistled low. “Elves age more or less the same way we do, don’t they?”

Prince Heath shook his head. “We’re very similar as far as longevity goes, but when it comes to sexual maturity, they come of age much sooner.”

“I came of age much faster than any of you,” Princess Simone said.

“Yes, love, that was likely due to a combination of the magic suppressing spell your mother put on you and also because of Hestia’s meddling. It wouldn’t have made good sense to send me to my mate and have her be completely cold to me.”

“Good point. How old is Gareth?”

“Mmm. Can’t remember, precisely. Hard to keep up with all the numbers. Older than Perry, younger than Ethan. Old enough to go looking for sex when he wants to. I’ll leave it at that.”

“When he comes back,” Thom said, “I’ll have a chat with him to see if the attraction goes both ways. As far as I know, he hasn’t spent much time around Kori, so he might not have had the same
a-ha
moment.”

The princess twined her fingers around one of the prince’s long curls and tugged hard. “You wouldn’t try to keep them apart, would you? We’re not talking about two people who don’t both know the score.”

He carefully unwound her fingers from his hair, kissed the back of her hand, and then set it atop his lap. “I’d have to talk to Nick and see if he had any issues with the pairing. Kori’s parents are both dead, so he’d be the ultimate arbiter. I don’t imagine he’d be opposed to handing her off to someone in my crew, but…you know. We have a certain reputation.”

The princess bobbed her eyebrows at him. “Tell me about that
reputation
, darling.”

He smiled in that untrustworthy way that always made Princess Siobhan groan. “Nothing you don’t already know, love.”

Princess Simone looked to Ethan.

He shook his head. “I’m no snitch.”

“I’ll remember that the next time you need a favor.”

“Be kind, Princess.” At the movement of the peach-haired waitress in his periphery, Ethan looked up and watched Zenia make her way over to the table with another basket of hushpuppies.

Enticing as they were, his stomach was too knotted up to find the idea of eating any more of them appealing. He glanced down at his phone yet again, calculated the minutes remaining before the portal’s closure, and then pushed back his chair.

“Where are you off to?” Thom asked.

“Motel. Gotta make sure Dasha comes out that tunnel. I can’t just sit here. I’ll go fuckin’ insane worrying.”

The princess stood, too. “I’ll ride with you. If she comes back early, I want to go ahead and close the portal. Last time, Dasha seemed overly concerned about squirrels for some reason.”

Heath gave his wife’s rear end a grope as she stepped back from the table.

“Behave yourself,” she said, giving him a swat.

“With an arse like that, you expect me not to touch you when you’re right there? And after being with me all this time?
Really
, love. You know better.”

“I thought your public manners had improved.” Again, she swatted his questing hand away, snarling with exasperation.

“If I had good manners, you wouldn’t want me as much as you do.”

She grimaced. “Probably not. At least let me pretend to have some class when we’re in public, okay?”

Prince Heath blew a raspberry.

___

Ethan rode the short distance back to the motel with Simone riding double. He chuckled inside his helmet all the way, thinking about how unusual the prince and princess’s relationship was—even for a pair of fairies. Ethan was certain some of the more entertaining aspects of their relationship were due in large part to the princess having grown up outside of the realm. She’d been raised as human. Her ethics may have been becoming more and more like those of the Sídhe, but her personality was all-American ball-buster. That suited Prince Heath just fine, because she couldn’t
really
resist him. They understood each other too well.

Ethan looked forward to getting to that place with Dasha—of knowing instinctively how far he could push her for his own amusement without making her angry. Of knowing exactly how to make her smile when she needed some levity. He loved seeing her smile. Each grin made him feel a few pounds lighter and a few years younger.

He parked in front of the office and took the spare helmet Princess Simone handed over.

“Cutting it close time wise,” she said with her fingers already wrapped around the door handle.

“Hoping we won’t have to do this again anytime again.”

He got the helmets stowed away and followed her to the office, but not
into
it, because she froze in the doorway.

She was looking all around the office, seemingly unable to discern what to pin her gaze on first.

As he moved behind her for a look inside, Ethan understood why.

Perry, who’d been manning the desk, was slumped over and Matt was grabbing his face and giving his cheeks light slaps. “Perry!” he kept shouting.

Blood trailed from Perry’s nose toward his parted lips.

Eyed closed. Pale. Limp.

Ethan gently nudged the princess out of the way and hurried behind the desk. He looked into the storage room and, finding the portal closed, punched the wall. “Where the fuck is it?”

The princess ran in, muttering, “Shit,” and put her phone to her ear. “Heath, someone was here. There’s some extra energy in the room that doesn’t belong to us. Get back here now. Perry’s unconscious.”

Ethan knelt beside the younger man and tugged his eyelids open with his thumbs.

He couldn’t let himself panic about Dasha just yet. His father would ensure her safety on the other end, or at least Ethan hoped. He had to let himself believe that or he wouldn’t be able to function for the situation at hand.

Perry’s pupils shrank in response to the light, then pulsed rhythmically. Ethan blinked and let Perry’s lids close before he found himself pulled into the hypnotizing effect. Ethan always forgot Perry could do that, and obviously, Perry wasn’t working magic on purpose.

“What happened?” the princess asked Matt. “Who was here?”

“I don’t know!” Matt shoved his fingers through his hair and yanked. “He’d sent me a text telling me to bring him my computer so he could look at some operating system problem while he had the time. I was coming up the walkway and there was this big white flash. When I came in, the portal was closed and he was crumbled onto the desk.”

“No one is supposed to be able to get in here if they have unfamiliar magic,” the princess said.

Ethan groaned and pounded the desktop. “You don’t have to
own
magic to be able to carry it.”

“You mean, like an artifact they could hold in their hand?”

“Exactly.
Fuck
. Can you reopen the portal?
Please
?”

“I could try. Sounds like Heath and Thom are back. Fill them in and I’ll see what I can do.”

Ethan started to move to the wall, but she grabbed his forearm.

“Listen. I may not have enough energy. I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

“Duly noted.
Please
.”

She nodded.

Ethan waited at the ready as she pressed her hands to the wall and let out a ragged exhalation.

“Feels weird,” she said with a shake of her head. “Something’s not right. I don’t know how to explain this since I’m still so new at this, but if feels like my portal got slammed shut by someone else, and I’m having a hard time finding a figurative doorknob to pull.”

“Can you do it?”

“I’m going to try. And before you say anything else—I know how important opening that portal back up is. Don’t you
dare
forget who she is to me,” she snapped. “Dasha may be your mate, but she’s
my
best friend. I’ve had her longer.”

Ethan put up his hands. The princess was right. She didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of his frustration. She wasn’t the only one who cared, and he certainly wasn’t going to get into an argument with her about who loved Dasha more. No way would the princess win that one.

Thom and the prince stepped in, and immediately set about dividing and conquering in the way they always did. Thom joined the princess in the storage room and the prince knelt next to Perry.

“You were right, I think, love,” Prince Heath said. “I’m sensing residual traces of energy that don’t belong to anyone here.”

“Do you recognize the owner?”

“Aye. Belongs to that sodding sycophant who works for my mum—her aide. He has a way of imbuing objects with disruptive energy that, for a time, neutralizes magic that’s already been cast.”

“So, one of those objects was used to close my portal?”

“That’d be my guess. We’ll know for certain once I rouse Perry.”

Prince Heath grabbed and held up the young man’s chin. He may have appeared like he was simply trying to get Perry’s face off the desktop, but Ethan knew from past experience that the prince was working his own magic. He was an energy manipulator. He could move magic around, filter and cast it aside when necessary. Prince Heath would have been the best person to discern if magic had been used to disrupt Perry’s healthfulness.

“Oh, that’s nasty,” he muttered. “Won’t be able to hold on to that.”

Perry’s eyelids fluttered and he jolted upright, eyes wide and his limbs flailing in the rolling chair.

Ethan got behind the seat and held it still. “Easy, now. You’re all right. What happened?”

Perry drew in a long breath and rubbed his eyes. “Laurel.”

“Shit.” Ethan pounded the wall again. He didn’t feel any better for it, but didn’t feel worse, either. He needed to move—to act. If he became afflicted with much more agitation, he’d pick some beast to shift into and do some real damage.

“She came back with a bag. I thought she was going to ask for a room, but before I could send her away, she slapped some kind of patch on me and ran into the portal. I stood up to go after her, or
tried
to, I think. I don’t think I got to my feet. I don’t remember anything after trying.”

Matt gave his hair another tug. “Jesus Christ, you scared the hell out of me. I thought you were dead.”

Perry wiped away the blood that had tracked down to his lips and furrowed his brow. “Why? I can’t fight worth a damn, but I’m pretty hard to kill.”

Matt’s only response to that was an eloquent glower that Perry seemed entirely unaffected by. People were so rarely angry with him, he likely couldn’t tell that Matt was.

“Whatever she used has disrupted my ability to open a normal portal,” Princess Simone said. “My gut feeling is that I can open a little hole, but we won’t be able to send the crew through. The tunnel is probably be stable enough for just one person, and he or she is going to have to move fast.”

“That person is going to be me,” Ethan said. “Get ready to open it. I’m going to go get my ready bag off the bike.”

“Hurry.”

He did. He grabbed the bag he kept packed for emergency trips as well as his sword, and ducked through the low tunnel the princess pulled open.

“Ethan, you’d better run,” she called after him. “I’m going to try to keep this stable for as long as I can, but I don’t want to risk you being in there when it collapses.”

He lowered his head and ran.

If the princess was having difficulties opening portals, there was no way of knowing when he’d be able to bring Dasha back, but at least he’d be able to look after her.

If anything had happened to his mate in the past hour, that mer-fairy was going to have hell to pay, and Rhiannon, too. If the queen had loved her husband as much as she made out, she wouldn’t have encouraged Laurel as she had been. No fairy who understood love of any sort would send another down the tunnel of unrequited affection. She had to know that the ordeal would break Laurel, and simply didn’t care.

Ethan was having a hard time feeling mercy for either of them at the moment.

Dasha had just sent an intimidating Sídhe ex-royal guard through the mound portal outside of Fergus’s cottage when the keyman ran out, hobbling in that way he always did. He hadn’t healed well from the burns from the tunnel blowback centuries ago, and Rhiannon hadn’t cared enough at the time to set him right. The time of being able to fix him had long since passed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him, noting the unusual look of panic of his weathered face. He was generally so staid.

“I just got a call from Ethan.”

“Here? How?”
Didn’t trust me to do my job?
She grabbed the end of her scarf reflexively and toyed with the fabric.

“Senior.”

“Oh.”
Because if that damned fairy had come here knowing Rhiannon could track him, I would have beaned him good.

“He said Simone’s portal disappeared, and for no good reason.”

“Wait.” She dropped her hand and moved her ear closer to Fergus’s lips. “Give that to me again. Are you telling me I can’t get back to the Gotches’?”

“See for yerself.” He turned her toward the grassy knoll the guard had just passed through. That tunnel led to a cluster of mounds in Ireland. The guard, Lachlann, was going to be collected on the other side by Heath’s cousin Oliver. Apparently, Lachlann belonged to some important lady in his clan, and he’d been more than happy to get sprung so he could claim his mate, even if leaving meant giving up some of his magic. The doorway in the tunnel disappeared before her eyes.

“What the hell?”

“Not supposed to close that fast. Lachlann left the door open. Something’s wrong with the portals.” Fergus pointed to the knoll beside it, where the tunnel to the Gotches’ forest was cast. “Ye can get back to Ethan’s. My portal is still open, but getting back to The Hearth might cause ye some worries. The portal Simone made for ye is gone, and there’s no way she don’t know by now. If she hasn’t reopened the passage from her end, something’s wrong.”

“Damn it.”

“Don’t know what’s happening there, but ye’d better run on ahead. I’ll call over if I can think of some way to reopen my girl’s portal. She may already be trying on her end, but there’s no way for me to get in touch with her from here.”

“I’ll be happy when this realm collapses once and for all and y’all won’t have to pussyfoot around to communicate with your families.”

“Ye and me both, dearie. Go on. I’ll keep a mirror handy.”

Dasha clutched her purse and ran at full sprint into the portal, not wanting to risk the thing closing before she got through. If she had to be stuck anywhere, she at least wanted to be somewhere Ethan would know to search.

“This adventuring stuff is for the birds,” she panted as she exited the tunnel near the Gotch home.

No sooner had she doubled over to catch her breath did four large feet appear in front of her. The scuffed black boots on two of them were familiar.

She glanced up and barely had a chance for her gaze to focus before she was pulled into a big blond’s embrace.

Ethan.

Her heart sped both from relief and then renewed fear. She was so happy to see him, but if he were in the realm, Rhiannon knew.

“How’d you get here?” she managed to squeeze out in spite of Ethan’s crushing hug. “Fergus said the portal closed.”

“It did,” Ethan Senior said. “The princess managed to peel open a little hole for him to run through. She had a lot of trouble doing that much, and I don’t think her difficulty was just because she was tired. Her passage closed again. You might be stuck here for a while.”

“But, wait…” She tried to put a little space between her and Ethan, but he increased his grip and muttered, “Nuh-uh.”

“Right. Clingy fairy mate.”

“I wondered if you’d forgotten.”

“You’re not that easy to forget.” She sighed and patted his shoulder blade. “Um. If you’re here, big guy, doesn’t that mean
Rhiannon
knows you’re here?”

“If she doesn’t, she will soon enough.”

“That doesn’t seem to be bothering you enough.”

“To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t give a shit about Rhiannon right now.”

Ethan Senior grunted. “Possibly I’m a wee bit more skeptical than the average fella, but I’d reckon that luring Heath’s crew members here any which way seems like something Rhiannon would want. If Heath has less support, he’s less of a threat to her. She’ll pick you off one at a time if she can.”

“You don’t think she knows I’m here, do you?” Dasha asked.

Ethan Senior shook his head and started toward the house. “Not unless you let too many folks see you near the palace.”

Ethan followed him, still holding Dasha tight against his front.

“I can walk, you know,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“You could put me down.”

“Can’t think of a good reason to.” He nuzzled her neck and sighed contentedly.

“Oh. Well, carry on if that makes you happy.”

“You’ll find that that I’m very easy to…satisfy.” His tone took on a heated burr at the end, and on a delay her cheeks burned.

She hissed, “Watch your mouth,” and then twisted her torso so she could see his father. “I only saw the one guard at the end of the tunnel, and I did exactly what Hestia told me to do to him. I tossed a little magic dust into his face, and he started working just as Hestia said as if I’d installed some software in him telling him what to do.”

“I have no idea what that means, but I’m certain someone will explain that gobbledygook to me one day.”

“I keep forgetting that your technology is antiquated here. Suffice it to say, the magic told him what to do and he went and he complied.”

“Who did he fetch?” Ethan asked.

They moved into the house, and Ethan Senior closed and locked the door behind them.

Evidently, that was unusual for his father, because Ethan furrowed his brow at him.

The older man shrugged and said, “Only until we figure out what’s happening. If that girl’s running loose, she might not be the only one.”

“What girl?” Dasha asked.

Ethan finally put Dasha down, only to step to the door and peer through one of the small, square glass panels near the top.

Ethan Senior gave her a nudge. “Anyone I’d know?”

“Huh?”
Wouldn’t he know who’s running loose?

“Ethan asked who you were supposed to fetch. I’m wondering if the fella was anyone I know. I haven’t rubbed elbows much with the folks in the palace for a long time, but I’d know most of the older folks.”

“Oh. A guard—former guard, rather—named Lachlann.”

“Ah.” He rubbed the scruff on his chin. “Ol’ Lach. Nearly did himself in a few times. Glad to hear he didn’t succeed.”

“He seemed happy to be getting out.”

“Anyone would be if they’d been forced into a service period under a queen he didn’t trust. Lach’s been around long enough to have guarded Rhiannon’s father when he was alive. In case you haven’t gotten caught up with the sordid fairy history, that was a
very
long time ago.”

“I’m not so great at remembering dates, but I
do
know she killed her parents so she could be queen. I imagine that would make any guard who’d been around that long wary. Takes a twisted kind of someone to do that.”

“Dasha?” Moira called weakly from the bedroom.

“Yep. It’s me. I’m back.”
And stuck, apparently
. She hoped Ethan had a plan for that, because if Rhiannon decided to stir up some shit, Dasha wasn’t the right kind of girl to have on hand for a fairy fight. She was the kind of girl who didn’t exactly
run
from fights, but she definitely fought with her eyes closed. She just kept swinging and hoped her fists would land somewhere impactful.

“Come here, dear.”

Dasha walked to the room with Ethan on her heels.

“I’m going to go scout,” Ethan Senior called. “Lock the door behind me.”

Ethan changed course to obey.

Dasha continued to the bed and sat on the edge.

Moira was still upright, and holding one of the paperback novels on her lap. “Feel like I’m…missing some context. For the book, I mean.”

Dasha squinted at the cover. “Oh. Yeah. That one might need a warm-up. The story is full of pop culture references that would probably go over your head if you’ve been isolated from American news in the past fifty years. The other book might be better for you. It’s futuristic sci-fi set on a distant planet. You can assume every reader is equally confused. Took me about three chapters to catch up.”

“I’ll read…that one, then.”

Ethan joined them in the room and plopped onto the bed beside his mother. “When’d you start reading fiction?”

“Yesterday. Seemed as good…a time as any.” She drew in a deep breath. “Given the circumstances.”

“You’ll be up and running in no time.”

“I know. Behind on work, though. Hard to trade…with no product.”

“What do you make?” Dasha asked, genuinely curious. “How do people support themselves in this realm, especially those of you who are far from the hustle and bustle of the palace?”

“I make cloth.”

“Really?”

“Family business,” Ethan said. “At least on Mom’s side. They’re known for their patterns. Very sought-after material, but doing everything by hand means there’s always going to be limited availability.”

“Where do you keep your loom?” Dasha asked.

Moira raised a hand and pointed in the general direction of the woods.

“She has a workshop out there. She sometimes get a little help from my sister when she’s around.”

“Your sister? Where is she, anyway?”

He shrugged. “Somewhere.”

“Why are you so casual about that?”

He winced and sat up a little straighter. “I probably sound callous. I don’t mean to be. I suppose because Sídhe are so long-lived, we don’t feel particularly anxious about not seeing each other on a predictable schedule. Weeks or years, there’s little difference.”

“I see,” Dasha said flatly.

Moira sighed and pinched her son’s arm.

“
Shit
.” He rubbed the spot and cut her an apologetic glance before turning his gaze back to Dasha. “I didn’t mean to imply that was the case with you. You’re my mate. That’s why I couldn’t stay put on the other end. Even you being away for an hour made me nauseated.”

She suspected he was merely placating her, but she didn’t want to argue with him with his mother right there. That wasn’t the impression she wanted the lady to have of her, and Dasha
did
care what the woman thought. She wanted to know if the woman thought she was suitable for her baby boy at all. Stuck in the realm as they were at the moment, Dasha had her doubts. There was nothing she could do to help any of them at the moment. Simone would have probably been able to figure something out. Simone always made Dasha’s good ideas better.

Dasha grinned anyway. She set her purse on the floor and moved to the chair beside the bed so she could better see both Gotches. “So, where is your sister? What’s her name? What’s she like? Older or younger?”

“Older,” Ethan said. “By about three hundred years. Her name is Ari. She’s little and quiet and has a mate who’s the exact opposite. They live near the southern coast of this landmass. He’s a fisherman.”

“Do they know the realm is collapsing?”

Moira nodded. “I spoke with her…yesterday. Coming.”

“They’re coming here? On foot?” Ethan asked.

“On the way now.”

“Probably for the best. If you’re going to leave, the sensible plan is to get the whole family out at once. If they don’t get here within the next couple of days, we’ll have to go fetch them.”

“Any other family?” Dasha asked.

Ethan raked a hand through his messy hair and made a noncommittal grunting sound. “Well, our families tend to be small.”

“Right. Because you don’t have many children.”

“Exactly. Neither of my parents have siblings, and probably never will. Like with humans, our women only get so many shots at conception.”

“Your grandparents are alive, then?”

“Yes, but they were able to exit the realm ages ago when crossing over was less restrictive and when the gods still had a little mercy for us. They stayed on the outside in Europe. I see them more often than I see my parents.”

“When we get out of here, I’m really going to have to resolve to see my family more often. I mean, traveling half a day is nothing compared to having to bend time and space to travel to a different realm.”

“What are…they like?” Moira asked.

“My family?”

The lady in the bed nodded.

“They’re…
hmm
.” Dasha narrowed her eyes and tapped her chin, trying to find the right words in her mind. There were so many things she could say about them and none would be sufficient. They were an enviable family—kind and open. Supportive.

They were the kind of people who deserved to know about Ethan and about what he was.

She hated herself for ever considering hiding that part of her life from them, but she was going to have to be gentle with herself. All things considered, she was adapting pretty well. That was probably more due to Ethan’s gentle persistence than her own fortitude, though.

She took a deep breath and tried again to find the right words, hoping the oxygen would jog her mind, but it didn’t. “I...I guess I don’t know what to say. Other folks would probably be able to describe them better than I can. Simone always jokes that two very staid and quiet individuals ending up having me as a daughter was a cosmic joke. I think I get my proclivity toward boisterousness and hysterics from my father’s mother. She’s a character.”

“What would your family say about me?” Ethan asked.

She wrung her hands. For the most part, she’d kept her family out of her business regarding anything pertaining to her love life in the past couple of years. Of course they were curious and constantly asking if there was anyone special in her life. She was nearly thirty and overdue to settle down, apparently. She just didn’t want there to be another disappointing debacle like she’d had with Ben. Everything had been chocolate and roses until his offerings shifted into anger and threats.

Her family had liked the man Ben had pretended to be, and she doubted she’d ever stop feeling guilty that she’d judged him so poorly and took him home to meet them.