Everet shook his head. “There’s not going to be a punishment. If you still have questions about that, we’ll have another chat this evening about why you’re not going to be punished.” He stayed in the doorway, his arms folded, his stance squared. “First, you have a day’s worth of work to do.”
Oh, joy, Kane thought. Now he’d be able to spend the whole day in anticipation of yet another awkward conversation where he had no idea what to say, no idea how to explain how scared he felt when he thought about a future which didn’t involve Everet and him being together.
Bloody wonderful. Kane pulled on his T-shirt, his movements jerky and impatient.
Everet led the way out of the apartment. Kane followed along behind him, his feet dragging along the carpet. Damn, but dusting was enough to bore anyone to tears. It was only Everet’s supervision that made it bearable and—
Suddenly, Kane looked up. They were heading in the wrong direction.
“Where are we going? You said I had to go to work?”
You’re going to do something different today.
The raven’s earlier words floated to the front of his mind. Kane had been too focused on the prospect of a punishment to question that statement properly, now he realized how big an error that was.
“You’re still going to work. You’ll just be doing a different job today.”
All of Kane’s senses were immediately on high alert. He stopped halfway along a corridor he’d never seen before. “A worse job?”
Everet shook his head as he retraced a few steps, caught hold of Kane’s hand and led him forward once more. “Not a worse job, just a different one.”
The sound of clattering dishes dropped some not very subtle hints about their destination.
Hell, no! “I can’t cook, so there’s no point—”
“Hush,” Everet chided. They turned down another corridor. The rattling grew quieter until it completely faded from hearing. “Do we need to go over the newest rule you’ve agreed to follow?”
“No nicking stuff,” Kane muttered, purely because he really wanted to avoid the longer version of the conversation.
Everet smiled. “Well done.”
Another corner traversed and the big dumb albatross came into view, standing outside a heavy looking wooden door.
“What’s he doing here?” Kane glared up at Ambrose.
Everet might think the guy was all sweetness and light, but Kane had no doubt the oaf would jump at the chance of fooling around with Everet if he was given half a chance. Kane pursed his lips. The sooner he had a chance to get the albatross alone and make it clear that Everet belonged to him, the better as far as he was concerned.
“It’s standard protocol to have a member of security down here at all times,” Everet explained, still leading Kane forward.
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
Ambrose nodded a greeting to Everet with a great deal more friendliness than was required. Everet returned the gesture, wearing a far more serious expression, and rapped on the door. Someone called for them to enter. The door swung open. It was only luck that stopped Kane coming in his pants right there and then.
A tug on his hand gently led Kane into the most beautiful room he’d ever set eyes on. He turned, taking in every glorious detail surrounding him, as the door clicked closed behind them. He’d never even imagined a place like this could exist, let alone that he’d shared a building with it for so long.
“I thought you might like it here.”
Kane managed to glance toward Everet for a moment, but his eyes were soon drawn back to the beauty of their location. Every wall was covered in shelved cabinets, and every shelf was weighed down with more glitter and sparkle than Kane could comprehend.
There was more silver in there than he’d ever realized the world contained.
“It’s beautiful…”
“Yes, it is.” That wasn’t Everet’s voice.
Kane’s attention snapped toward a small figure sitting at a table on the far side of the room.
“Good morning, sire,” Everet said from Kane’s left.
The swan stood up and made his way across to them both. “Good morning.” His attention settled on Kane. “It takes a great deal of work to make sure all the silver remains in the best possible condition.”
Kane glanced toward Everet. “This is the new job you were talking about?”
Everet nodded. His expression remained serious, but Kane saw a light in his eyes that hadn’t been there when he’d looked at Ambrose, or even when he’d looked at Ori.
“Kane?” Ori asked.
When Kane turned back to him, the swan lifted his hands. He held two polishing clothes, one extended in offering toward Kane. “Would you like to help me polish some of the nest’s silver?”
Kane wasn’t sure why, but he turned to Everet to see what the raven thought of the idea before he made his own decision. His hand clenched into a fist at his side, eager to reach out and grab the cloth before the offer was withdrawn.
Everet nodded his approval. “Go ahead. I need to get on with some work of my own, but I’ll be back to collect you later.”
“You’re going?” Kane blurted out.
“Yes. But, you’ll be fine. Ambrose will be right outside the door if you need anything. And Ori will show you what to do in here.”
Kane frowned, torn between his desire to have Everet within sight, and to remain surrounded by sparkle.
Everet stepped forward and pressed a kiss on Kane’s cheek.
No one had ever done that before. Kane’s fingers twitched, but he managed not to make a complete idiot of himself by lifting his hand and touching the chaste bit of skin Everet had kissed. Still he was distracted enough by it that, before he could think of anything else to say, Everet was gone.
“He’s a good man,” Ori said from behind him, as the silence Everet left in his wake threatened to reach a breaking point.
“Too good for someone like me, you mean,” Kane translated, turning to square off against the swan.
Ori dropped his gaze. Against all of Kane’s expectations, the other man retreated to his table. “I’ve only just made a start on this set of spoons,” he said.
Row upon row of silver lines stretched out across the table. Kane gravitated toward it. Before he knew it, he had one of the spoons in his hand.
“Please, take a seat,” Ori invited, with an encouraging smile, as he sat down on the opposite side of the table.
Kane lowered himself onto the seat, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the silver.
“I’m not sure how much you know about silver, but it all needs to be polished regularly to stop it from tarnishing,” Ori said, his words soft and gentle, his tone exactly the same as that he used toward Everet. “If it’s left for too long, the surface goes dull and it loses all its shine. Eventually, it goes completely black. Would you like me to show you how we keep it sparkling?”
“Yes.” Kane’s grip on the spoon in his hand tightened.
“That’s the one I just finished,” Ori said, with a nod toward it. “Maybe you’d like to keep it in front of you for comparison, so you know when the first one you do is finished?”
Ori wouldn’t try to take it off him. That was the only thing Kane really cared about right then. The spoon, with all its sparkle and shine was his. Kane nodded.
Setting it down carefully in front of him, he managed to release his grip on the spoon. He picked up one of the others. It was nigh on impossible to believe that it could ever look like
his
spoon.
Ori set to work on another part of the cutlery set. Carefully copying the swan's actions, Kane worked on his task in silence. Very slowly, he saw something like sparkle begin to emerge from beneath the polish and the cloth.
Pure silver glittered and shone under the bright overhead lights. Kane gazed down at it in wonder.
“It’s almost like magic, isn’t it?”
Kane jerked up his head. He’d almost forgotten Ori was there.
“That’s one of the things I like about this job,” Ori added.
“This is your job?” Kane asked.
Ori took a deep breath. Unless Kane was mistaken, it took a lot of effort on the swan’s part not to let that breath out as a sigh. “No. Not really. I’m not supposed to want to do things like this.” As he spoke, his hands kept working without a single hesitation. “I’m supposed to be all delicate and pretty—useless for anything other than offering the occasional opinion.”
Kane turned his eyes back to his own work, unable to resist trying to make the spoon shine as brightly as possibly, but he didn’t stop listening.
“My master says that my role in the nest is to counteract the birds of prey’s more aggressive nature with instincts that are all about tolerance. I am slowly getting better at that, I think. But this…”
Kane glanced up.
“This is still the kind of work I like best.”
Kane nodded. Part of him felt like he understood. “It’s a good job, getting the sparkle out of things.” He frowned, knowing he sounded like an idiot.
Ori didn’t laugh. “The avian who used to look after the silver left the nest a few weeks ago—he’s in a breeding colony now. Nobody’s found a suitable replacement yet,” Ori said.
For a moment, Kane actually believed that the nest might actually consider him as that replacement. He shook his head. He wasn’t suitable for anything. “They’d never leave a magpie alone in a place like this,” he muttered.
“Why not?”
Sudden anger fired up inside Kane. His grip on a half-polished knife turned white knuckled. He wanted nothing more than to lash out at the whole world, to stab the universe deep in the heart and watch it bleed. It wasn’t fair.
“Because you all know I’m a thief,” Kane ground out, each word more bitter on his tongue.
“People can change.”
Kane closed his eyes. “Magpies can’t.” He’d known it all his life, even if he managed to push the knowledge to the back of his mind when he was with Everet.
Thieves, whores and disgraces to the avian nation. Magpies couldn’t change. The best anyone could hope for was that they’d behave reasonably well under very close supervision. Hamilton was a bastard, but Kane knew he’d been right about that.
“Maybe they can change if they have a master who believes in them—a master like Everet.”
The sheer unexpectedness of the statement made Kane look up and meet Ori’s eyes. For the first time, they held each other’s gaze for several seconds.
“I wouldn’t be who I am without my master,” Ori said. His brow furrowed as he thought carefully about each word he said. “I think, over time, belonging to a man, or owning a man, changes someone. Part of the master rubs off on his submissive. A little of the submissive is passed back to the master. I know I’m far more confident than I was when I first met Raynard. There’s no reason why Everet’s self-control couldn’t rub off on you. He has quite a bit to spare.”
Kane looked down at the knife. It took a man with a hell of a lot of confidence not to be worried that he’d get stabbed right then. Even most birds of prey would have faltered.
Kane looked up. Ori didn’t pull away in fear. He didn’t even blink.
“Everet is very controlled,” Kane allowed.
“Yes.” Ori said. He paused for a moment, as if debating whether or not he should say something. “There’s another reason why none of the elders would need to worry about you wanting to take anything from here away with you when you’d finished your work for the day.”