“You did really well,” Everet said. He pressed a kiss against Kane’s lips, but this time he managed not to let the magpie lead him too far astray. He kept the kiss chaste and quickly turned his attention back to Ori before he forgot the swan was even in the room.
“I’d better be on my way,” Ori said, halfway to the door already. “Raynard is expecting me upstairs.”
Ori wasted no time making his exit. It had never been more obvious that he knew exactly what they did in the silver room once he left. His hand was halfway to the handle when an unexpected knock sounded on the other side of the door.
Everet turned his attention to the door, suddenly on his alert as both a member of the security flock and a master.
Ori frowned slightly and opened the door. “Yes?”
“A visiting party has arrived from another nest. Mr. Hamilton requests that you come to the main reception room to greet them as soon as it is convenient, sire.”
Ori indicated his willingness to do that, but the messenger didn’t step back to make way for him to leave the way Everet expected him too.
“Mr. Hamilton also orders Everet and Kane to attend him in the main reception room, immediately.”
Ori glanced over his shoulder. Everet wished he could have told the swan what was going on, if only because that meant he’d have known for himself. All he could do was shrug.
Ori turned back to the messenger. “You may tell Mr. Hamilton we are all on our way. Thank you.”
“Yes, sire.”
“I don’t want to go to some boring meeting,” Kane began.
“It’s possible that we could come back down here after the meeting,” Everet said.
He didn’t actually add the words
unless you throw a temper tantrum
to the end of his sentence, but Kane still seemed to hear them, loud and clear. He sighed, but uttered no further complaint as they made their way up through the nest. They eventually reached one of the big reception rooms used to entertain high-ranking avians from nests both near and farther afield.
As soon as a wren opened the door for them, it was obvious that these particular visitors obviously weren’t from an all-male nest.
Everet hid his surprise well. Kane didn’t. He stalled less than a foot into the room. Placing a firm, guiding hand on the small of Kane’s back, Everet tried to nudge him subtly forward.
Nothing. Kane seemed to be welded in place.
“Kane?” Everet asked softly.
Ori had moved forward without them and now stood at Raynard’s side. The guests were so busy greeting him, they hadn’t noticed the little scene in the doorway, but Everet knew that situation wouldn’t last forever.
Kane didn’t reply to his prompt. He didn’t move. His eyes remained fixed on something on the other side of the room. Everet followed his gaze. A woman hung off an older man’s arm. Her skirt was short, her heels high and her jewelry very expensive. Everything about her screamed trophy wife, or perhaps a straightforward mistress.
Everet frowned. Kane couldn’t be
that
shocked by the sight of a woman in the nest, not even by one who seemed to be glued to the side of a man at least twice her age, and possibly closer to three times.
Suddenly Hamilton turned the full force of his scrutiny toward them.
“I’d like to introduce you to our recently promoted Head of Internal Security at the nest—Everet, a raven of excellent standing in our community.”
Everet blinked, never having heard the formal title that he’d apparently acquired, along with his mountain of paperwork. He’d never heard Hamilton speak so highly of him either.
The eagle’s attention moved to Kane. His expression morphed into one of complete distaste. “And, I believe at least one of you already knows the magpie Kane.”
Everet slid his arm a little farther around Kane, doing his best to offer very general reassurance until he knew enough to make something more specific feasible.
“Come here, Kane,” Hamilton ordered.
Kane remained exactly where he was. As far as Everet could work out, it had nothing to do with disobedience, and everything to do with temporary paralysis.
“Kane!” Hamilton snapped.
“Hello, darling,” the woman said, her tone full of joy at seeing Kane. If the emotion hadn’t been brittle and obviously fake, she might have gone up in Everet’s estimation.
Her words rather than Hamilton’s order seemed to finally convince Kane to take a step forward. He walked across the room in slow even strides. Everet never moved an inch from his side.
“Hello, Crystal.”
“You know each other?” Raynard asked from the other side of the group.
“Yes,” Kane said, his tone emotionless, as if he’d gone completely numb. “She’s my sister.”
Chapter Thirteen
Everyone looked shocked, except Hamilton.
Everet’s eyes narrowed as he studied the eagle. “That’s why you invited them here, isn’t it?”
Hamilton peered over his glasses at him. “I don’t believe I need your permission to entertain whomever I wish in
my
nest.”
He obviously intended to intimidate Everet with the reminder of their respective ranks. All he did was make Everet even more determined to protect Kane from whatever the hell the sanctimonious bastard plotted against him.
“If you’re trying to fob him off onto us,” Crystal said, “don’t bother. My Harold doesn’t swing both ways, do you, darling?”
The old man she’d fawned over ever since they’d entered the room laughed. Crystal joined in.
Everet glanced down at Kane. He didn’t laugh. The light that shone so brightly in his eyes while they had been in the silver room was gone. As Everet watched, the last traces of expression faded from Kane’s face.
“Thanks,
sis
, but I’ve never needed your help to catch a meal-ticket.”
Crystal looked them both up and down. Tossing back her hair with a hand laden down with huge, flashy rings, she laughed. “Oh, darling, from what I can see, you really do need all the help you can get.”
The differences in their clothes, or in the amount of precious metals that decorated their bodies, couldn’t have been more different. The clothes Everet bought Kane were no worse quality than those he wore himself, but their styling was simple, and no jewelry had been added to Kane’s outfit.
The smudges of polish probably didn’t help in her eyes either. Everet had no idea what Kane thought of them, but for himself, he loved them. Signs of hard work and diligence weren’t to be sneered at. Lack of vanity could only be a good thing.
“
Dating
some cop or other might be worthwhile if you find yourself in a jam, but you should know better than to think one could be useful in the long run,” Crystal said, her words sharper and more vicious by the moment. “He could never look after you the way Harold takes care of me. Could he, Harold, darling?” She tittered as if it was a joke. Harold obviously didn’t care if everyone knew his lover was bought and paid for. He chuckled along with her as if she were the funniest comic ever to stand up before a mic.
Kane remained perfectly serious.
Everet moved his hand up to rest on Kane’s shoulder. The woman was Kane’s sister. Everet had no idea how Kane would react if anyone pointed out that she was a complete bitch. He forced himself to remain silent, restricting himself to observing until a clear course of action presented itself.
The man with Crystal, Harold, lifted a champagne glass to his lips. On the inside of his wrist, Everet made out his species mark. A pheasant. Not the brightest of birds at the best of times. Far too amenable to be sensible—any magpie who hadn’t been taught the difference between right and wrong could easily run rings around one.
Hamilton waved a hand toward a little group of chairs and sofas set around a low table in one section of the grand room. Gilding and dark green upholstery covered everything within view. “Please, do take a seat, everyone. After you, sire.”
Tension radiated off every fiber of Kane’s body. He’d come so far in the last few weeks. Everet couldn’t risk forcing him to remain in his sister’s company. “Thank you, sir,” he began. “But—”
Before he could finish, Kane stepped forward and stood at one end of a fancy sofa that no one had laid claim to. Everet quickly took his place next to him, ready to occupy the other end of the sofa when it was their turn to sit.
Ori quickly took his seat, then the birds of prey settled themselves into their chairs, followed by the guests at the nest. Kane and Everet were the lowest avians in the pecking order of those present.
For the first time, Everet’s spine stiffened at having to wait while the order of precedence made itself felt throughout the group. Kane barely held himself together as it was—Everet could sense how nervous he was, how close to the cliff-edge he stood. Waiting around like idiots couldn’t help.
“We don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to,” Everet whispered to Kane, as it finally became their turn to lower themselves into their seats and he had the chance to dip his head and whisper in the other man’s ear.
Kane didn’t even glance toward him. If his attention had been fixed on his sister, that would have been understandable, but it wasn’t. He stared directly ahead gazing blindly at the wall opposite him.
Everet followed the other man’s line of sight, but nothing special hung on the wall there. There was no mirror, no portrait, just the same ancient decoration that covered the rest of the walls.
Everet set his hand on Kane’s leg, determined to let his submissive know that, whatever was about to happen, he wouldn’t have to face it alone. If Kane took any reassurance from his presence, he didn’t let on.
“I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that Kane is making a good home for himself in our nest,” Ori suddenly said to their guests. “He’s becoming a great credit to us.”
Everet could have kissed Ori for his kindness, if he hadn’t been sure Raynard and Kane would both have killed him for it on the spot if he’d tried anything of the sort.
Crystal laughed as if the swan’s words couldn’t be anything other than a joke. Hamilton’s lips twisted, as if he was amused, too.
Kane didn’t smile. He sat so still, Everet had to study him for what felt like an age in order to check he was breathing.
“Perhaps you’d be kind enough to tell us a little bit about your brother’s life before he came to the nest,” Hamilton drawled, twirling the stem of his glass between his fingers. “I’m sure we’d all find that quite fascinating.”
Everet jerked his attention away from Kane. “With all due respect, sir, surely it’s the way Kane acts
now
that’s important. Everything else—”
“When I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it,” Hamilton snapped.
“Oh, dear.” Crystal smirked. “It looks like someone’s afraid he’ll be embarrassed by your indiscretions, Kane. You should have chosen your protector more carefully. If he can’t deal with—”
“I am not ashamed of Kane,” Everet cut in. Politeness and nest politics could both be damned. He made no attempt to mask his anger. “Nothing you can tell me will change that.”
“So sure?” she asked, sitting back in her chair and crossing very long, tanned legs.
“Yes,” Everet bit out.
“Then you can hardly object to hearing a few highlights, can you?”
Everet glared across the room at her. She’d outmaneuvered him and they both bloody well knew it.
Taking one step toward the door would ensure that everyone there thought he felt ashamed of Kane. Worse, it might make Kane think that, too. Everet scrolled through every curse word he knew.