Jasper made an embarrassed noise of objection and reached for his long plait of dark-brown hair, arranging it neatly over his shoulder. “It tickled.”
His tail quivered in the air behind him. It was sage green, and the fletching at the end looked exactly the same as that of the man Nick had seen earlier. His mind jumped back to thatsmack. To that black tail curling away to hide.
“There was a couple earlier, and the woman smacked her partner for swinging his tail around. Exactly like you are now. Why did she do that?” Nick asked. Jasper worked for Vi as a guard, and though he was off the clock, Nick seriously doubted he’d swing his tail around in front of her if it was considered rude.
Jasper frowned, taking note of what his tail was doing. From his expression, he clearly didn’t think there was a problem. Vi’s gaze slid across the party. “There are diplomats from Aridia in the city that I extended invitations to,” she explained. “Perhaps they have just come from a conservative area? In some regions, it is considered unfashionable to have a tail, though why they would think this is one of those places… These waters and lands have been ruled by merfolk for generations, and thatdraws others like them near in copious numbers. An error on the diplomat’s part, perhaps?” Vi concluded. She looked at Jasper. “Jasper and his family are somewhat of an anomaly, as they’ve lived here for several years now, but while those from Aridia travel outside of their lands on trading runs, they tend not to mingle too closely outside their own race.”
“Unless they are collecting tithes,” Jasper remarked, with a distinctly disapproving voice and a slash of his tail.
“Kit tithe collectors are renowned,” Vi agreed. “One came to my family’s grape plantation in the past to demand half the harvest. Mind you, my family’s lands do not border Aridia, nor do we have any allegiance to them. However, if not for the fact that I was already mated to merfolk, there would have been considerable difficulties in denying them. Kits are a physically gifted race.”
“So by tithe collectors, you mean thieves?” Nick surmised. Despite the explanation, he knew that wasn’t why the young man had been smacked. The hate in that woman’s eyes had been far from ‘diplomatic’.
“There’s a civil war at the moment over that exact argument, I believe,” Vi confirmed. “I have stayed up-to-date with the details to be sure none come and bother my staff”—Jasper cast Vi an appreciative look at the remark—“but there’s nothing far-reaching in the dispute. Not even a ripple of it has reached our shores.”
Laurence drifted close to Jasper, catching his elbow and sharing a worried frown with him. “You’re not going to go and fight, are you?”
“I have not been in Aridia since I was young. My parents were tithe collectors,” he admitted, “but my siblings travelled here and served the previous monarch. I joined them as soon as I was old enough to travel alone.”
Vi smiled faintly. “I remember that. When he found out the monarch had disappeared and he could not enter her service, he came to me and Goldilocks, offering his skills. He has never failed to deliver on his promises.”
Jasper’s expression was downright pleased, and Laurence, in all his empathy, preened as if he’d been the one complimented. The music changed, a jive becoming a slower melody, and the dancing changed tempo. Partners began a sort of waltz. Laurence eyed a nearby couple, leaning towards the floor. Jasper noticed at once. “Would you like me to teach you this one too?” he offered.
“Can you?”
And the two were off again, quick as they’d arrived.
If anyone found it strange that someone waited until the party to learn the steps, it didn’t show. Nick put that down to Laurence looking like a carefree prince.
Trevor asked Vi if she’d like to dance, and they joined the floor. With a warm smile, rather than Vi teaching Trevor the local dance, he taught her a waltz from back home. The last time Nick saw his dad waltz was at his wedding to Edith a year and a half ago. Trevor’s friends were happy for him to be moving on from his late wife after almost two decades, and Edith’s friends had seemed similarly happy for her to be marrying Trevor. Nick had been glad of the marriage too. He’d started college, and Laurence was soon to follow, which meant Trevor would soon be left alone. Edith was a neat solution to that particular worry, and given that throughout their relationship she seemed to not only adore Trevor but Laurence too, Nick had given her a pass. In retrospect, the fact that none of Edith’s guests so much as mentioned her son, Connor, was a clear sign that his ‘pass’ had been given prematurely, and to the wrong person.
Nick turned from the couple as they disappeared amongst weaving pairs spinning across gleaming slab stone. Connorleaned against a table of drinks, watching the dance floor in a too-pointed way.
“Where’s your other half?” Nick asked.
“Lost his legs in the bedroom. Dad hugged me.”
Connor had this habit of only calling Trevor ‘Dad’ when he wasn’t there to hear it, or when he was worried Trevor would be upset over something.
“Is Adonis ever going to get over his jealousy?” Nick didn’t ask if Adonis would ever get over his big attitude. There might be a hole in the sky connecting two different worlds, but Nick didn’t believe in the impossible.
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Connor said. After a second, his eyes slid to Nick. “I think I make him feel insecure.” He frowned, clearly troubled by the thought.
“Not intentionally,” Nick tacked on. “It’s a cultural thing, right? Merfolk are supposed to break away from their families and start their own unit. That can include siblings”—and Nick knew that was the case because while Adonis wasn’t a big fan of Nick, he didn’t object to his presence the same way he did Trevor’s—“but not parents.”
“Did Adonis tell you that?”
“Sam. He heard it from Goldilocks, who’s more talkative than your rabid boyfriend.” Adonis tended towards growls and snorts and sneers. He could communicate just fine—Nick had seen that plenty—but he seemed to dislike speaking unless he had to.
“He doesn’t like anyone bossing me around,” Connor explained. “Not that Trevor bosses me around. But I do listen to him.”
Connor also listened to Laurence, and Adonis didn’t object to that, but Nick got it. Trevor was the head of the family; they all did what he said, even if Trevor asked rather than ordered.
Connor’s attention stayed on Nick, pointedness back in his gaze.
“What is it?” Nick asked. He and Connor had never bonded, not the way he had with Laurence and Trevor, but they got along in their own way. Connor was straightforward with people. He didn’t smile when he didn’t mean it and didn’t ever pretend to be anything he wasn’t. Once Nick stopped poking at him, he quite liked the personality behind the porcupine spikes protecting his heart. Most likely that sentiment wasn’t returned, but that didn’t worry Nick so long as they could keep the peace.
“You’ve been bothering me.”
