Nick scowled. “I’m not humouring anything, and I’m pretty sure I like him a lot more than he likes me.”
Valor cocked his head, surprise flitting across his expression. “What makes you think that?”
Kit had hummed, stroked Nick’s chest, and ugly fears had come unspooling out of him. Things he barely acknowledged, and Kit had somehow eased the ache of them anyway. Made it better, made him cry, but not feel lesser for it.
“The details of our relationship aren’t any of your business.”
“He wouldn’t have scent-marked you if he didn’t wish to spend his life with you. I do not think his ‘like’ is lacking,” Valor said. And then he continued to talk as if he hadn’t dropped a bomb on Nick’s pieced-together understanding of the situation. “I admit it is a pleasant surprise. I worried that part of him might have been closed off to the possibility of connection, that Desre had left him unable to trust someone enough to follow his instincts.”
“Let’s back up a bit.” Nick’s voice sounded strange even to his own ears. “Scent-marking equates to a lifetime thing?”
“Not always. But the kind he’s done to you? Yes.” Valor must have seen Nick’s confusion. “It is a declaration of intent. It is usually soothing to both parties to scent and be marked in turn.”
Nick knew that when Kit scent-marked him, he was relaxed and settled afterwards. What he didn’t know, what he hadn’t been told, was just how serious it was. Nick was thinkingboyfriends. Kit had leapt right ahead toforeverwithout so much as a heads-up.
“Jesus Christ.” Nick dragged a hand across his face, mind catching on the possibilities suddenly unfolding before him. But he thought of Kit’s admission; he had a list. A list of things he wanted to do in the future that included Nick. His confusion quelled. Kit wasn’t deceptive. Lies stood out on his body like neon signs, and hehadtold Nick in his own way.
“You consider your relationship with my nephew temporary?” Valor’s tone was just threatening enough to make Nick drop his hand and glare. More than threatening enough to strike a nerve.
“I don’t want to hear about how seriousheconsiders us from a stranger,” Nick said, voice biting. “And to be perfectly honest, since I was kidnapped, I’ve been more focused on things like my safety rather than my relationship status.” He turned abruptly away from Valor’s considering eye. “I’m not discussing this with you. Tell me what I was taken for in the first place. What is this stupid symbol actually supposed to do?” Nick gestured to his inner wrist, at the symbol Kit, Desre and Valor had all recognised.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“It is a duplication spell,” Valor answered.
They came to another fork in the road, and Valor tugged on his horse’s reins. “We will go on foot from here; the ground is too sharp for hooves.”
Nick watched Valor take his feet out of the stirrups and lean forwards, swinging his leg over the back of the saddle. Nick mimicked him, grateful that Julia stood patiently still. By the time he’d walked to Valor’s side, his horse was untacked and wandering away, grazing on the only green grass Nick could see anywhere, that which grew along the edges of the trees’ shade.
Valor untacked Julia too. No plan for a quick getaway then. “What is it you need to duplicate? Food?” But Nick knew that wasn’t the reason. They didn’t go and piss off Vi and a host of mermen for food.
“The council has enough riches to feed all of Aridia for several generations. Food does not motivate them.”
“And not riches either, apparently.” Nick fell in step with Valor. After only a few paces, Nick saw immediately why they’d left the horses. Sharp shells lined the path. Nick kicked at one, recalling a beach back home that nobody walked on because ofthe razor fish shells littering the sands. They were a nightmare to stand on, leaving cuts so jagged from shells so sharp you didn’t even feel a thing until it was too late.
“A witch lived in Aridia for many years. A skilled woman who worked for the council, able to cast the spell when needed. Ten years ago, my sister helped her escape. They planned to go to the city of monsters to seek aid from the merfolk brothers who hold power there.” Valor paused. “It was not a bad plan. I, too, asked for their aid, unfortunately to little avail. Merfolk do not leave the ocean easily, and I had nothing interesting enough to tempt them away. Greya and his vanity? Rin and her endless plans that achieve nothing? The brothers didn’t care that they were long-lived, the idea of immortality means little to a race with such power. Even Desre was not enough to draw them from the ocean. They said a nymph imitating a siren was not worth their time.”
Nick, having personally seen Desre’s power, wondered what would interest a pair of ruling merfolk brothers if not for that. He took note of the casual manner in which Valor divulged the secret of their long life, when Kit had been petrified at the prospect of spilling the same and them finding out. Nick supposed that it didn’t matter if Valor shared that secret, as the leader of the rebellion against them, he was doomed if he fell into their hands either way. And perhaps given the high opinion Valor had of Nick’s family, he didn’t consider him in the same danger as other kits should he find out the truth? “Do her powers work on merfolk?”
“I am certain,” Valor began slowly, “if someone managed to draw one of the merfolk into her presence, she would not survive the encounter. Her strength is no match for even the weakest of their race. Unfortunately, they are difficult to approach, and even harder to bargain with. My sister and the witch didn’t even make it as far as the ocean in the end,”he continued. “The witch cut her own throat before she could be taken back. My sister was brought before the council. Her husband and child were dragged from their home in the city.” Valor stopped walking. “Kit was ten.”
Dread calcified in Nick’s stomach.
“They did not realise at the time how rare it was to be able to cast that spell. They thought it would be a mere trifle to fetch another witch to perform it.”
“They killed his parents.” Nick knew Kit’s parents were dead; he hadn’t known the one who did it was holding him prisoner. Kit. God,Kit. Nick’s soul ached. He lost his parents at ten, and the one who did it had sunk her claws into him and hadn’t let go since. Valor nodded, expressionless.
“We were taken into Desre’s household.” Valor continued walking. “It has been a long decade for both of us. Even in those earliest years when she held more interest towards me rather than Kit, I was hardly a perfect shield. I have never stepped aside willingly, not once, to allow her access to him, but it is not a choice with Desre. And I could mount no rebellion when by her side. I would rather Kit go through a few short years of unshielded torment and be free, then live his entire life in fear.”
Valor spoke with a mix of grief and spiked determination. Like he was trying to convince Nick to see that he was right. “I doubt a single minute under Desre’s thumb felt short to Kit,” Nick replied, angry.
Leaving Kit in Desre’s clutches couldn’t be right in any circumstance, but what if he’d been in that situation? Against someone he couldn’t defeat. Against someone who always won. Would he stay and provide patchwork protection? Like Kit did for those on the ship? Would he leave entirely with a vow to return, like Valor had chosen?
For the first time in his life, Nick wasn’t sure if even his dad would have a good answer.
But with a little thought, Nick knew he wouldn’t do what Valor had done. He wouldn’t ever be able to pick a way forwards that left Kit defenceless, at Desre’s mercy.
The thick tree cover parted suddenly to deposit them on a riverbank. The shelled ground sloped into the wide Dia River, the water clear enough to see the glinting white shells until they disappeared into a blue haze. The river was quiet.
