Page 12 of Back in the Hunt

“Is this going to hurt?” Everly asked, allowing Nox to gather his face in his hands and lean in closer. He wasn’t afraid, just curious to know if itshouldhurt and if it actually would.

“Not at all. I just want to listen and feel,” Nox said quietly, closing his eyes. Everly held very still and breathed as softly as he could. Nox remained silent for several moments before sitting back and forcing out a thoughtful hum.

“What?” Everly asked nervously, but Nox waved it off.

“Nothing to worry about. You’re very…neutral,” he decided with a wide grin. “Practically a blank canvas.”

Everly chewed on his lip as Nox returned the tray to his lap and set the teacup back in his hands. “And that’s good?”

“It’s great!” Nox replied a touch too quickly, then shrugged. “It can’t hurt. Imagine you adopted a puppy and it had learned a bunch of bad habits.”

“I am kind of like a puppy, aren’t I,” Everly said, deflating slightly.

“Nope. Sorry. Really bad choice of metaphor,” Nox stated briskly as he slashed at the air. “Our puppy is currently out running in the rain and probably chasing cars,” he said with another wink. “I want you to forget everything you used to believe about yourself and start fresh. You’re still a changeling in that you’re adapting and learning as you grow, but you’re not the harmful kind of changeling anymore. Not since you almost died and Merlin and I patched you up.”

“I’m not?”

“I’m afraid not,” Nox said, pretending to be serious. “I had to put some of my light into you and Merlin bled you so he could see just how much curse was left and he says you’re just as pure as fresh snow now.”

Everly had a feeling Nox was exaggerating in order to cheer him up. But it was working. “Can you and Merlin help me be more like a real man? I want Bryn to like me but he says that I’m still too fae to know what I want.”

A loud hiss slipped from Nox as he leaned back, hugging his chest. “In this case, I think you should rely on Bryn’s judgment. You are in a very malleable state, spiritually, and fae magick is flighty and capricious by nature. I don’t sense much in the way of puckishness in your aura, but we might have trouble if Bryn gave into his more…canine qualities right now.”

“Why? What could happen?” Everly’s eyes grew wider and drier as he leaned in.

Nox coughed softly. His cheeks were pink as he checked the door. “For the love of all the gods, you cannot listen to Merlin if his advice is even remotely horny.”

“Okay. Why?”

“Do you know what an incubus is?” He waited until Everly nodded. “Your hungry fae soul is waiting for a spiritual signal so it knows what kind of sí you’re supposed to be. If you had woken up on the other side of the veil and had been gathered up withthe sluagh, you could have become one of them. Or, you could have been lost out there, tortured and twisted by the void until you found your way back as a banshee?—”

Everly recoiled and gasped because he knew what those were and that they were terrible. “That’s why Bryn wouldn’t let me go,” he said shakily and Nox nodded.

“If there’s one thing a spectral hound is gonna do, it’s gonna take that soul exactly where it’s supposed to go, and Bryn knew you didn’t belong out there and that you weren’t meant to die that night. He seems to know himself even better,” Nox said with a nod at the window and the storm outside. “Trust his instincts. He won’t let any harm come to you.”

“Because he doesn’t want me to become an incubus,” Everly guessed, earning a snort from Nox.

“I’m sure part of Bryn does and he could probably make that work since he’s nearly indestructible. But we all want more for you than that, even Merlin. He’s still a touch peeved with Bryn’s behavior so he’s willing to vex him back, by stirring things up between the two of you. He just forgets that too much sex can be a bad thing.”

“Why?” Everly squinted over Nox’s shoulder, trying to think of any other consequence aside from his own dehydration.

“We haven’t figured out what’s trying to kill you yet. I think we should before you and Bryn start breeding and have a litter of hellhounds.”

Everly’s jaw fell and he let out a shocked gasp. “Can I do that? Is that how they’re made?”

“No!” Nox laughed as he got up. “You can’t—” He paused and Nox’s head cocked before he shook it. “I am ninety-nine point nine nine percent certain you can’t have a baby, but beings like myself, Merlin, and the twins reincarnate, usually along family lines. It’s a little different with Bryn and Arawn, but they can’treproduce and their bodies last as long asbothof their souls last.”

“Both of their souls?”

Nox’s cheeks puffed out as he nodded. “They’re not just physical twins, their souls are braided so that they repeat together. If one of them dies on the other side, the other will begin to age on this side so their souls can be reunited.”

“Oh, no!” Everly gulped as he thought about Arawn and what might have happened if Bryn hadn’t survived the monster that night in the Nothing.

“It would take so much more, someone like me, to kill a spectral hound,” Nox said. “I’m sure he told you what I am. And who Nelson and Merlin are, in addition to being a smoking hot FBI agent and a twisted old pervert,” he added with an eye roll for Merlin. “You are part of our weird little family now, along with Bixby and the twins. Whether Bryn likes it or not.”

“Do you know why he doesn’t like it?”

The moment stretched before Nox eventually nodded. “I do and I’ll fix that soon. Don’t worry. The storm will pass and tomorrow will be a lovely day,” he predicted, then turned when they heard footsteps in the hallway.

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