Page 70 of Shield of Fire

He undoubtedly would, but right now I preferred to keep the two men in my life separated. They knew of each other, and that was the important thing. There was no real reason for them to meet, given they had very little in common other than me.

“It’s not something I’m ready to deal with right now, Lugh.”

And in truth, probably never would be. As much as I enjoyed being with both men, I knew it couldn’t go on forever. I wasn’t a player, not at heart. And for Eljin and me to move forward and give our relationship any chance, I would have to let Cynwrig go.

But what I should do and what I actually would do were entirely two different things. At least for the moment, anyway.

“Coward,” Lugh repeated.

“No, sensible,” I retorted. “Stop shit-stirring, brother mine.”

He laughed. “After all the years you spent teasing me about my love life, consider this minor revenge. See you soon.”

He hung up before I could reply.

“And Mathi is?” Eljin asked. “Not the competition, I take it?”

“He’s a former lover, now a good friend, and the go-between between me and the council.”

“Your handler, in other words.” He glanced at me. “Why are you working for the council when you have your own business to run?”

I grimaced. “It’s a punishment for deep controlling a cousin.”

“I take it there was a good reason?”

“A life-or-death sort of reason.”

“The best kind.”

“Sounds like you’ve some experience in that field.”

A smile teased the corners of his lovely lips. “I’m not the powerhouse relic hunter that your brother is, and my relic-hunting field work is limited by comparison. The closest I’ve ever come to life and death is when the head of a dig took a shine to me, and it was not reciprocated.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I take it she didn’t take rejection kindly?”

“He definitely did not. But that was more a ‘you’ll never work in this field again’ situation than a life-endangering one.”

Hence his field work being limited, from the sound of it. I leaned over and patted his leg. “Stick with me, laddie, and you’ll definitely be introduced to more than a few life-and-death situations.”

He laughed softly. “Not sure about the latter, but definitely up for the former.”

“You were certainly up last night. I’m not entirely sure how you’re still awake.”

“The competition is a dark elf,” he said wryly. “My game needs to be on point if I’m to win the fair maiden.”

I laughed and called Mathi. It immediately switched over to voice mail, so I asked if he could come around to Lugh’s later that evening to help translate some scrolls we’d found. A text arrived a few seconds later confirming he would, so he was obviously in a meeting and unable to talk. I sent back a request for pizza and hoped he didn’t just roll his eyes and ignore me, as he wasn’t overly fond of what I considered the sixth essential food group. Chocolate was, of course, on the main list.

Lugh lived in a decommissioned power substation that was one of the ugliest buildings I’d ever seen. Its brown bricks were blackened by grime decades in the placing, and the black wooden door—situated in the middle of the long, single-story building—still had the rusty old electrical warning signs screwed into it. But it had the one thing vital to a man of Lugh’s size that no other house in the area did—high ceilings and tons of storage space.

Eljin found parking a few houses down, then handed me the lighter of the two boxes and took the other. I punched in the code once we reached the front door and then nudged it open with an elbow. Unlike the outside of the building, the interior was bright and surprisingly modern. The foyer was large and airy with two doors leading off it—the left into the main living area and two bedrooms, the right into his office and storage area.

I headed right and dumped my box on one of the desks. Eljin placed his beside mine and then looked around. It was a large room with tons of shelving storage and several desks, the latter stacked high with paper and the remnants of broken pottery and small figurines.

“Nice setup. Bit messy though.”

“His office and storage area were raided a few weeks ago, and he’s obviously still in the process of cleaning up. Coffee?”

He nodded and followed me across to the living area, perching on one of the stools in front of the counter as I made us both a drink. After sliding his cup across to him, I raided the pantry—which was fully stocked with fresh, in-date rather than out-of-date food now that Darby stayed here a good portion of the week—for a packet of biscuits and then sat down beside him. Lugh came in a few minutes later and nodded a greeting to Eljin. He was a six-foot-six giant of a man with short but unruly red hair and frost-green eyes who’d always made me feel small by comparison, even though I could hardly be described as short when I was five-eight.

---