Page 12 of Luca

“Then… I guess we’re going to Rosewood Creek?” he said.

I nodded. “We’ll leave in a few days. I have one or two matters to tie up here, but we should head over to Edenglas first, to give my brother the news of his mother.”

“Yeah, he deserves to know.” Luca stretched like a cat in my lap, letting his joints pop as a yawn overtook him. “It’s late, but we could open a portal into the penthouse and ask them to meet us there in an hour or so? No point waiting around.”

I shook my head. “We will go to Edenglas tonight, but you will sleep first, and we will meet them at the club in the morning.” On cue, Luca opened his mouth to argue, but I sent him a pointed look. “One more night will not do any harm, my heart. You are exhausted, and I will not accept any protests to the contrary.”

For a beat, he stared at me, pouting, but when he realized I wasn’t willing to budge, he yielded with a petulant huff. “Fine, but I’m only doing what I’m told because I love you.”

I snorted lightly. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

LUCA

Tee took the news about his mom extremely well. He’d said that actually being tied to the royal line, being free to choose between the realms changed nothing. He had no desire to return to the Otherworld or to leave Alex, but knowing he could now cross through the Veil if the need arose eased his worries. If Cair and I found ourselves in trouble, he could be there.

We hoped it would never come to that, but having the safety net was nice.

“So, you’re not sure if he’sactuallyyour dad, you’re just going off what you found in records and diary entries from this secret room in the library?” Alex asked, stirring his drink with his straw.

Cair and Tee had moved up to the office under the guise of checking over some paperwork for the club, but I guessed they were probably catching up. That left Alex and me at the bar, doing the exact same thing. We planned to set off on our trip in two days, and since Rathe was back in the Otherworld organizing the particulars, we had an hour or two to spare before we had to head back. It was nice just sitting here with Alex, in the first place I’d ever felt really at home. I missed him, I missed the club, and though we’d already been here an hour, talking shit and drinking Tee’s experimental cocktails, we hadn’t run out of topics—not with his ability to turn everything into an innuendo—nor did we feel like we wanted to be anywhere else.

OrIdidn’t, at least.

“Nailed it.” I took a sip of my own drink. It was called a Sour Temptress, and it tasted like apricots. “Oh, and after the spell lifted and Cair remembered the guy, he said I have his eyes, so that’s something?”

My bestie snorted, and I couldn’t really blame him. “To be fair, no one has eyes as pretty and distinctive as yours, so I’d say that’s a valid clue.”

“That’s what Cair said!” Alex hummed around a gulp of his drink as if he’d expected my mate to be on his wavelength. I carried on. “I’m nottotallystupid, okay? I know there’s every chance we go to this farm in the Outerlands and he’s not there, or heisand he’s a dick, or he just doesn’t want to know me, but if that happens, I won’t really be any worse off than I am now. We can just try a different path or figure out another way to get the closure I need. It’s still worth a shot.”

Cair was already ninety percent sure this guy was my father, so I wasn’t as worried on that front as I was by the possibility that he could be… disappointing. For years, my mom had refused to mention him, hated the Fae because of whatever he’d done, so of course I was wary. Cair remembered very little about his character except for the brief interactions they’d shared and what he’d heard from others. When I’d probed him for more details before bed last night—anything at all that he could remember—he’d said that he’d seemed kind. Gentle, even. Too gentle to be so close to the king. He’d assisted the Fae in Edenglas, fought for their rights, and worked tirelessly for the good of the people. It all sounded so admirable and promising, but could he really be a good guy after so many centuries acting under the orders of the king?

Or was he a victim trying to survive just the same as everyone else?

Like so many other questions I had, I couldn’t be certain of the answers until I found him, and even if this path ended in disaster, or we reached a dead end and had to keep searching, I was willing to follow whatever breadcrumbs were laid out to reach any sort of conclusion.

A happy and stress-free reunion preferred, obviously.

“Hey, you’re not stupid at all,” Alex scolded me, almost knocking over his glass with how carelessly he set it down. “You follow your curiosity, and you’re persistent about it. Two of the many things I love about you.” He reached forward to ruffle my hair, and I narrowed my eyes.

“Are you drunk?”

He reeled back in offense, but after a brief pause for self-reflection, he shrugged. “Maybe, but my point still stands. I love you.”

“It’s not even ten a.m.”

“Don’t judge me. You’ve had just as many as I have!”

“Mine are mocktails,” I clarified. “As innonalcoholic.”

“Oh.” His eyes widened a fraction, and he let out a sheepish giggle. “Oops.”

I laughed, shaking my head, and it only took a few seconds for him to join in. “I love you too.”

With a smile only someone six cocktails deep could pull off, he rested his hand on top of mine, squeezing lightly. “I’m happy for you, Lu, and I really hope you find him and that he lives up to your expectations, but keep me updated. Send a letter, or a pigeon, I don’t care. Just keep us in the loop, okay?”

“I will.” I smiled, my chest feeling all warm and toasty. I would make more of an effort to visit when we returned from the Outerlands. I’d make plans to spend more one-on-one time with Alex, like we used to before our mates came along. I loved it being the four of us, our little family, but it was also nice to be alone with him and talk about everything and nothing.

It was almost like therapy.

---