Page 81 of Threadbound

“He might not,” Jamie argued, although it sounded weak, even to him.

“He has no other choice,” Bran replied grimly. “The Sidhe King is neither kind nor merciful, and if he does not kill this pathetic creature for desertion, he will kill its family.” In Bran’s grip, the creature bobbed its head furiously.

Jamie wanted to tell it that it wasn’t helping its case by agreeing with Bran. “Bran, please.”

Bran stared into Jamie’s eyes, seeking something in their bottomless blue that would help him convince the half-breed that the trow had to die. He found nothing.

He also learned that he couldn’t refuse Jamie anything—even if it was incredibly stupid and just as dangerous. Trows had their own magic—usually musical in nature—although it seemed that this one was also handy with a blade. Bran could sense the blood and magic on the dagger the trow wore at its waist.

His lip curling with disgust, Bran forced his fingers to release the creature’s throat, letting it drop unceremoniously to the cobbles. It fell, then scrambled to its feet, scrabbling away from Bran and the threat he represented. It paused to gape at him for a few seconds only before disappearing into a narrow grate at the base of one of the walls, only dust and a few scuff marks left behind.

“That was foolish,” Bran growled, worry making him agitated.

“Thank you,” Jamie murmured softly, then gathered himself back to his knees and pulled out his phone.

“Dinna do that,” Bran snapped.

“Call the cops?” Jamie asked. “But we?—”

“We werna here,” Bran finished. “We canna be tied to this.” He moved close enough to Jamie to reach down and grip his upper arm, pulling him to his feet. Jamie allowed himself to be pulled.

“We can’t just leave him.”

“We can, and we will,” Bran retorted. “We stay here, thegeàrdwill find us, and they will kill us.”

“The what?” Jamie sounded scared and confused. It wasn’t helping Bran’s temper.

“The people who attacked me,” he replied.

“They’d have to get here?—”

“They’re not human, Jamie,” Bran half-snarled. “They can create a Gateway with a thought and be upon us before we know we’re dead.”

“But—This man?—”

“Someone will find him and notify his kin,” Bran replied coldly. “But we canna be here when they do.” Keeping anyone else from noticing them in the close was draining his magic too rapidly. He wasn’t going to be able to keep them—or the corpse—hidden for too much longer, and he didn’t want to spend his energy arguing with Jamie about whether or not the dead man deserved to spend five extra minutes out in the cold. The dead were beyond caring about such things.

Jamie looked decidedly unhappy, but he stopped protesting out loud, allowing Bran to tug him out of the close by one wrist, a flick of his fingers scrubbing the blood from where Jamie’s fall had smeared it on the cobbles. He didn’t have the strength to dothe same to Jamie’s clothes, not while keeping them obscured, but he could put a slight glamour over the bloodstains so that ordinary human eyes would glance away.

But it wasn’t human eyes Bran was worried about.

Bran led the way back through the city, moving quickly, ignoring the sweat running down his back and the nausea in his stomach. They couldn’t afford to slow down and they also couldn’t afford to attract too much of the wrong kind of attention.

He was therefore extremely annoyed when Jamie stopped, refusing to continue past Chambers Street. “Jamie?—”

“These…geàrd.They’re going to try to kill you—us?”

“Aye, which is why?—”

“To stop the threadbond.”

“Aye.” Bran did not have the patience or the strength to explain this on the street. They needed to get back to Jamie’s apartment where the bookas’ natural protective magic might be able to augment Bran’s weak attempts to hide them.

“So then wedoit,” Jamie said, his voice steady and even.

“What?” Bran turned to stare at him, certain that Jamie could not possibly have meant what it sounded like he’d just said.

“We do this threadbond thing,” Jamie answered, his feet firmly planted on the sidewalk. “We do it, and then they’ll leave us alone.”

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