Page 66 of Sidhe
Nathan had expected another green eye, but then he probably shouldn’t have expected anything normal. Solrin’s left eye was grey, like the skin on the nach. It looked almost blind, only not milky and not at all unfocused.
Solrin’s left eye—newly uncovered—took in the sight of Nathan along with his right, and something in his face shifted. His mouth dropped open and he gaped, totally in awe. “Itisyou…” he breathed.
“What?” Nathan didn’t understand why Solrin was looking at him so reverently.
“I didn’t believe at first, that it was you,” Solrin said, leaning closer into Nathan and grabbing up both his wrists this time with gentle fervor, “but the more I have been around you, I have begun to feel the command in your presence, to believe in it.”
“Uhh…dude, I’m not all that commanding. Really.”
“But you are,” Solrin insisted, his mouth twisting into the strangest version of a smile, delirious maybe, like he thought Nathan was the only worthwhile thing in the universe. “You areglorious. I can see it.”
“See…what?”
Lookingthrough,into, andatNathan all at once, that dead-looking eye flicked over his entire form and shimmered. “The light that shines from within you,” he said. Then his hands released Nathan’s wrists and it was as if he wanted to reach up and touch Nathan’s face, like he almost didn’t believe Nathan was real. But just as he was about to, that odd grey eye darted beyond Nathan to focus on the two men behind him.
Solrin went instantly rigid, the smile slipping from his face to be replaced with the most vicious snarl. Nathan was swung around before he had time to react, tucked behind Solrin like the guy thought he was protecting him—protectinghim from Jim and Sasha.
“I knew it! I knew you were corrupted!” he cried at them, practically shrieking the words as he held Nathan behind him. “Lies! Your false faces are lies! I see what you are!”
“Sol!” Nathan tried to get the guy’s attention, fighting past the arm holding him back. Solrin let Nathan come around in front of him again but his posture did not lose any of its tension. Nathan could clearly see the furious hatred in Solrin’s expression. And finally, he thought he understood it.
Solrin could see through glamours, see deeper into what Jim and Sasha really were.
“You can see fae…can’t you?” Nathan asked gently.
Panicked and guarded, Solrin’s grey eye darted back and forth between Nathan in front of him, and at Jim and Sasha beyond. “I see them, they see me,” he said, a hand unconsciously going to his scarred, bare chest. “I knew I sensed something in them, but you were so sure, Nathan, so trusting. You must not believe their lies!” He grabbed onto Nathan’s hands again. “I know monsters when I see them. Because my left eye can pierce the Veil, they flock to me, even when it is covered, but more so when itsees. Monsters likethemgave me these scars,” he growled out at Jim and Sasha, “always so furious when I wasn’t what they sought. They ruined…everything.” He looked back at Nathan for a moment with the deepest despair.
Then the hatred returned, the viciousness, and Solrin forced Nathan behind him again. He pulled the gun from the back of his jeans and pointed it unflinchingly at Jim.
“Monsters…” he growled without compromise, “deserve nothing butdeath.”
Chapter 24
BeforeNathancouldstutterout any words of warning, everything was somehow miraculously okay as the gun went flying across the room—where it landed in Jim’s waiting hand. The Gatehouse wards could no longer protect them if a gun went off. Nathan wondered if Solrin knew that or just assumed he was immune.
“I’ve had about enough of this,” Jim grit out. “You don’t know anything about usor Nathan. And you certainly don’t get to point a gun at us afterwe’vebeen accommodatingyou. Now listen up,” he said, sounding eerily like Nathan actually as he shoved Solrin’s gun into a nearby drawer, “you think what you see is monsters? Fine,we’re monsters. There’s dark fae blood in both our veins, I won’t deny it. That’s why we are what we are and can do what we do. But if you think you’re any different than us with thateyeof yours then you really are one delusionalson of a bitch.”
“Jim,” Nathan countered, thinking Jim wassonot helping the situation by being a dick. He tried to move around Solrin again and was rightly frustrated when the guy held out his arm to hold him back. “Sol, listen…”
“Anincubus,” Solrin sneered in disgust, “and some…abomination. I could practically smell you, but I wanted to believe Nathan hadn’t been so easily taken in. Clever of you to take on the guise of loved ones. Clever and cruel. Just asmonsterswould be.”
Tension crackled through the air between them. Sasha was still lying on the med room’s dentist chair, looking startled and weak and caught in the middle, but Jim’s fists clenched at Solrin’s words. Nathan watched in growing trepidation as Jim’s eyes flashed amber—not white, which meant he was fueled with anger instead of power, and really, Nathan hated that the amber was part of Jim at all anymore.
Nathan stared beyond Solrin to appeal to Jim; they needed to find a calmer solution to this or things were going to go from bad to worse real fucking fast.
“You think I am like you?” Solrin scoffed at Jim. “I am not like you. I can turn the darkness in on itself. I can prove to Nathan that it is in you.”
Nathan expected Solrin to act physically or to maybe suddenly reveal another power, but he didn’t move. Jim’s brow became knitted but he didn’t seem as though anything were affecting him either.
A small gasp left Solrin after a moment as surprise and frustration filled his face. Nathan could tell when Solrin switched his attention to Sasha, and whatever hadn’t happened to Jim immediately happened to the redhead.
Sasha looked sick at first, nauseous, sweat forming at his temples. His eyes flashed red in moments. His lips curled back to show fangs as a growl built in his throat, and then the incubusleaned forward like he meant to get up, not in pain but with intent. Only he wasn’t intent on Solrin. He turned his revealed red eyes onto Jim and tensed like he meant to attack.
With a growl of his own, Jim waved a hand at Sasha and all those incubus attributes vanished. Sasha was left blinking in confusion, his breaths coming heavy and sharp.
“He can’t only see and draw in dark fae,” Jim snapped toward Nathan, placing a hand on Sasha’s shoulder possessively, “he can control them, just like I can. But you couldn’t control me, could you?” He turned to Solrin with something of a pleased sneer that reminded Nathan a little too much of the parts of Jim he didn’t like. “Turn the darkness in on itself? You think you’re above us? We’reno different. I have plenty of abilities, and several of them are the same as yours. I can sense fae, I can see them most of the time too, and I can control them. The difference is? Idon’t. Not without good reason. Sasha isn’t something for you to justuse.” Jim’s eyes flicked up at Nathan, angry and challenging like Jim was trying to hint,shouldn’t you be the one defending your lover here?
Solrin spoke before Nathan could intervene. “No,” he said firmly, fists clenched tight, even the one on the arm outstretched to hold Nathan back, “I see the truth. I know your lies. Perhaps you can challenge my abilities. But thedifferencebetween us…is that I draw evil because I know to destroy it!”
