Page 70 of Sidhe
Nathan dashed across the room to grab up the gun Solrin had dropped earlier, and raced from the room without a second thought. The first thing he spotted in the bar was Solrin, looking about madly for where Iain’s voice had come from. The white-haired seal was still shirtless, only in his cargos, his scars revealed for anyone to see. It was understandably the first thing Iain focused on when he finally came in from one of the bar entrances and stopped cold.
“Jesus! You guys scared the shit out of me. I had this weird feeling of being drawn downstairs and…” That’s when his eyes fell upon the scar tissue covering so much of Solrin, and Nathan heard an audible gasp. “Are…are you okay? What happened to you?” he asked with honest concern, like he couldn’t tell that all the wounds were healed.
“Monsters…everywhere,” Solrin sneered.
He raised his gun at Iain and fired.
Chapter 25
ThebreathknockedfromNathan’s lungs as he watched Iain jolt.
Clutch his chest.
Crumble.
“Iain!”
He ran to his friend, nearly forgetting his own gun, though it remained gripped in his right hand. For a moment, Iain was still conscious, looking at Nathan with questioning and terror. Then his eyes fluttered, closed, and he went still.
Iain was dead. And Nathan hadn’t been able to do a damn thing to save him.
Jim and Sasha came dashing out of the med room, alerted by the gunshot. They both froze, looking on in disbelief at Nathan, on his knees beside Iain, with blood staining his shirt. Nathan knew Solrin wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Jim and Sasha just the same.
He rose and pointed his gun at Solrin’s head.
It was all the answer Nathan needed when Solrin’s response was merely, “You will not shoot me, Nathan.”
“You should have listened, god damn it,” Nathan said coldly—numb. “Between you and them?You. Don’t. Win.”
Nathan fired.
A split-second later the bullet was caught—caught—between the thumb and forefinger of a well-manicured hand.
“Now, now. You can’t go doing something like that, Nathan. This boy is under my protection.”
The gun nearly dropped from Nathan’s hand. Standing between Nathan and Solrin was Malak, with the bullet flattened like a penny between his fingers. The first thought that rang through Nathan’s head was,Walter!
Malak laughed. He tossed the bullet into the air and caught it. “Nathan, Nathan. Not this time. I’m not here for you, so your little…friend…can’t appear out of thin air to interrupt. I am here on behalf of Solrin. And a good thing too or you might have unjustly killed a good and righteous man.”
“You fucking son of a bitch!” Nathan snarled. “You’re afuckingliar and eventually Sol’s going to realize that.”
“Nathan.” Malak tucked the flattened bullet into his suit coat pocket, hisfucking perfect suit, and stepped forward to meet Nathan. “Why won’t you realize how much easier all of this would be if you just chose me? Jim and Sasha would be fine, protected, as I’ve promised you. That poor boy on the floor there would never have had to die. You can’t blame Solrin for what he did, how he wanted to take the monsters around you out of the picture. He was only thinking of your best interests.”
“Fuck you.”
Malak’s mouth twitched. “Always missing the bigger picture. You should listen to Solrin, Nathan. He is not wrong that there is something very different inside of you. Tell him, Solrin, why you know your beliefs to be truth.” Malak turned, looking backat Solrin with a wide smile. It sickened Nathan how much of that same reverence Solrin had shown him was now being bestowed upon the king of dark sidhe.
“Because,” Solrin said, “the light I see in Nathan is an echo of you.”
That sinking, ground falling out from under him feeling returned. Nathan didn’t want any light in him if it echoed Malak. He knew how Malak could seem glorious. He had seen it himself. But he had also seen the other side, the shimmering fangs and engulfing darkness.
Maybe Nathan was tainted. Maybe the black and white of the world was so messed up it wasn’t even grey anymore, it wasfucking flipped. Nathan didn’t know. But he did know where to place his faith and it would never be in the bastard before him. Not after everything.
Not afterIain.
“I wish you didn’t see it that way, Solrin,” Nathan said, truly heartbroken for him. “Thereisa good side in this, but it’s not Malak.”
Solrin just looked at Nathan with pity—always pity.
