Page 132 of Changeling
Iain helped Nathan build a fire, confident no one would think anything was off about his mother’s disappearance given the others. He set her already stiff body down with tender care, let Nathan pour the lighter fluid, but lit the fire himself. Nathan didn’t have many more pieces of his heart to give up tonight but he was pretty sure a small bit of it burnt away in the fire for Iain’s sake, for his mother, and for the others lost before her.
As they stood before the fire, Nathan started to feel the strain of the night’s wear on him. His sore muscles. His cut up wrists that stung and probably needed to be thoroughly cleaned and bandaged. He gingerly touched his fingers to the cuts but recoiled, which made him think of the scars he already had—through his eyebrow, on the palm of his left hand, and…
Iain started shivering on the way back. Nathan slipped his jacket off and fit it over the other man’s shoulders. A smile flashed in reply that was wholly genuine.
“Thanks. I don’t really know what I’m going to do now,” Iain said. His voice sounded hoarse like maybe he had swallowed a few embers standing over the fire. “I don’t want to…be in the house. I’ll stay at the motel tonight. Then…I don’t know. I know you did everything you could. Your friends looked pretty wrecked.”
They hadn’t explained to IainwhyJim and Sasha looked so wrecked. “Thanks. And you know, if you don’t think you can stick around here, and don’t feel up to going back to classes in Denver…we might have a research position for you.” He smirked, thinking of the Gatehouse library and what a mess it was, and how he really hated Alex always being there alone. Being able to keep an eye on the only other changeling they knew about sounded good too, though Nathan hoped he’d never have anything to fear.
“Really?” Iain said hopefully. “I might take you up on that.”
AfterseeingIaintohis room at the motel, Nathan figured he should check on Alex before seeing Sasha and Jim. He hoped they were both so exhausted that they’d fallen asleep the moment their heads hit the pillow.
“Iain okay?” Alex asked when she opened her door.
Nathan stepped inside but not too far. “As good as can be expected. I’m thinking you should offer him a job. He could clean up that mess of a library, help you run the place so you can take a vacation once in a while without leaving it empty. Might be a load off for ya.” He decided to leave the ‘he’s also a changeling’ conversation for tomorrow. And as far as Nathan knew, no one knew about a changeling in Colorado, so Iain should be safe from seals too, unless he did anything too telling.
Alex nodded, and Nathan figured her mind was somewhere else. The way her head turned the direction of the room Jim and Sasha were hopefully passed out in right now, wasn’t a surprise. “Do you really think Jim is some…evil thing wearing a pleasant disguise?” she finally asked in a tone that said she already knew his answer.
“No.” Even in the cave Nathan hadn’t believed Jim was really evil. “No matter what he does, how he looks, or what messed up things happen…he’s still Jim.”
Alex smiled in agreement. “That’s why I wasn’t afraid. Well, I was afraid,” she admitted with a small laugh, “but I could see that it was still Jim. Even behind those amber eyes.”
Something caught in Nathan’s throat. He had thought the same thing, only that’s what had made his panic all the greater. “So,” he said, wanting to change the subject, “he say anything to you when you were alone? Back in the cave?”
She smiled wider, and he thought he saw a blush fill her cheeks. “A little. He said that even though he would put you first until he saved you…that didn’t mean he doesn’t still want things for himself. I don’t think subtlety was either of their fortes while we were in there. But at least it gave me a straight answer finally. Otherwise Jim just looks away and gives that bashful, boyish smile of his. Urg. It can be pretty frustrating for a girl who knows what she wants.”
Nathan had to laugh, but he kept his chuckle light. “Good. About the still thinking about himself part,” he clarified when Alex raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s good. Wouldn’t want Jim to miss out on any…” He let his eyes flick quickly over her body to prove he could still act like himself. Hecould. “Awesome opportunities.”
To her credit, Alex smirked right back at him, but their mirthful expressions faded fairly fast. Nathan literally felt the merriment melt from his face like globs of mud from that night he and Jim had wrestled in the rain.
Some people sought the supernatural. Others were hunted by it. Iain had ended up being both, and neither option ever really ended well. But they were all in this together now.
“Sleep tight,” Nathan said. “We’ll let those two rest as much as they need, then head back to the Gatehouse tomorrow.” He turned to leave.
“Nathan…was Jim right? Did he banish the last of the sidhe? Are you free?” Her voice sounded more plaintive than Nathan was used to, openly concerned and anxious to hear the answer.
Nathan touched a hand to his chest, keeping turned away from her. He’d checked earlier, while he and Iain were still standing by the fire. The mark was still there.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and find out,” he said, and quickly left the room.
He paused for a moment to catch his breath, willing away thoughts of his own fate. Maybe the mark wasn’t supposed to go away, but Nathan had a sinking feeling that they were missing something, that Malak had some final trick up his sleeve and knew exactly how everything was going down. It was in a fae’s nature, light or dark, to always be one step ahead.
Walter flickered in front of Nathan.
“Dude,” Nathan gasped. “I really can’t handle any extra surprises tonight.”
Walter shook his head as his image continued to flicker, not stabilizing. “Nathan…”
“What’s up? Are you having trouble with Iain and Jim both nearby?”
“It was becoming…easier, but there…is too much power here…” His voice was barely audible. He turned to look down the hallway.
Nathan did the same. He hadn’t checked on Jim and Sasha yet. His eyes whipped back to Walter’s, but he only caught a glimpse of worried brown eyes before Walter’s image fizzled.
Nathan sprinted down the hallway. He pulled out the extra key and quickly, carefully pushed on the door. It got stuck halfway because of Jim’s pants lying on the floor. Then Nathan noticed a shirt lying there too. A navy blue T-shirt. Sasha’s. That wouldn’t have seemed out of the ordinary if they hadn’t been so close together on the floor. Nathan didn’t understand what it meant, but spiders gnawed at his gut as he lifted his eyes and pushed the door the rest of the way open.
Jim was lying on the bed, pants gone and shirt hitched up nearly to his neck. Sasha was hovering over him, wedged between his legs, shirtless and jeans half down his backside. Sasha’s right hand was raking so far up Jim’s thigh beneath his boxers that he had almost reached Jim’s bony hip, the other hand holding the back of Jim’s neck as they kissed fiercely, all teeth and tongues. Jim was pawing at Sasha’s chest, trying to find something to clutch onto, and Sasha was egging him on with agreeable moans and presses of his hips down against Jim’s clothed thrusting until Jim gasped his name.
