Page 42 of Dead Air
“Until he dies?” Mr. Oglethorpe guessed, pinning Cenn with an accusative scowl. “What did you offer him for his soul and what will happen when he dies?” he countered but Cenn shook his head.
“We made no deal. His soul is his own and it will go on to glory when he dies.”
Professor MacIlwraith shook his head and pointed at Cenn and Niall. “He’s lying to you, Niall! This place reeks of sulphur and I can smell his smoke all over your soul.”
“What?” Niall lifted the front of his shirt and smelled it, then gave Cenn a sniff.
“That’s just demon lust,” Cenn said with a dry snort. “We didn’t make a deal. He’ll be fine.”
“Demon lust, my ass!” Mr. Oglethorpe countered. “You might not have made a dealyetbut he’s just as good as ruined.”
“Ruined?” Niall shrank back, his face hot with shame.
Cenn hushed him and gave Niall’s shoulder a reassuring knead. “Don’t listen to them. I wouldn’t touch your soul—like that—and there’s nothing wrong with you.”
“Yet!” Mr. Oglethorpe aimed the dark, jagged crystal on the end of his staff at Cenn again, making him draw back. “Tell himof the nephilim and the cambion and what comes of mating with demons,” he ordered but a wicked grin tilted Cenn’s lips.
“I can tell you whatwon’tcome from us mating.”
“You jackal!” Mr. Oglethorpe shouted and squared up to Cenn. “You cannot expose a mortal to that much magick without consequences. Itwillmultiply and manifest and if there is no offspring to carry it, it will changehim,” he said as he pointed at Niall.
“No!” Cenn laughed, and swatted. “You don’t know that.”
Professor MacIlwraith coughed and waved. “Hello, I’m the product of a magickal mating with no heir. Gay magick is strange, strong magick,” he boasted. “In my case, at least. This is dark and I don’t like it,” he said, gesturing at Cenn and Niall.
“I didn’t ask your permission,” Cenn returned.
“I don’t want any magick, though,” Niall whispered out of the side of his mouth and Cenn shushed softly.
“That’s just the worse-case scenario. They don’t know anything for sure and we’d know if something was wrong with you.”
Niall squinted and checked to see if he felt any weird sensations or if any part of him seemed different. “I think I’m the same basic, boring Niall.”
“Stop it. You’re not basic or boring,” Cenn scolded as his arm tightened around Niall. “They’re trying to scare you but I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You know,” Mr. Oglethorpe said, turning back to his party. “I think he might mean it. At the moment,” he qualified as he raised a finger and a questioning brow at Cenn. “What will you do and how will you protect him from the demna aeóir?”
“How do you—?” Cenn’s face twisted into a terrifying snarl and he shook his head. “It won’t come to that.”
“An oracle has seen it!” Mr. Oglethorpe yelled at him. “That is why we have come, to save Niall from a sky full of smoke demons.”
“Wait!” Niall couldn’t tell if he was going to throw up or faint. He knew exactly what Cenn was capable of and what he looked like when he wasn’t a hot lumberjack. “There are more, like him? And they’re coming here?”
Mr. Oglethorpe nodded. “Yes! Our oracle saw a sky full of smoke demons, showering down on this very cabin.”
“I see.” Then, Niall fainted.
Eighteen
“Are you happy now?” Cenn used his foot to open the cabin door wider so he could carry Niall’s unconscious body to the bed. “Get him some water and don’t let him see a plastic bottle or he’ll faint again.”
MacIlwraith and Oglethorpe rushed in behind them and began gathering items and pushing the freezer and chair against the wall.
“No more than two of you at a time,” Cenn told them. “There’s barely room enough for two of us in here.”
“Got it,” Nelson said, propping his shoulder against the door jamb, his notebook and pencil ready.
Cenn tuned them all out and smoothed the hair away from Niall’s face. All that mattered was that Niall was alright and forgave him. “Niall… Wake up, my love,” he crooned softly, giving his cheek a tender pat. “Come on… Open your eyes, my sweet.”
