Page 19 of Ryld's Shadows
Chapter Five
Kai had left his office door open at the end of the day, so the conversation at his admin’s desk drifted through to him.
“Please tell me he’s not still working, Mindy.” Tenzin’s voice had that tired note in it. The one Quinn described as beingso sick of your shit, Kai.
“I don’t think so. He swore he was done.” The volume of Mindy’s voice changed, more than likely as she swiveled in her seat to peer into his office.
“I still hear typing.”
“You want me to go in and dump him out of his chair?”
Tenzin heaved a sigh. “No, thank you, Mindy. I think I’ll manage.”
“I’m not working,” Kai blurted out when Tenzin entered his office. “It’s personal correspondence that I’d hoped to finish before you came up. I am…struggling.”
Tenzin’s forbidding glower softened as he picked Kai up, settled in the oversized desk chair, and set Kai in his lap. “Oh? What could you possibly be struggling with?”
Kai allowed himself a snuggle and a nuzzle at the thick white fur of Tenzin’s shoulder before he answered. “An email to Lady Jessamine in Pacific Elvenhome.”
“But you’re in regular contact with her. Why would you…?” Tenzin leaned forward to read the screen. “I see. It’s about Ryld. And you’ve gone a bit old school Kai here and there. If you’re searching for advice, why not ask the drow queen who also lives there?”
“No.” Kai spat the word out short and sharp. He cringed. “Apologies, beloved. But Ryld is a drow construct. Something a drow queen would find far too intriguing andfartoo tempting. No, I’m not putting him back in the hands of drow royalty when he’s managed to escape them here.”
“All right.” Tenzin’s eyes flicked back and forth over the lines. “Kai. Any statement that starts offOf course the drow…is going to sound high-handed to an aelfe.”
“Excellent. Good catch.” Kai twisted so he could type from within Tenzin’s arms.
“The hope is that Lady Jessamine, or one of her court, will have run across these…” Tenzin leaned in to read again. “Physical manifestations of natural psychic powerbefore.”
“That’s the hope, yes.” Kai added his auto-signature to the bottom of the email and sent it. “Pacific Elvenhome is so much more stable and civilized than the Minnesota one where Val and I lived. We were almost all male. The few female residents were artisans and artists, not leaders. I believe that lack created the poisonously volatile atmosphere there.”
“I’m sure it contributed, love.” Tenzin kissed the top of his head, his warmth soothing much of the tension from Kai’s back. “Though there are grad students writing papers now on all of the things wrong with that initial Elvenhome attempt.”
Kai snorted. “Well, I hope they’re actually asking the people who lived through it. These children who don’t understand primary source research.”
“Shut the computer down, my angel. Let’s go home.”
“Couldn’t we…?” Kai wriggled around to wrap his arms around Tenzin’s neck.
“I amnothaving sex in your office. Especially since Mindy is rightthere.” Tenzin stood with Kai still in his arms. “Home. Dinner. Then we’ll see. You’re not thinking about skipping meals, are you?”
“No. I had lunch.” Kai reared back at his husband’s skeptical expression. “I did! On my mother’s bones!”
“Mindy?” Tenzin raised his voice. “Did he eat today?”
“He stole some fries from my lunch,” Mindy called back.
Kai squinted at her as Tenzin carried him out of the office. “Traitor.”
“Not gonna start lying for you, Mr. H. Not to the big guy.”
“Home. Dinner,” Tenzin repeated. “And you’re not to touch a keyboard this evening.”
Only a small part of Kai managed to be annoyed at that. The rest of him was already thinking of all the other things hewouldbe touching,
* * * *
Settling into his new community service/job was more challenging than Hank had anticipated. Not that Ryld was difficult or demanding. Quite the opposite. But it was hard to know how to be useful. A service came to clean once a week, so he didn’t have to do that. He popped down to the corner store for a few things Ryld didn’t have, like bagels and peanut butter. He’d done the dishes. Unpacked his bags. Ryld had come out of his room for breakfast and vanished back in there again.
