“Stop bargaining with what happened, son. You’re at a negotiation table with no one sitting across from you. All you’re doing is arguing against yourself—and a set of circumstances that are not going to change, no matter how much torture you put yourself through.”
With a harsh laugh, Blay shook his head. “That’s exactly what I’m doing. How do you know me so well.”
“Because my brother lived it—you’re on the Phury side of things. He blamed himself for years for everything that happened to me. He carried that burden around for a century and it nearly killed him. Does Qhuinn blame you?”
“He says he doesn’t.”
“And you don’t believe him?”
“I’m not sure he knows where he is about anything right now.”
“You think he’s that stupid?”
“I think he’s in that much pain.”
Z exhaled a curse, his breath a white cloud in the cold. “I hate this for him and I hate this for you. And when it comes to the pair of you, I can’t tell you what to do or what to believe, but personally, I’ll vote for true love—and that’s what binds you together. Qhuinn might be confused about a lot of things right now, but the one thing I’m damn sure he’s certain about?”
When the Brother didn’t continue, Blay looked across at him.
Like he’d been waiting for the eye contact, Z continued, “What I’m really damn sure he’s certain about? The quality and the kindness of the male he’s mated to.”
Z extended the forefinger of his dagger hand to Blay’s chest. “Your heart was, and is, always true. And the people around you have faith in your goodness. So if you can’t believe in yourself? How about you take our opinion as fact, son—and let the burden you don’t actually carry go.”
Blay’s head dropped.
Just as he thought he was going to lose his balance, Zsadist, the Brother who never touched anyone, stepped in and held him close. As Blay grabbed on to the male, he looked over that massive shoulder to what he could see of the mansion. It was only the gabled roof with its lightning rods, the silhouette like a crown on top of the rolling estate’s royal head.
He pictured his mate inside that house, going upstairs to find the thing Luchas had stashed right before he was killed.
For what turned out to
be only the first time.
Abruptly, Blay frowned and pulled back. “You switched partners tonight, didn’t you. So you could be with me. I was supposed to be paired with Payne.”
The Brother shrugged. “I had a feeling you and your boy might need a helping hand. Or at the very least, a sidebar with someone who’s had some personal experience with these things.”
Blay glanced at the roof again. “Thank you,” he said in a small voice.
“I’m just paying back that one airplane ride Qhuinn gave me.”
“Which one—oh, right. Jesus.”
“Yup. You bet your ass there was some praying going on that night.”
“You know,” Blay said as they started walking toward the gate, “I didn’t realize Qhuinn could fly an airplane.”
After they dematerialized through the slats of the iron work, Zsadist said dryly, “I think it came as a surprise to him, too.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Up on the second floor of his parents’ transformed house, Qhuinn stared down at the little girl standing in front of him. Then he looked back into the dim bedroom.
“Yeah, I’m allowed to be here,” he said in answer to her question. “?’Cuz this is the house I grew up in. Like you’re doing now.”
“Oh, okay. So you’re going to hurt us? You look a little scary. You’re really tall.”
“No, honey. I’m not going to hurt you or your family.”