Oh, that wouldn’t do at all. Besides, they could spare one more minute for Eno to do something he might have secretly dreamed of for years. He released Davi and quickly grabbed Rayne’s arm, pulling him in close by wrapping a large hand around Rayne’s hip. “Davi, this is my boyfriend, Rayne Laurent. Rayne, this is my brother…” He stopped when his voice broke, and Rayne shifted a tiny bit closer. After clearing his throat, he continued, “This is my brother, Davi, born Bodhi Xier.”
Davi’s eyes were so wide they could have fallen from his skull. He sort of stared openmouthed at them both. Rayne recovered faster and extended his hand to Davi with a broad smile. “It’s an honor to meet you at last.”
The younger man took his hand and woodenly shook it. “Whoa. This…this is a lot to take in,” he mumbled. “A brother who’s the king’s bodyguard and dating the king’s advisor. And Davi’s fine with me.”
Drayce broke the moment with a loud groan. “Wow. It’s obvious who you’ve got to be screwing to get a proper introduction around here.”
“We all know who you’re screwing,” Eno grumbled.
The dragon flashed his most wicked grin. “Isn’t it great?”
“I can think of a lot of words to describe it, and ‘great’ is nowhere on that list,” Rayne growled.
“Wait. I don’t know,” Davi interjected.
“I’ve got a guess,” the Gray Fox murmured, sounding smug.
And this conversation had gone way too far already. Rayne jerked away from Eno and threw both of his hands into the air. “No! We are not discussing this. That is one thing we are not discussing tonight or ever.” Rayne shoved his fingers under his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “Gods, where’s the whiskey?” he muttered.
Eno pulled Rayne into his arms again and there was no denying how wonderful it felt to have Rayne automatically lean into him. “I’ll get you a drink. Relax,” Eno promised. His voice turned hard and flat when he continued. “Davi, this idiot is Drayce Ladon, best friend of the king as well as bodyguard.”
“Why do I feel like you’ve got great dirt on my brother?” Davi inquired.
Drayce cackled and shook Davi’s hand. “I do. I swear I have the best dirt.”
“Maybe we should discuss Ilon now and the dirt later,” Vitor suggested.
Yes, that was the brutal reminder they all needed to get on task. Cups of whiskey were poured, though Vitor did make tea for him and Rayne. They settled in the salon on the two small sofas and the two chairs that surrounded the round wood coffee table. Eno chose to sit next to Davi on the sofa, but he was pleased when Rayne slipped into the chair on his right. It was so easy to reach out and take his hand. Vitor settled in the chair opposite Rayne, while Drayce sighed happily, stretching out on the lone remaining sofa.
“What can you tell us about New Rosanthe?” Rayne started.
Drayce promptly sat up, his elbows on his knees. “Yeah. Is this an invasion? Because this is the world’s strangest invasion.”
Vitor grunted softly in agreement, his eyes on his tea for several seconds before he finally placed it on the table. He sat up straight, his slender hands folded in his lap. Eno watched him carefully. This man seemed very collected and conscious of the weight his words carried. He didn’t say the first things that came to mind.
“This has been a very strange invasion. I struggle to even use that word,” Vitor admitted. He lifted his eyes to Rayne, his face void of all emotion. “Our information has been incredibly limited despite having a person working inside the government. As far as we can determine, the Empire has seized control of the Parliament and not a single shot has been fired.”
“What?” Eno gasped. He jerked forward, nearly launching to his feet. “Are you fucking kidding?”
“Nope,” Davi said, making a little scoffing noise in the back of his throat. “It was like one day, the Empire wasn’t here, and then the next day, they’d totally blocked off access to the Parliament Plaza. I heard there was a brief encounter with the police, but Ilon’s army moved in, telling the police everything was cool.”
“Cool? How is everything possibly cool?” Drayce demanded.
“We’re not sure, but there has been no fighting. There’s been no significant suppression of the people or removal of rights. There have been just two changes.” Vitor paused and licked his thin lips. “One is the evening curfew that begins at dusk. The other is the arrest of anyone from Erya.”
“And the people of Brightspire are fine with both of those?” Rayne inquired.
“Fuck no,” Davi snapped.
“But they are scared,” Vitor interjected with a cold finality. “The images of what happened in Stormbreak and the death of Queen Amara have been widely shared throughout Brightspire and the rest of Ilon. I believe the citizens of Brightspire are afraid of the same thing happening here. It’s not helped by the fact that no one has seen the Prime Minister since the appearance of the first New Rosanthe soldiers.”
With what Vitor had told them, the actions of the Ilon citizens made a little more sense. If New Rosanthe was holding the Prime Minister hostage, the government might be going along with what the Empire wanted to keep the peace while trying to negotiate his release. Could they use this? If they could free the prime minister, would this regain an old ally and gain them easy access to the godstone when the time came?
Rayne sat back in his chair and rested his elbows on the arms. He tented his fingers in front of him and lightly bounced them off his lips as he thought. Eno had to fight his smile. He knew that look on his lover. That beautiful brain of his was already turning over all the possible implications.
“Oh shit,” Drayce muttered under his breath.
“What?” Davi asked. Rayne lifted a skeptical eyebrow at the dragon as he glared at Rayne.