Page 42 of Brought to Light
“Are you all insane, or am I?” Jesse demanded. He’d lowered the gun, at least, but the tension in his body hadn’t diminished. “Does who know? This Evalt person?”
“I told you about Evalt,” I said wearily. “Remember? Purple sparks, wanted to kill everyone, hired the spooks, I iced him with a flashlight, yadda yadda. No. Linden.”
“The target,” Jesse said evenly. Suspiciously so. “The one you ended up helping.”
Oskar went from red to purple, and I winced as he opened his mouth. Nope, maybe I hadn’t told Jesse everything, and I didn’t need Oskar doing the explaining. “More than a target,” I said quietly, and looked Jesse in the eyes, knowing he’d understand.
He did. “Ah,” he said, on a long, blown-out breath. “And these guys are…?”
“Linden’s childhood friends.”
Jesse’s lips quirked, and the tension bled out of him at last, his gun arm coming all the way down to hang at his side, relaxed. “So you went to—this place. Seduced their best friend, after almost killing him. And ran out on him. And now they’re here to beat the shit out of you?”
I winced, but I couldn’t deny it. Jesse sighed again, and he turned to Oskar.
“Fair enough. Have at it, guys,” he said. “I’ll go make some coffee.”
When I looked back at Oskar, he was gaping like a fish, all the wind out of his big and angry sails. “Okay, you heard the man,” I said, and safetied the Beretta, holding my arms out at my sides. “Have at it. One free punch each. Then I hit back.”
Slowly, slowly, the too-bright color in Oskar’s face faded away, leaving him back to his usual ruddy-tan. He eyed me thoughtfully. “What are your intentions with regard to Linden?”
My intentions. Trust Oskar to sound like he’d stepped right out of a BBC movie.
I didn’t have any intentions. I just knew that lying on an ancient, ratty couch in an Idaho safehouse with a gun two inches from my hand was more or less what I had to look forward to here in my own realm. Or I could spend some of my savings and live on a beach somewhere, getting drunk and fucking tourists.
Or I could have a life that meant something to me, and possibly even to someone else.
“I’m coming back with you,” I said, and felt the rightness of it. “Linden’s going to be a lord now, and from what I’ve seen, that’s not necessarily a guarantee of safety in your world. He’ll need a bodyguard, right? Or something like that. I can protect him. I won’t leave him alone unless he tells me that’s what he wants.” And maybe not even then. He’d have to be incredibly fucking convincing. I didn’t bother to say that part.
That didn’t really answer Oskar’s question. I wasn’t sure I could answer Oskar’s question. It seemed like something only Linden had the right to ask, and God knew if he’d even want an answer to it after the way I’d run out on him.
“Fine,” Oskar said after a moment. “But I’m still taking that free punch. I hope your jaw’s as sturdy as it looks.”
My lips twitched upward, and it felt so fucking good after a night of feeling like I might never smile again.
“Okay,” I said. “Give it your best shot. And then let’s get going.”
Chapter Nineteen
Callum
Lady Lisandra threw a ball in Linden’s honor three days after we got back—maybe not coincidentally, with exactly the right timing for my bruised jaw to heal up completely. And thank God for their realm’s sophistry when it came to the rules of single combat, because if not for that the ball might’ve been inmyhonor. I’d rather have gone back to Afghanistan. Naked, and armed only with a flashlight.
It wasn’t onlytheirrealm anymore, though, and that’d take some getting used to. Our realm. Mine and Linden’s.
And Jesse’s now, too. I’d grabbed a spot propping up the exterior wall at the southeastern corner of the ballroom, where I had a clear line of sight to each of the glass doors and also the huge double doors leading into the hall. Even though the room had filled to bursting with weird people in elaborate clothing sipping multi-colored liquors I couldn’t begin to name, I had a view of him standing by one of the doors to the terrace, leaning down to hear Lady Lisandra as she said something for his ears only.
She had a hand on his arm, and a flirtatious smile on her face, and I had no doubt Jesse was about to enjoy the rest of his night—or what was left of it, anyway, since this party had lasted for fucking endless hours already and it had to be close to four in the morning. Jesse looked somewhere between overjoyed and stunned, which seemed about right for someone in Lady Lisandra’s crosshairs.
When I’d told him I meant to go back with Oskar and Kaspar, it’d taken him thirty seconds to mull it over, shrug, and tell me someone had to watch my back—and since he’d been doing it for six years, why stop now? Jesse didn’t have anyone back home any more than I did, and he’d joined the Air Force originally out of insatiable curiosity. It made sense. And it removed the one regret I’d had about leaving. We’d taken half an hour to pack up all the weaponry and ammo Jesse had stored at the cabin, and then we’d gone without looking back.
Even if he’d already been happy enough with the idea of a new adventure, he hadn’t counted on stepping out of the magic portal Lady Lisandra had sent to collect us and immediately meeting the hottest woman in two worlds, who wanted to dress him in fancy clothes, get him drunk, and probably seduce him. He’d muttered something to me about winning the lottery, fist-bumped me, and run with it.
I scanned the room again, looking for Linden this time. I’d taken a quick circuit of the perimeter a few minutes before, leaving him bowing and being bowed to by all the important people who’d come to be important at him. Honestly, I’d done my walk-around more because I couldn’t get near him than because I’d been worried about security.
Anyway, he’d gotten lost in the crowd somewhere, and I was trying not to sulk too obviously.
I slid my hand under the jacket Silvi had wrestled me into earlier, making sure my Beretta sat loose and easy. The jacket had about ten pounds of silver embroidery on it, and weird points on the collar that kept poking me under my chin, but it hid a holster. I could live with it.
