Page 53 of Kit
They cackled as they showed Nick what the babies looked like, what the eggs were, and then one of the smallest children showed Nick a worm before dropping it into the bucket so he could see its mouth open. Once show and tell was over, they picked the buckets back up and trotted out of the hall. Feeling Kit’s gaze, Nick turned towards him.
“That is not what I meant by frog,” Nick said.
The corner of Kit’s mouth twitched up. The tufts of his tail flexed against Nick’s forearm, and he realised that he was still holding Kit’s tail in a soft grip. He’d been messing with it too while the children had shown him the fish. “I assumed not; you bear no resemblance to it,” Kit noted, referring to Nick’s earlier self-deprecating remark. “They are waiting for me to open the first cask. Would you join me?”
Nick didn’t really like the idea of taking part in something that would result in a room full of people looking at him, and hecould also see that, as many looks as Kit was getting, Nick was on the receiving end of just as many curious stares. A flash of pale hair caught Nick’s eye, and he looked to the dance floor. The blond kit from before was dancing still, persisting with vigour and enthusiasm, reminding Nick once more of Laurence. A pang of homesickness went through him.
Nick didn’t push it away, but let the feeling settle. It had been weeks since he’d been taken from Vi’s home, and his family were undoubtedly worried sick about him by now, though hopefully not for much longer. Nick would rather their reunion be filled with stories about bitter wine, dancing and young kits running around catching frog things.
“Sure,” Nick said.
Nick let Kit’s tail slip through his fingers as he stood and then followed him closely to the casks. Children, who seemed to universally adore Kit, sprang from every direction, and in twos and threes they gathered around different casks, a proprietary hand or tail touching each barrel. They were a variety of barrel sizes, the smallest probably containing enough wine to fill one bottle, while the largest might hold ten times that.
Kit stopped at the nearest group. “How many grapes did you pick?” Kit assumed his smooth, instructive teacher voice.
“Eight hundred and twelve!”
Nick didn’t realise until the third cask that they were going to be tasting wine fromallthe barrels, and by then he was committed to making sure he didn’t disappoint any of the young kits patiently waiting their turn.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nick’s world spun on its axis as he walked unsteadily down a long hall. He braced a hand against the wall, the coolness of the stone a relief after the heat of the filled great hall. Kit pressed against his side, blatantly throwing his weight into Nick’s teetering balance, rubbing his jaw to his cheek as his musky scent permeated the air. His tail swished behind him in a lethargic, lazy motion. Kit had been tipsy after the wine-tasting, and the scent-marking had begun shortly after sitting.
And Nick learned something about Kit and scent-marking. Like Mini on the ship, all the children seemed inherently repulsed by whatever scent Kit was releasing. Ios, though, seemed to like it. And the adult kits who came to speak with Kit didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest either.
“So, kids and Anna don’t like scent-marking,” Nick said.
“Kits are naturally repelled by pheromones until they mature,” Kit murmured against his cheek. “And family members dislike the pheromones that their relatives release.”
“Okay. Anna doesn’t like the smell because…” Nick thought of how to phrase it. ‘Because you get hard,’ was a tad too… “Because there’s sexual attraction in it?” he settled on.
“You are very attractive,” Kit confirmed.
“That isn’t what I meant.” Nick stumbled over an abashed laugh. “But thank you.”
Nick must have subconsciously memorised the route from the room to the hall because the first door he opened was their bedroom. He knew because the laced shirt he’d refused to wear lay spread on the bed. “Here we are.”
He pulled the door shut, frowning as he found an empty slot where a key should go.
“What’s wrong?” Kit picked up on his tension immediately.
“I’d like it if we could lock this,” Nick said, his worry dampening the effect of the wine. He’d need to be wine-comatose to be able to sleep with Kit slumbering behind an unlocked door. Wine-tipsy wasn’t enough.
“I told Ios to bring you the keys. He did not?” Kit straightened and cast his gaze around the room. “There.” He jutted his chin towards the bed.
On top of the laced shirt were two heavy iron keys. Nick fetched them and was relieved to find he could secure both the door to the hall and the bath. “What about that latch?” Nick asked, nodding to the window.
“We are not on the ground floor,” Kit pointed out.
“Rational arguments don’t tend to work on irrational fears.” Nick crossed the room. The wall was flat beneath the window, even and polished, stone that one would have a hard time climbing, and the ledge was so small thatmaybeMini could have used it as a handhold, but not someone even slightly bigger like Ios. In the courtyard below, Nick counted half a dozen patrolling kit guards. He watched until he’d memorised their route and was satisfied that the entrances to the castle were covered at all times. He turned his attention to the latch andrelaxed when he saw that there was no way to push the window open from the outside.
Kit waited patiently in the middle of the room as Nick tried to piece together a ghostly imitation of his nightly routine back home, and the young man’s shoulders relaxed in time with Nick’s long exhale.
“You are satisfied?” Kit checked, eyes tracking Nick to the bed. There was nothing but genuine inquiry in the question; if Nick said ‘no’, Kit would do whatever he asked to make it a ‘yes’.
“As long as you don’t try to sneak off,” Nick confirmed.
Nick moved the laced shirt off the bed, folded it and set it on the desk. Kit’s gaze absorbed every detail as Nick heeled off his boots and tugged loose the collar of his too-tight shirt. There was a slowly ratcheting up intensity in the way Kit watched him, a heat that Nick felt down to his marrow. Between one breath and the next, Nick felt a line of tension between him and Kit, as though Kit was about to spring at him, but not to harm.
