Page 31 of Cathmoir’s Sons (Bad Boys of Bevington #5)

Chapter 31

A Bespelling Beat

LUCA

T here are many wonderful things about being with Kellan and Rho openly. Teasing them with what I wear is a small, but wonderful, thing.

Kellan’s eyes snap and flare when she sees today’s ensemble: black jeans strategically shredded up my thighs, a wallet chain swinging off a thick leather belt, tight t-shirt under a plaid flannel. Rhodes goes crazy when he discovers the jeans are chaps and there’s nothing beneath my chaps but skin. He gropes me every time he walks by.

It's wonderful.

“I know you’re doing it on purpose,” Kellan whispers to me as we read together in the library we’ve created. She’s researching what she and Law keep calling a “pearly shark.” I’m working on the pressurization issue so the rest of her team can dive as deep as she can without getting the bends.

I pull down my round, blue-lensed glasses and look at her over the frame. “Whaa?”

“Tease.”

I shift in my chair and pull the plaid up from under my ass to give her a flash of skin. She chuckles.

“Cait,” I tell her.

She snorts. “Benighted Mother, that’s Law’s excuse for everything. Don’t be like Law.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to be like Law?” My brother asks as he strolls into the library carrying a pile of books. “Mom sent these.” He sets the stack down between us, leans over, and kisses the top of Kellan’s head.

“Luca’s using your race as an excuse for the fact he’s a terrible tease.”

“Cait are naturally beautiful, seductive, and alluring,” Law responds. “We can’t help it and you criticizing us for it is racist.”

Kellan gapes at him, then swats him with a book. “I’m fae, too!”

Law chuckles as he picks up a book and a mug of the lemon and mint tea that’s materialized on the corner of the desk. He drapes himself over one of the overstuffed chairs, stretching a leg over the arm of the chair, spreading his knees, and propping the book on one knee. I have to give it to him, he’s managed to frame his bulge perfectly.

She shakes her head. “Not you, too.”

“I didn’t get the good morning that Luca and his human got,” Law says. “I’m very deprived.”

“ Deprived .” Kellan snorts. “I’m fairly sure you got it three times last night, including once when I was asleep. And the only reason you weren’t part of the ‘early breakfast club’ this morning is because you were in the shower.”

“I could have been a member of the ‘early breakfast club’ if you’d joined me in the shower. I waited, hoping, but you never came. See my sad cat face?”

Kellan laughs. “That’s pathetic.”

“My toe beans haven’t gotten any kisses since we got here, either,” Law says mournfully, flexing his bare feet. “They’re pining.”

“You haven’t been in your cat form!”

I chuckle and let them bicker. It really is their love language. Kellan and I connect on a different level. Now that our hearts and minds are aligned, we blow together like a trade wind, quickening everything in our path. We make each other better: smarter, stronger, steadier. I’ll admit to laughing when my peers talk about being their “best selves.” I’m Cait; cats are always their best selves. But loving Kellan and being loved by her in return does make me that tiny bit better.

I find three different spells that will prevent depressurization. One’s an Air incantation that Kellan will be able to do in her sleep; I write that one out for her. Another’s an enchantment of a shell or beach pebble that can be worn or carried. Kellan’s friend Teddy could probably do the enchantment in her sleep; I bookmark it to send to her.

The last one’s a potion. It doesn’t look too difficult, although there’s a tricky little distillation that will be tough to do without a full lab, but I could slip back to Bevvy for that part. All the ingredients are available this close to the ocean. I write it out and set it aside to show to Kellan.

While I’ve been researching, Kellan and Law have been bickering, but they’ve also found a suspect for their “pearly shark.” I don’t think it occurred to any of us that there might be merpeople in the Straits. With climate change and the intrusion of humans into all waterways, merpeople are extinct except in waters which link to Faery or another plane. But Kellan and Law have found accounts of tritones in the Straits from the second human World War.

“Hostile assholes,” Law says, spreading open a book upside down on his knee so Kellan can read it. “They definitely contributed to the numbers of ships sunk in the Straits.”

Kellan rubs her lower lip. “They were probably defending what they considered to be their territory. I’m sure you can relate.”

“Cats rule the world. There’s nowhere that’s not our territory.”

I snort. “Two tones higher if you’re going to quote Dad. Your voice is deeper than his.”

He lifts his upper lip to show me his incisors.

“Luca, if you’re finished, can you switch over to this research?” Kellan asks. “I want to know more about oceanic merpeople. What language do they speak? How will they defend their territory if we’re encroaching? What weapons do they have? Would they be appeased by a gift or a sacrifice?”

I nod and hand her the incantation I’ve written out for her. She reads through it and smiles at me. “This is great for everyone but Arch.”

“I found two alternatives for him. One’s an enchantment that Teddy won’t have any trouble with. The other’s a potion that I could probably brew if I head back to Bevvy. Would he drink it?”

Kellan shakes her head. “But it might be worth having as a backup. That way if we have a second dive team, they don’t need an Air Mage with them. Can you email the enchantment to Teddy?”

“Better, I can put it in our chat with Uncle Jou. Might be interesting to have a demonic version as well.”

Kellan laughs. “I dare you to call him Uncle Jou when you post it.”

I will, just to poke the devil. Well, demon.

Putting the depressurization enchantment in our group chat doesn’t just poke the demon, it summons him.

He’s maybe an hour behind Teddy and her husband Gabe, who arrive with a handful of shells that gleam blue and gold in my Faesight. Kellan adds one to her bracelet for good measure. While they’re drinking lemon tea and swapping stories about early pregnancy symptoms, Uncle Jou and the mohawked demoness—today an electric green—arrive in a puff of flame and the stink of brimstone. A flick of Kellan’s fingers swirls the smell out the windows as everyone trades hugs.

Uncle Jou has enchanted small clusters of sea glass, white and green and blue, which dangle from silver chains. He hands one to Kellan after he finishes hugging her and patting her belly.

She narrows her eyes at him. “Are these souls?”

He puts a black-clawed hand over his heart. “Would I?”

“Yes,” say Kellan, Teddy, and Gabe at the same time.

Jou chuckles. “They’re not souls. But it is a soul chain. For every hour you wear it, I get an hour of soul-time.”

“You’re talking to three someones who are probably reincarnates, Jou,” Kellan points out. “How much soul-time do you think we have available?”

He shrugs. “I’ll take what I can get. Don’t suppose the kitty-cats are going to get wet?”

Law sneers at him. “Big cats are excellent swimmers.”

The demon flicks his fingers at Law. Flaming water spatters my twin’s face. He rips out a full growl before he manifests his whiskers and shakes his head. The fiery droplets burn holes in the demon’s black tee-shirt before he pats them out.

Kellan’s hand on Law’s arm forestalls further engagement. “Jou, cut it out. Law’s coordinating security on shore. Luca’s doing research that’s going to save our skins. We may have a merpeople problem.”

Teddy’s eyebrows shoot up into her bangs. “What kind of merpeople problem?”

Kellan explains about the pearly shark. Gabe begins rubbing his hands together. “I’m in on the next dive, right? Observing open-ocean merfolk in their natural environment! I don’t think a paper’s been written on them this century.”

Kellan shows him the account she and Law found. Gabe devours it, his blue eyes flicking across the page greedily.

“There’s nothing about their magic, their customs. It just blames them for drownings and shipwrecks.”

“Maybe that’s all they do,” Law says.

Gabe shakes his head but doesn’t retort. I’d understand it if he did. We both study subjects that are looked down on by other academics. I study the dead; Gabe studies magickal animals. The lack of respect from our peers can get frustrating. But he seems to shrug it off, which gives me even more respect for the mage.

“I’m researching their culture,” I tell him. “Language. Customs. Anything I can find to help us treat with them peacefully.”

“I’ll help you,” Gabe offers.

We split into two groups: those staying to research with me and those going to organize lunch. Kellan surprises me by going off with the group making lunch.

Gabe chuckles when he sees my expression. “Get used to her new priorities. First and foremost, pregnant women think about food.”

I shake my head ruefully. “I thought she’d be diverted by the quest for knowledge.”

“She will be once she’s fed. Until then—” Gabe shrugs. “Teddy’s usually the first one with her head in a book. You’ll notice she’s headed into town to find olives and cheese. She gets serious cravings, even in her first trimester.”

“I read that cravings can indicate missing nutrients,” I say.

Law’s bought every book on pregnancy in the world. Have I read one or two? I might have.

“They can but probably not so much with our girls. Their magic compensates. But if it really worries you, you’ll know it’s just a craving when she sends you to freaking Canada at two in the morning because only tiger tail ice cream will do.”

The thought of Law—and it will be Law since this one’s his kid—trekking half-way around the world to find the specific thing Kellan’s craving has me laughing.

Rhodes joins us from where he’s been holed up all morning with Lords working through evidence from his cousin’s autopsy. The pink-haired Darkswerd is with them. As soon as she joins Teddy and Kellan in the kitchen, the tone of the gathering changes. With the three women together, it’s a party. Music lilts from the kitchen. Sweet voices harmonize, soaring into the chorus of Spellbeat’s latest hit: “I’m casting off these broken spells; rising from the Mother’s wells; every step, a hex undone; my journey’s only just begun!” The patter of their feet against the worn stone floor tells me they’re dancing.

I look over at Gabe. “Shall we?” I tip my head toward the kitchen.

Gabe chuckles. “Yeah. I don’t like missing out when Teddy’s happy, either.”

We crowd into the kitchen with the girls, the demons, my brother, Rho, and Lords. When Rhodes slides his hand under my shirttail and squeezes my ass while I sway with Kellan to the chorus, happiness blows out of me in a great gust of Air that leaves everyone gasping.

Kellan breathes out a delighted laugh, spinning in my arms and smearing mayo across my chin before she kisses it off.