Page 75 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

“Glad to hear it. Coz I’m kidnapping you for the rest of the night,” Jim said, snatching up Nathan’s wrist and tugging him down the hallway.

“What?” Nathan struggled on instinct. “What the hell, man? There’s like a million things to get done, and—”

“Nathan. Don’t fight me ,” Jim commanded, not even looking at Nathan as he mojoed him.

Nathan’s muscles relaxed and he continued walking along with Jim like it was perfectly normal for his brother to lead him by the hand down the hall. “That is so cheating,” he grumbled, pleased he could at least still complain verbally if not physically struggle.

What did Jim think he was up to? And why was he leading him to what had become Jim and Alex’s bedroom…?

As soon as they were inside, Jim released Nathan, and he felt the hold of Jim’s mojo fall away too. Nathan had it in him to bolt, but then he spotted Sasha and Alex sitting out on the flat bit of roof just outside Jim’s bedroom window.

A grin teased at the corners of Nathan’s mouth. “You guys planned this?” he asked, still grinning despite himself as he climbed out ahead of Jim onto the roof.

Sasha had a bottle of wine just like Nathan knew he would, smiling wide and scooting over so Nathan could sit beside him.

Wally was snuggled in his lap. “Jim’s idea.

We just really loved the sound of it. We sprung for glasses this time,” Sasha said as he poured a liberal amount of ruby-colored wine into a glass and handed it to Nathan.

Nathan took a long, pleasing gulp. “Tasty,” he hummed. “Any particular occasion?” He snuggled in close beside Sasha and looked across at where Jim and Alex snuggled in kind.

“Just a deserved break,” Jim said. “Figured we’d need it, and we can’t be sure when we’ll next get the chance.”

Nathan reached across to pet Wally in Sasha’s lap, which prompted her to ditch the redhead in favor of his lap instead.

Wally had been acting much clingier toward Nathan ever since he became human again.

He didn’t think she’d disliked him as an incubus, she just seemed to have understood, like all of them, that being an incubus wasn’t what Nathan needed to be at the time, and now she was letting him know how happy she was that he’d figured that out.

Looking down at the lawn of the Gatehouse, Nathan hadn’t been wrong about the need to set up tents, which now littered the whole perimeter, giving everyone a little more breathing space inside the building. Nathan saw Ula and her friends—including the disguised Puck—putting together a bonfire.

Ula spotted Nathan and the others up on the roof and waved.

Nathan waved back. He was exhausted, he could admit it, and the wine warmed his chest wonderfully. Wholly content, he threw Jim a grateful smile. “You could have just told me about the wine and good company instead of hitting me with the mojo.”

Jim’s dimples showed as he grinned. “But it was so much more fun this way.”

“Whatever, Jesse James,” Nathan mumbled into his glass.

Jim formed his hand into a gun first, but before he could ‘fire’, Nathan mirrored him and they completed the gesture together.

BANG.

“ Guys ,” Sasha laughed, joined by Alex’s giggles.

“I swear you two are hopeless,” she said as she laid her head on Jim’s shoulder, smiling blissfully.

Just seeing Jim and Alex like that, comfortably content like how he and Sasha were, filled Nathan with a bit of that peace he had been chasing around the Gatehouse for the past week. Nothing made him happier than seeing Jim happy.

“Anything to toast to?” Alex asked, all of them with fairly full wine glasses, night on the approach but warm with the advent of spring.

“I don’t know. Here’s to backup?” Nathan joked.

“How about…” Jim said, maybe a little somberly even, “to a happy ending?”

A happy ending. The hope for that settled around them like a warm blanket. “Yeah,” Nathan said, “I like that. To a happy ending. No matter what that means.”

He raised his glass, then Sasha, Jim, and Alex did the same, and they clinked all together before taking long, satisfying drinks.

“Now if we just knew when that damn help was coming I’d feel a whole lot more confident,” Nathan couldn’t help adding.

“ You try gallivanting across the fae lands for weeks on end before having to trudge through supernatural static just to get here,” sounded an irritated female voice that did not belong to Alex.

“ Then you can complain,” the voice finished just as Nathan found his wine suddenly snatched from his fingers and brought to the newcomer’s lips.

“ Gwen ?” Nathan gaped, staring up at the rather bedraggled looking sidhe who had appeared literally out of thin air with red hair tied back into a curly mess, wearing willowy and somewhat see-through fabrics that did not fit well as modern clothing. “Where the Hell did you come from?”

Wally sat up in Nathan’s lap and chirped.

“I’d summon you another glass, dear, but I’m a bit spent,” Gwen said, thrusting the now empty glass back into Nathan’s hand.

She was standing between the two couples on the roof like a windblown fairy.

All she was missing were torn up butterfly wings.

“Honestly,” she huffed, plopping down right where she had been standing into a cross-legged position and absently reaching forward to give Wally a pat, “the whole ordeal so far has been thoroughly unpleasant.”

Nathan was still gaping, all of them were, because Gwen just came across so strangely human , and of course Alex hadn’t had the pleasure last time of meeting her.

“So…” Nathan said, “should I take that to mean the light fae aren’t coming? Or did you just come from a really bitching party before popping in?”

Almost on cue, Nathan felt Sasha’s hand squeeze his bicep hard in warning. The incubus then spoke to Gwen in Gaelic with reverent concern. Nathan caught something about ‘exhausted’ and his name, and figured Sasha was making excuses for him.

A true smile wormed its way onto Gwen’s face.

“Please, dear, no need for such formality, much as it honors me.” She waved a hand, kicking her legs out in front of her, and leaning back on her palms. Wally scurried onto her lap.

“I’m quite alright, just winded. And not to worry, Nathan, my brethren may be stubborn, but many are more than willing to take their place among those who will help save the world.

“It’s just a bit complicated, you see. This…

infection you’ve been experiencing,” she looked about with a sneer, “is more than just signs of what’s to come.

It’s keeping the channels between worlds harder to get through—at least for light fae.

Since the Veil crumbling is coming from the dark side, the frequency…

let’s just say it’s becoming easier for them and harder for us.

But they are coming. The incubi and succubae should remain immune to the trouble, at least. Well done there, Nathan. Can’t believe you swayed them.”

“Thanks, Gwen. Does this mean you’re sticking around now?”

She sighed regretfully as she scratched finely-manicured nails down Wally’s back.

“I wish I could, but not yet. I need to help lead everyone here. My power should help us find a suitable portal from the other side, despite what’s happening, but it may take me a few more days.

There’s a sort of eye of the storm about this place, being so close to the center of everything, but the further out you get, the more static you run into, enough to mess any fae’s sense of direction.

I’ll bring them all as soon as I can. Humans are having a much easier time with all this.

You are quite resilient,” she said as she stretched and then began to get up.

“Wait, just like that, you’re leaving?” Jim questioned.

Gwen, looking a bit better from a moment’s rest, and flush in the cheeks from downing Nathan’s wine, smiled serenely down at Jim.

She held Wally in her arms. “I have complete faith in you all to hold firm until I return with the others. You just take care of each other. She’s lovely, by the way,” Gwen winked in regards to Alex, who looked startled to suddenly be referenced.

Gwen shifted Wally in her arms then and held her up under the shoulders.

“As for you, don’t you think it’s about time you lent a larger hand? ”

She placed Wally back in Nathan’s lap without elaboration, which left Nathan blinking dumbly.

“And Sasha, love, so glad you’re back to yourself. What eye I could keep on you missed that recessive gene we share.” Gwen reached down, cupping his face for just a moment, fingers teasing the strands of red , so like hers, and then she was gone.

“Well ain’t someone the favorite great-great-great-great-great… great ,” Nathan could have gone on forever like that until Sasha jabbed him in the side, “great-grandson,” he finished with a grin.

Sasha didn’t try to deny that he liked that, probably because Gwen had a few things in common with his own mother.

“And what was that about you, Wally?” Nathan scratched behind the chimera’s ears. “You holding out on us?”

Wally snuggled into Nathan’s lap again, tilted her head up at him with bright, blinking grey eyes, and chirped obliviousness.

“Yeah, yeah…I don’t buy that for a second.” He dug his fingers into her fur. He knew Wally was a fast and vicious little thing when she wanted to be, but he hardly wanted to see her out on the field when the battle came.

He still didn’t understand what exactly he was going to be expected to do in this whole leading the troops ordeal, but he was so over complaining. So while they were still doomed to play the waiting game for now, he decided to enjoy himself and the knowledge that they were not alone.

“Fill me up, Jim,” Nathan held his glass out to his brother, who had the bottle now and complied happily. “And we better have at least two more bottles around somewhere or you are so going down to steal another.”