15. Adair

Chapter 15

Adair

"I'm awfully sorry Lord Courtwright, I?—"

As much as I hated to interrupt people, that couldn't stand. "Seriously, Aubrey. Whether you're the lord of the castle or the gardener, I see no reason for anyone to put on airs on my account. It's just Adair."

He followed me in silence for a moment, seeming to gauge my sincerity, before nodding and saying, so quietly I could barely hear it, "Adair, then."

"Excellent. I'm afraid Lord Gloombringer isn't much for informality, but most of us have never stood on formality. Lady Titania will doubtless insist you call her Titania." I slowed my walk and turned to meet his eye. "But I promise that however sober and sincere she might seem, no one ever calls her Tits. She says that to try to get a rise out of Lord Gloombringer."

He almost choked on his own spit, nodding wildly as he tried to repress the cough, like the notion he would ever call the Gloombringer's sister Tits was incomprehensible. And really, the young footman who'd fallen for it should have known better. No one would ever call the Gloombringer household informal, even though only Oberon held to formality with any strength. He was the man in charge, so we followed suit, even if we thought it ridiculous.

Except for Titania.

No, I wasn't going to call her Tits, not even in my head, even as funny as it was.

"Mr. Wallace was pretty tight-lipped about the job that's on offer, Si—Adair. And I...well I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I won't do anything illegal. Or immoral."

That stopped me in my tracks, and I turned to stare at him. Oh, not because it was such a strange leap, the notion that we'd ask him to do something terrible, but because he was outright refusing to do it if we were. That was...well, there was a reason people were going to love him, wasn't there? I only hoped he stuck with that attitude and didn't turn into a clever cult leader who worked people up with fire and brimstone and then took their money to line his pockets while they were so busy adoring him that they didn't notice.

"That's good," I told him. "Stay that way forever, please."

He glanced around, like maybe I was talking to someone else whose presence he hadn't noticed, so I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, meeting his eye.

"No, I'm serious. You, Aubrey Sagara. I want you to stay that way. Never agree to do something immoral or illegal just because someone in power asks it. Asking makes them wrong, and you should never give up your morals because someone else demands it of you. It's hard sometimes, I know, especially when you're struggling for money. But you've got it right."

He looked shocked, then pleased, and gave me a nod, so I turned and went on. I had no hope that I could change Oberon, or even help him at this point, since he was dismissive of everything I offered him.

I didn't think I'd be able to work for Aubrey. Just walking next to him, and even having taken painkillers twice that day, once before the morning meeting and once a few moments earlier, my headache was growing every moment. He wasn't as awful to look at as the Dawnchaser, with his constantly shifting colors, but there were so many more threads coming from him—so many I couldn't have hoped to count them, let alone process them all. The effect on my head might dull at some point, but I didn't know that for certain, and I wasn't going to bet my future on it.

Either way, I might have a limited time to impress upon the young man what the world needed from him. I didn't want him to remember me as melodramatic or ridiculous, but I'd do what I could with the time I had.

I was at the door of Oberon's private rooms when the housekeeper caught up with us. "Mr. Courtwright, I see you found Mr. Sagara. That...man who works for you said to tell you he was going to get the doctor."

Ben, she meant, or Aubrey's "Mr. Wallace." Like most people who worked to keep a tidy household, she didn't much like rats, and so Ben gave her a bad feeling. Poor woman. And hells, poor Ben, since he wasn't a bad sort, just a little...rattish.

I inclined my head to her. "That's perfect, thank you very much. Can you have them both brought here when they arrive?"

She gave a little shiver but nodded anyway. "Of course." She glanced over at the door and leaned in. "Any chance of a break in the clouds today? "

And that . . . well, I sighed. "I'm sorry, but probably not. The Moonstriker heir is . . ."

At that, she grinned broadly. "Oh, I know what Mr. Rain Moonstriker is. And if it's only that, well...we'll handle it. Sometimes his nibs needs a little taking down."

With that, she turned and sashayed away, leaving me staring behind her. We'd always been friendly—everyone who worked on the castle staff was—but I'd never had any of them tell me in such certain terms that she was enjoying Oberon's discomfort.

"Rain Moonstriker. That's the man from the front room," Aubrey said, watching her go alongside me. "The one who carried you inside and got you water. He seemed very kind."

"He is," I agreed. I refrained from mentioning why I'd needed the water to begin with. I doubted he'd take it terribly well, learning that he was difficult to look at and my mind had been overwhelmed at the sight of his threads. Who wanted to hear that? Oberon, probably. Huxley Dawnchaser, certainly. No one I respected. "He's the likely heir to the Moonstriker family."

Aubrey breathed deep, his eyes wide, and swallowed before leaning in toward me and whispering. "But I just...I just talked to him like he was anybody."

"I'm sure he appreciated it. He's like me. He's not a man interested in standing on formality for its own sake." I paused, my hand on the doorknob, and looked back at him once more. "Lord Gloombringer is...not like that. At all."

Next to me, I heard his throat work as he swallowed hard, but he didn't say a word as I led him into the lion's den.

Titania was sitting on a window seat, thoroughly enjoying a gooey caramel candy bar as Oberon sat at the dining table and glared at her, picking at one of his hateful dry protein bars. They both looked up at us as we walked in.

Titania dropped the candy bar on the carpet when she looked over my shoulder and got her first glimpse of Aubrey Sagara.

"Lord Gloombringer," I said, inclining my head to first him, then Titania. "Lady Titania. I'd like to introduce you both to Aubrey Sagara."

Aubrey was breathing hard, clearly close to panic.

Oberon was as blank and calm as always. I tried to meet his eye, tried to tell him with my expression that I already knew what the result of the testing would be. That Aubrey was his son, and the next Gloombringer.

Though honestly, calling the ray of sunshine standing at my side "Gloombringer" was a disservice to him and to his mother, who'd clearly raised him well. He was the furthest thing from a bringer of gloom.

Titania gave a squeak and started up out of her window seat toward Aubrey, but Oberon put a heavy hand on her shoulder, shoving her back down into the cushion, which let out a pitiful hiss underneath her.

"I suppose we should summon a doctor," he said, his voice heavy. So heavy, in fact, his presence seemed to weigh the room down as Titania glared balefully up at him.

"Are you going blind?" she demanded, her voice tart. "What the hells do you need a doctor for?"

"Proof," he said back, his voice a low growl. "I'll not be taken in by?—"

"My man has gone for someone to do the testing," I announced. I was, I found, irrationally ashamed for the behavior of my employer. Less so Titania, who clearly wanted to throw herself at Aubrey and hug the stuffing out of him. I could understand that instinct, since he was clearly family. It was a reasonable instinct. One any person might have.

For Oberon...how careless did you have to be about impending disaster, before you deserved the fate that was barreling down on you?

Fortunately, before Aubrey could ask too many questions, there was a quick knock on the door that I recognized. I whipped it open, taking a deep breath and smiling at Ben and the woman at his side. He made short work of introductions, and must have explained the situation to her earlier, because she set right to work.

She smiled at Aubrey. "This is our subject, then?"

Aubrey was . . . less than impressed, rather understandably. "Subject? What subject?"

She smiled and it was surprisingly reassuring. "Not to worry, Mr. Sagara. It's a very simple test. Entirely resonance based, no pain at all." She held out her hand to him, and he hesitated, but he shook it.

She looked down at her hand, nodding, then went to Oberon, offering the same to him. He made a pissy, scowling face, and for a moment, I thought he'd refuse to do the test because it required that he treat someone he didn't give a damn about with respect, shaking the hand of a stranger. Eventually, though, he huffed a sigh like a petulant child and held out his hand.

A handshake, for fuck's sake. The easiest, most painless thing anyone had ever been asked to do to change his whole life.

A moment later, she held up her hand, which was glowing faintly purple, and smiled at him. "Congratulations, Lord Gloombringer. It's a fully grown man. "

I had to choke down a laugh at the play on "it's a boy," but I thought I managed. It helped that Oberon wasn't paying attention to me or her anymore, but finally, truly looking at Aubrey.

Titania, on the other hand, managed to do as she'd been trying all along, squirming her way away from Oberon and throwing herself at Aubrey. "I knew it! I knew it the second I saw you. Imri's son. I knew it." She threw her arms around him, squeezing him tight and pulling back with tears in her eyes. "You look just like her."

I thought he rather looked like Oberon, but not having known his mother, what in the hells could I say? Either way, Aubrey seemed to appreciate the comment, because he smiled, as radiant as the goddamn sun, and I had to shield my eyes from the glow of the man.

Oberon stepped up next to me, arms crossed over his chest. "Saw he was the one, did you? That I have a...a son."

I let my eyes fall shut to blessed, cool darkness for just a moment, and nodded. "I did. The moment the car with him in it drove up to the castle."

He sighed. Sighed. I had to turn an incredulous gaze on him. The man had just been told he had a son, and that was all the emotion he could muster up?

"I'm...I'm not sure what—" Aubrey was clearly overwhelmed, talking to Titania, who was chattering away about his mother, an apparent saint of a woman.

He looked up at me, desperation in his eyes, and I took pity. "Aubrey. I'm sorry we had to take such sneaky measures to get you here and keep it quiet, but when I found out about you, I thought it was possible, and it turns out I was correct. You are Lord Gloombringer's son."

He turned and stared at Oberon, gobsmacked. Oberon, who was still looking Aubrey over like he was a tomato he'd bought at the farmers' market, and one that he still wasn't sure about.

"So what is it you do, boy? Are you at least a duelist? What's your stone?"

Faced with the reality of the father he'd never known existed, Aubrey's face slowly fell. It was like watching a glass shatter in slow motion, all the pieces scattering in every direction as something irretrievably broke. Something that could never truly be as it had been. Such potential, squandered.

The thread that linked Aubrey to Oberon, one of those clearish colorless things coalesced in front of me as it turned, I suspected once and for all, to a dull, dark gray. Disdain.

It was the best thing Oberon ever earned from anyone who truly knew him. Aubrey had known him less than five minutes, and already there it was. A relationship forever stunted, potential gone.

Titania, though...I would never question how much the woman drank again in my life, because she groaned at her brother and shook her head. "Gods alive, Oberon, you're such an unmitigated ass. This is Imri's son you're talking to. Forget all that and try to be human for a minute for a change. Aubrey, right? Tell me all about yourself Aubrey. Where did you grow up? What's your favorite color? Do you like lemonade? Let's go get some lemonade. And a sandwich and some fries." She turned back to where she'd dropped her candy bar, frowning for a minute. "And maybe some more chocolate."

Once again, Aubrey's mood turned, and how could it not, at her enthusiasm? "That sounds amazing Lady Titania," he told her.

"Oh no, that won't do at all," she said, smiling at him radiantly, wrapping her arms around one of his and turning to lead him out of the room. "Call me Auntie Titania. Or just Auntie. Or?—"

Before she could go for the dreaded Tits, Oberon interrupted. "He can't call you that. We can't tell anyone about him." She turned to scowl at him, but Oberon motioned to me. "Adair keeps on about how I'm in danger. If we tell the world I have a son, we'll both be in danger."

It was a lie. That wasn't why he didn't want to have Aubrey calling his sister Auntie.

He wasn't trying to keep Aubrey a secret because he wanted to protect him. He just didn't want to share his spotlight. Didn't want a son who clearly outshone him in every way: younger, stronger, and more handsome than Oberon had ever been.

But he wasn't entirely wrong about the danger.

"It might not be a bad idea to keep it a little quiet," I conceded. "Just be Titania, maybe, and he can be Aubrey. For now."

She smiled indulgently at me, ignoring her brother altogether. "Okay, Adair. For you. Not for Gloomy Gus over there. But if it makes you feel better, I'll just be Titania. For now ."

Without another word, she took him away, and for entirely different reasons, Oberon and I slumped into the nearest chairs, relieved.