Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

If there was a better way to do this, Everest would have taken it. Being captured by the Shadow Board was not on the list of things he wanted to experience. However, it was the only way to get close to Olier, and he didn't have the time to plan out an alternative. This plan worked, according to everything he had ever done or heard of, or at least in the lives he had looked into.

He studied the chess pieces on the board. Cadel was not a chess player and barely offered him any challenge. Everest had been beating Kaine since he was twelve, and Kaine was a player. This was their second game, and Everest had removed half of his pieces to give Cadel a head start. Cadel was still losing, but the game and watching Cadel were enough to distract him from both the past and the wait.

"I hope we can eat dinner first."

Everest grimaced. "Probably not. Did you want to grab something now?"

"You should eat too."

He should, as the stronger he was, the better he'd be able to keep control. But his stomach was tied tight. This was it. If he'd made miscalculations along the way, it was all going to fall apart. He wouldn't get his brother, and the Shadow Board would regroup and create the world they wanted—one in which witches ruled over humans and shifters were bound.

"No cheating," Cadel said with a smile as he got up.

The only cheating he wanted to do was add extra pieces on Cadel's side of the board. "What are you going to do after this?"

"After what?"

Everest turned in his seat to watch as Cadel made a pot of tea and grabbed two protein bars. Calling room service and having a proper meal was preferable, but he didn't want to disrupt his plans, and if he ordered a pre-dinner snack, the people coming to kidnap them might become suspicious. "After we single-handedly bring down the Shadow Board and save my brother?"

"It's not single-handed when you've been working on it for three lifetimes, and you've had your brothers working on it without telling them."

Everest smiled, enjoying being able to share all the work he'd done and have it appreciated. "You didn't answer the question."

Cadel frowned and studied the board, "I expected this job to last more than a few weeks."

"Kaine will assign you elsewhere." He would make sure that Cadel was taken care of. "I meant besides work. Do you have hobbies, family, friends that you want to see?"

"Yes, and no. I like the idea of living in a country that is more paranormal. I'm also hoping that my lack of a proper bloodline won't matter so much. Plus, a lot of the lions back home would agree with the Shadow Board. They want paranormals to stop hiding."

"I think a lot of paranormals feel that way. It's not really that different from coming out as gay. Not that I ever needed to."

Cadel pressed his lips together, fighting to keep the question in.

"You want to ask if I'm always gay?" Everest smiled.

"Well, your brothers are with men."

"They are now, but Gerrit loved his wife, or so I'm told." Everest sighed and pretended to study the board. He didn't remember the woman who was supposed to be his mother. He'd been too young when she was killed. "When you're virtually immortal, it doesn't matter who you love. It's why, in Mont de Leucoy, sexuality has never been an issue. It's the same reason we never had a state religion. Love who you want, worship whichever god you want?—"

"Why didn't you set yourselves up as gods?"

"Because it's tiresome. Beliefs change. You can be a god one century and a demon the next, which isn't great for longevity. Creating a country was the best way to create consistency, even though it's not guaranteed. Nations rise and fall. I've watched so many empires come and go and may have been involved in both."

"May have or know for sure?" Cadel put the teapot and cups on the table and pulled the protein bars out of his pocket. "Don't go digging."

"Without digging, I can safely say both." Everest poured them both cups of tea. "I can also say that being royalty gets tedious. I want to be a no one, with a boring job and a boring little life."

"Spoken like a man who has never been a no one with a boring job worried about paying rent or buying groceries."

"Money will never be a problem. I just want to be someone who doesn't need to worry about everything. It's selfish, and self-indulgent, and?— "

"I don't think there's anything wrong with that. You can't be expected to make a difference in every life. That's unreasonable. No one could demand it or expect it."

He wished that were true. Then perhaps he wouldn't be so tired. "And yet, because we have long lives, we feel obligated to do something with them that matters."

"Without cheating and peeking at your notes." Cadel smiled as he picked up his cup and blew on the hot tea. "Have you made a difference?"

"Yes, overall. We all have. Creating Mont de Leucoy was a big part of that. We created a haven for paranormals. Before that…things were different two thousand years ago. The world was different. Some places shunned magic, others embraced it. Shifters were warriors, or they were hunted. We stopped humans from harming both and witches from harming shifters. And humans from fighting each other." He glanced at the chess board and moved one piece. "Checkmate."

"But we'd only just started." Cadel studied the board. "How did you learn to play like that?"

"It's who I am. I love a strategy. A game."

"Dangerously smart is what Kaine called you."

Everest laughed. "I will find a way around the problem. He will try to solve it, while Dalmon will bulldozer through it and deal with the fall-out later—patience is not one of his strengths."

"What about your father?"

"He will try reason and compassion."

"And Olier?"

Everest drew in a breath and concentrated on unwrapping the protein bar. He'd much rather enjoy the steak that was on its way. The protein bar wouldn't be enough calories if he needed to shift again. "He was our historian. He was more like Gerrit in the way he sought alternative solutions. On our last job together, we were in France. It was the revolution, so complete chaos. He was there to negotiate, and I was there to spy…pillow talk can be very revealing."

"You collected the intel, and he used it."

"Yes." He was good at that. "There were others, brothers we forgot about because we can't read the records…or couldn't read them. I can." Or he could in this life. Next time, the knowledge would be lost again, and he hated it.

Quentin might be able to translate some of them. If Everest had more time, he might enjoy sharing what he knew so the words weren't lost again. Assuming Quentin forgave him for acting like a sociopath.

He set up the board as he ate and sipped his tea.

Cadel watched him, though it wasn't the stare of a man studying him like a bug. He was familiar with those looks, as well as the naked desire. No, Cadel was trying to understand him, which was much more disarming.

"Have you figured out if you are bisexual yet?"

"What? No."

Everest lifted the cup to his lips and held Cadel's gaze. "You kissed me…or was that an experiment?"

The lion blinked first. He wanted to see him shifted and run his fingers through his golden fur. He was handsome, not in the sharp-edged way of a phoenix, or another bird shifter, but in the solid, coiled muscle of a cat. The watchfulness of his eyes, and the way they glinted all gold and copper.

"Um…" Cadel's golden-brown cheeks reddened.

Everest leaned forward. "It's fine to experiment, and I do enjoy corrupting men." He winked.

Cadel stared. "If you were forty, those words wouldn't be so jarring."

"You didn't answer the question."

"I'm the cat, yet you are toying with me. "

Everest shrugged. "You are fun to play with."

He didn't waste his time playing with those who weren't open to it. Cadel had never said no, only smiled and shook his head, and he smelled like lust. He'd offered the kiss…Everest should've waited for Cadel to cross that line instead of pulling him over.

"Am I? I'm not smart. You'll beat me at chess with only three pieces."

"Oooh, that's a good idea." Everest wasn't sure if he could, but Cadel had thrown out the challenge, and he wanted to find out if it was possible. He'd then challenge Kaine…if he got to play him again.

He probably wouldn't. The realization caused a stab of hurt that he needed to push aside. There was nothing he could do about it.

Everest lifted a rook off the board, and Cadel caught his hand. "Look at me."

"I have been, and it's much safer for you to be on that side of the table." Everest's tongue swept over his lip.

Cadel swallowed like he was trying to find the words to say, but he didn't let go of Everest's hand, and Everest liked the firm grip. The way his hand was so much bigger, and able to hold on to him no matter what. Cadel wouldn't let him become lost.

When he'd first met the bodyguard, Everest had thought him good-looking but dull. A rule follower who'd report everything back to Kaine. All of which was true, but when things got tight, it was Cadel who'd stepped up and had his back.

People occasionally surprised him, which was a good thing.

He leaned in. "What bothers you more? That you're wondering what it might be like to sleep with me or that it's breaking the rules about sleeping with your charge?"

"The latter. Lenoir will kick my ass."

Everest doubted that. Kaine would pull a face and give a frustrated sigh that, once again, meant Everest had ruined his careful selection of bodyguards. If Kaine were nicer, he'd select them based on their potential date-ability. Everest refused to marry the right person this time. If he had to run the damn country, he was going to—he caught the thought. He wouldn't be running anything. He couldn't even stop the blood from running out of his nose. "Keep me safe, and you don't need to worry about him."

"And if I fail?"

"That's why back-up is coming." Everest pulled his hand free. "Trust me. Please. I'm not doing this to get us killed."

He needed to see Olier safe. After that, he didn't care.

Cadel tilted his head and moved a pawn. "Get some plays on the board and finish eating."

Everest's mouth dried.

It was one thing to make a plan that involved allowing himself to be captured by the Shadow Board…but another to sit and let it happen.