24. Roan

Roan

There is something different, and in my hazy half asleep state I can't seem to summon the brain power to put my finger on it. Then the heavy weight on my arm shifts and rolls— Theo .

He's exactly where he should be, pressing every inch of his body against me like he's trying to climb inside me, just as he is every morning. Tensing my arm to keep him against me, I shift and roll to my side, easing the ache in my back and shoulder.

Sleepy grumbles of protest huff from his still-sleeping self as he rolls onto his other side to tuck his back against my chest and his ass firmly against my morning wood. He's not satisfied until he rearranges my arm to wrap around him and my thigh dips naturally across his to keep him pinned to me. When I am completely surrounding him, he sighs contentedly and slips back off into a deeper sleep.

Unable to resist, I bend to kiss the haphazard mess of his copper curls, and shuffle myself so I can tuck my other arm under the pillow to cradle our heads. The pillow is different . Like a moron I finally click that we're not at home in Theo's room at the tavern after going out last night.

And fucking on the balcony this morning .

My already half-hard dick swells to aching in a heartbeat with the memory of the absolute feral need that had overtaken us last night. It was hot as fuck, the way he had surrendered. The taste of him, the way he cried out as I'd eaten his ass out in the dark of the night.

But even better was that look , the one that said everything we had been too scared to voice over these past months. And then, the way he had taken me, ridden me, the feeling of him coming around my cock.

I would say that I could die happy knowing what it finally felt like to be inside him, but I am a greedy, greedy man when it comes to Theo, and I want to feel that infinitely more times in this life. There will never be enough of him. Of us.

With my cock prodding its way between his cheeks, my hips grinding and seeking at the memories of only last night —or more accurately, this morning, since I have no idea how long it's been since he passed out in exhaustion and I carried him inside—Theo wakes again, thrusting his own hips back until my dick makes contact with his sensitive hole. His sharp hiss stills my movements, my hips pulling back sharply, putting distance between him and my horny, unthinking dick.

"I didn't say stop." He grumbles, his voice still thick and slurred from sleep. His hand flops back, blindly groping to find me and drag me back to him. When he fails abysmally, prodding at the blankets a couple of times before giving up, he struggles to roll over to face me under the weight of my arm still pinning him, blearily opening his eyes to glare at me.

The bright light streaming through the shitty hotel blinds must be harsh in his face.

" Nrgh . What time is it?" A grimace comes over his perfect face as he cops a whiff of our stale, post-night out dancing selves. "Never mind that, we need a shower. And coffee."

He looks adorable, so confused and put out, like a grumpy ginger cat, shoving at the blankets and my arm so he can sit and leave the bed.

Laughing, I refuse to let him, instead moving quickly to cover his body with mine, pinning him with my weight. Capturing his wrists loosely in one hand, I hold them to the pillows above his head. He blinks up at me a few times like he is unable to comprehend how he got in this position.

Love, pure and unabashed, complete and ferocious, overwhelms me. I drop a soft feathery kiss to his nose and then to his cheeks, still covered in glitter. I brush lightly over his makeup-smudged eyes as they flutter shut and his forehead as a soft sigh breathes from those perfect lips.

I wait for his eyes to open, to look at me, so he can see the sincerity in my face, and my teeth worry at my lip for the several heartbeats that it takes for his gold and brown eyes to meet mine.

"Theo" My stomach swoops and drops at the soft look that fills his eyes when I say his name. "I love you."

Beneath me, his body tenses, and his eyes flare wide. Dread instantly replaces the soft and loving feelings, dousing their warmth like ice. I start to pull back, withdraw from towering over him, release his hands, but he senses the movement, clasping my restraining hand in both of his in a vice-like grip and raising his legs to wrap around me like steel bands.

An unseen force, shimmering like magic, aids his hold of me, pressing my body down further against him. I can feel the weight of it against my back, but I can't understand where it's coming from. It's certainly not from me. In the back of my mind, the memory of the zap of power from Theo in the club flags, but I shove it aside, too concerned with the fierce stare being thrown my way.

"You did not just declare your love for me while we are all festy and crusty from last night did you? Are you kidding me ?!"

He nearly shrieks that last part, and I am not sure whether to laugh or be relieved. His glare, and the pressure on my back and his legs is a pretty big give away that laughing won't do me any favours. A hot flush rises to my cheeks, my lips hooking into what I hope is an apologetic smile. Hoping, because I'm not apologetic at all.

I drop my forehead so our noses brush, and then I capture his lips in mine. He opens for me instantly, his body softening, relaxing, allowing me to sink into him, my tongue licking into his mouth to plunder as I will. I swallow the soft little moans like the victories they are.

When I'm satisfied he's going to be soft and compliant, I pull back enough to look him in the eye, trying to ignore the way he is hard against my stomach.

"I love you, Theo. I love you when you are hurting, I love you when you are strong. Whether you're a gifted genius or a sassy brat. I even love you when you have hideous morning breath and smell like a swamp. I tried not loving you, I tried not needing you. I tried to just be your friend."

Despite the tears welling in his eyes, he still manages a sarcastic snort.

"Yeah, and we sucked at that. I was scared, because I knew if I ever allowed myself to have you, I would never be able to let you go, that I would be keeping you from exploring and finding your life, your new life, your freedom. But it's too late. I need you, I need you at the tavern sassing me about everything. I need your laughter. I need the way that everything just feels better having you with me. I need you to be mine like I need air to breathe."

I take a deep breath, kissing away a tear trailing down the side of his face. "But more than I need you, I want you, too. It's not just that you make my berserker side feral with the need to claim you and make you mine. I want you too. I don't just love you, Theo. I like you too."

My heart thunders in my chest while I wait for Theo's response, his reaction, anything. I can feel the moment my words sink in, the heaving shudder and the choking sob before he rips his hands from mine to wrap around me, yanking me down to collapse completely on top of him.

His tears are hot on my shoulder where his head is buried. With the way he clings to me, I can't move my arms to comfort him without crushing him entirely, so I simply stroke my cheek over his head while making nonsense soothing noises. Eventually, his tears subside and his breathing evens out. I don't try to pull back until his grasp loosens slightly. But he doesn't let me pull back far enough to look at him, just enough so that he can talk into the hollow of my neck.

"Roan, you could never hold me back. You gave me my freedom." I tense, ready to argue, but he squeezes me hard enough to sting. "No. I don't mean when you rescued me. While I am grateful for that, you know that's not it. You have been there, without question. No pressure, no demand. Just you and your support and kindness. It allowed me to be me without any of the bullshit." A huffed laugh tickles at my neck and is quickly replaced with a firm kiss.

"I love you, too. I love you with every molecule of my being. I want to be with you. Properly. No more bullshit about friends with orgasms or whatever other lie we have to tell ourselves. I want you to be mine , and I want to be yours ."

He wriggles under me, and I take the hint to shift off him so I can look him in the eye. The wide smile across his face matches the one currently pulling at my cheeks. "I want you to move into the house with me. I want it to be ours."

His nose wrinkles adorably, making me ache to kiss him again, but once I start I am not going to stop.

"It sounds weird offering your own place to you. But I want it. You there, with me. Every day. Every night. Together. I mean, we basically planned it all together, anyway. There is no way I could be there without you."

"Then why did you buy that ugly ass bed?" My laughing question is met with a swift pillow to the side of the face. I chuckle again and steal a quick kiss.

"That bed is gorgeous and you know it. Not that it matters because the offer's rescinded. You can go back to sleeping in that tiny little shack you haven't ever invited me to, cold and alone." He sniffs, raising his nose snootily in the air, exposing the long creamy length of his neck.

I kiss my way along it, hot, open mouth kisses, from his shoulder, up past the sensitive dip at the hollow of his neck and the taut tendons to bite just under the line of his jaw. Goosebumps erupt over his skin, and the feral part inside me gloats with happiness at his reaction.

"I've never invited you there because it is cold and lonely. It is not my home. It is the place I sleep. The tavern is my home."

I continue to kiss and bite along his neck, sucking at his flesh until there is another bruise to add to the others decorating his skin. "It was my home. Now, my darling, sweet little brat, you are my home. Wherever you are is where I lay my head."

I suck particularly hard at the place I know he loves, where his shoulder meets his neck, and he writhes beneath me, arching his hips up to grind his dick into me, seeking friction and more . I bite down again and he cries out my name. I want to beat my chest and roar with pride.

"Even if it means an ugly peacock bed."

Theo's lustful moans turn to outrage again.

"You are lucky I love you, you dick." The laughter in his voice fills me with the type of contentment that I've never felt until him. Like a wholeness of being. It almost hurts to pull off him, sitting back on my heels to let my eyes roam over him.

His legs unlock from my waist, falling to the bed, spread wide on either side of my thighs. He is no longer the pale, scrawny, under-nourished man who we'd first taken from Marieth's cottage. Muscles rope over his body from the hard work he's put into the house and the garden and from his hikes and swimming at the Falls.

His skin is still pale, but it has lost its unnatural whiteness—instead, he seems to glow with a halo of golden light seeping through his pores and his freckles. He is sunlight personified.

The fact that his copper curls are a tangled mess only adds to the vision, as does the leftover makeup and glitter streaking his face and body. No doubt much of it has transferred to me, too, but it is just another mark of the way we fucked and loved last night. His perfect cock juts up between his legs. The same creamy colour of his skin, only more of a blush at its weeping head, his balls tight to his body.

A pearl of pre-cum pools at the head there before dripping down the length. I want to take him again. Fuck him into the mattress. Own him, possess him. Theo must see it in my eyes, or maybe it's the way I lick my lips while eyeing his cock. With a sly smile, he tucks one hand behind his head, displaying himself, and strokes his cock from root to tip, gathering the slick there and coating himself with it.

I flick my eyes up to his face, and he raises an eyebrow, teasing me. But all it does is make me want to push back against him—the dance between us is one of the things I love about him. Us.

"Enough of that, brat. You complained about being festy. Time to get in the shower, and then it's probably time to head back to the tavern."

Before I go back on my own word, I roll off the bed and make my way to the hotel ensuite. I can feel the way he watches me, and I make sure to put a little more ass into my walk.

Never one to ever let me get the last word in, his heat is on my back all too quickly as he brushes past me to get to the shower first. As he passes, he makes sure to drag his still rock hard cock against me as much as possible, and he gives me deceitfully innocent eyes, pulling himself up close on my arm.

"Whatever you say." His breathy whisper tickles my skin. " Boss Daddy ." Exasperation and lust war within me, and I groan, too late to snatch him up, Theo already having darted away to start the shower. I grumble, mostly pretending, and join him, waiting for the water to heat. He is bound to torment me for the rest of my life. And I can't help but be excited about it.

***

My truck bounces along the dirt road through the Woods to the Black Stump, strangely in time with the beat to the music playing softly through the radio. With Theo's hand in mine over the centre console and the windows down to let in the fresh summer breeze, things feel good. Right.

I could basically do this drive in my sleep, which is handy because I'm exhausted from last night, but the creatures of the Woods aren't used to vehicles and have a horrible habit of darting out when you aren't looking. So I keep my eyes trained on the path ahead of me, rolling along fast enough to get where we're going, but slow enough that we're not going to have any unfortunate accidents on the way. It'd probably kill the mood.

I risk the chance to take my eyes off the road for a second, shifting slightly to look over at Theo in the other seat. His head is tilted back, eyes closed softly, a soft smile on his lips as he sings along to the decades-old pop tune.

Watching those delicate pink lips move, it's all too easy to remember how they were wrapped around my cock only a couple of hours ago as I fucked his mouth in the shower. His doe-like, innocent eyes had watered as he'd sucked me down harder and harder. I worried I was hurting him, but he only gripped tighter to my ass, digging his fingers in, urging me on, until I grabbed handfuls of his hair and rode his mouth until I came down his throat.

I tried to return the favour, dragging him from the hard floor and pushing him against the shower wall, but he came the moment I dropped to my knees and wrapped my hand around his cock.

His head thunked against the tiles, loud over his pained cry, his cock jerking in my hand as thick white ropes of cum spurted over me. We both watched his release as the water rinsed it from my chest and belly, swirling down the drain. A look of shock and horror morphed over his face as he blushed furiously, and he groaned, cupping his face in his palms.

"Gods, that is embarrassing." The blush spread down his neck and covered his chest. Unable to hold in my laughter, as I stood and scooped him up in my arms, I kissed his head when he buried his face in my chest. I'd laughed even harder when I'd pinched his ass, following it up with a swift wet smack, making him yelp adorably.

"More like a compliment." I flicked off the water and half carried him out of the small shower cubicle. It wasn't until I was almost finished towel drying him, kissing my way around his body as I did so, that the blush left his skin, and his shy smile turned eager again, and we kissed, with me pinning him against the bathroom cabinet, until we grew hard again, and he came rubbing his cock against me, whimpering mindlessly about love.

Like I said, it had been a good morning. Even if we had to rush to get back in time for lunch when I was due back.

He must sense my eyes on him because Theo's hand gives mine a little squeeze, and he opens his eyes, just enough to look over and smile at me sleepily. The way my heart squeezes and somersaults with the look of love in his eyes would have made a younger, more immature me feel vaguely nauseous.

"I cannot wait to get home, and just ugh . I miss Mauvy's cooking." Theo slumps dramatically in his seat, and my heart squeezes again at him calling the tavern home . I look back towards the road. We are within spitting distance, really, of the tavern, and I can feel it singing in my blood.

"Yeah, it'll be good to be back. It's only one night, but it's always a lot to leave."

Theo hums in agreement and moves again in his seat to look me more square on, tugging on our joined hands as he does so. I go to release him, thinking that he wants to let go, but he only holds on firmer.

"So, are we going to tell everyone or…" he lets the question hang there, anxiety lacing his words.

As the road deviates towards the grounds of the Black Stump Tavern, I glance over at him. He stares me down warily, his teeth worrying at his lip. I have to navigate the small car park and the guests waving at us from the lawns, so I squeeze his hand again, rubbing my thumb along the soft skin on the back of his hand.

"I don't really think there is any hiding it, Theo."

Huffing a laugh, I pull my car into its spot next to my tiny, white house and switch off the engine. "I don't think we've ever done a particularly good job of hiding it."

Theo's nose scrunches with his smile, making my heart sing and then he's clambering over the console, giving me just enough time to slide the seat back before he's straddling me, gripping my beard to angle my head in just the right position to press tiny, biting kisses up and down my neck.

In the heat of the sun beating down on the glass, the car becomes stiflingly hot, though neither of us pay it any attention, Theo riding my lap, my hands burrowed under his tee shirt to grope at his sweat slick skin.

That is, until a tap on the window interrupts us. Theo's surprised yelp drowns out my groan. A stony-faced Edith peers over the top of the glass. In the heat of the summer, she is still covered in her many black layers—her only give to the sway of the season is the layers are cotton and lace, rather than the velvets and furs of the cooler months.

"There is someone here for you, Theo. He says…"

It's never good when there is worry in Edith's face, and it's there now. Her purple eyes are tight with concern.

"He says… he's your boyfriend. Darius."

Blood rushes my ears, and in that moment it feels like my spirit has left my body, but my first concern is for Theo, who is now paralysed above me, not even breathing, his gaze locked on Edith. Despite the warring flood of emotions flooding me—rage, panic, fear—I rub gently at the small of Theo's back, trying to tell myself that this has to be a mistake. Theo has been here for months now, not to mention his time with Marieth, surely he'd have mentioned a boyfriend at any point along the way.

"Theo, what's going on… I…" I immediately regret the harshness of my voice, but I can't hold it back, too many feelings choking me in the heat of the car.

Theo withdraws from my touch, pulling back into himself in that way that he does. Unable to look me in the eye, he slides off my lap to curl up on the passenger seat.

"Darius is, was, is ?" he shakes himself as if he's confused. "Someone from my past. I thought it was over. I really did." Tears shine in his eyes when he looks up at me pleadingly. "I should talk to him. Let him know…"

His voice trails off, and I try to smile reassuringly, but this all feels wrong. But with my fae knowing silent on the issue, I feel… bereft.

"I don't like this." Edith scowls under her breath, still outside the window, but Theo is already on his way out of the car, slamming the door and hurrying along the path to the back door of the tavern.

I scramble out of the car and watch Theo quickly disappear up the path. Without waiting for Edith to follow me, I trudge along behind him, in much less of a rush to find out what is going on here. Edith keeps up, though, and, thankfully, manages to keep her worries to herself as we walk together into the tavern and through the kitchens.

Mauvy isn't in there, and when the door swings open and we make our way into the tavern proper, I can see why. Everyone is there except Seldon, who won't be in for another hour or so for his shift.

But Caelan, Tor, and Mauvy, along with more than a few of the regulars, are watching with all too keen an interest in my Theo and the smarmy bastard stroking his arm and laying his hand on his knee, like he has any claim to him.

Still flustered and flushed in the face, Theo seems to have taken the guy over to the empty hearth. The high-backed chairs give the illusion of privacy but the angle allows us to still keep an eye on them. Was that strategic on Theo's part?

I hate this guy on sight, unreasonably loathing his presence in my domain. My only comfort is that Theo is determinedly keeping his distance, shuffling the chair along the flagstones whenever Darius gets too close.

Sliding onto the bench seat next to Caelan, I nod over to my friends, the mages, watching from their table with curious, dour faces. Their disapproval only adds to the icy lump in my stomach. Do they know something I don't? Or are they just being protective because of their friendship with me? Why is my fae-tuition so fucking silent about this?

"Did you know about this bloke?" Tor leans across the table to ask. I shake my head and drain the beer Caelan has slid in front of me.

"Nope." The "p" pops loudly, and I rap my fingers on the table. "I did not. I assume you didn't either?"

Tor snorts. "My bet was on him being a virgin. Turns out my little brother has some secrets. Shocking ."

The man, who I guess is handsome, in a preppy and uptight kind of way, has both of Theo's hands clasped in his now. I can't see his face, but that doesn't matter. The irrational and insane part of me reasons—I don't need to see his face to rip it from his skull. A hand on my arm yanks me back to the seat roughly before I even realise I am standing.

"Look dude, I get it. But you need to let Theo deal with this one. He looks fine." Caelan murmurs in my ear. And sure enough, Theo does look fine, maybe a little worried at most. Knowing that the lot of us are watching, he shoots us a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. I still grunt and elbow Caelan roughly, not appreciating his sensible attitude at all right now.

"I scanned him when he came in." Edith murmurs against my ear, now standing behind me with a gentle, yet firm hand on my shoulder. Theo is making his way over to us, waving to the clumps of guests calling out to him. He's become a fixture here in such a short time, and everyone is more than keen to make sure he is okay. "But there was nothing. No ill intent, nothing. Almost… blankness." That certainly is odd, but I don't have time to reply because Theo is shuffling his feet in front of us.

"As much as I do love being the centre of attention here, I'm going to take Darius back to the house." At the collective intake of breath, Theo sharply cuts his hand through the air and glowers at each one of us individually. "I owe him a conversation without you fishwives hanging about."

His smile softens when he looks at me again, no doubt because the sick feeling in my guts is written all over it. With no choice other than causing an embarrassing scene that I know Theo won't appreciate, I bob my head along with everyone's murmurs of agreement.

The only thing that keeps me in my seat as the pompous asshole follows him out the front doors is the way Theo deftly avoids his hand, and the way he turns back to mouth "I love you" to me across the room.

"Are you going to tell me what that last thing was about?" Tor's eyes swing back to me the moment his brother leaves eyeshot. I pour myself another pint and drain it.

"Absolutely not."

Caelan chuckles on one side of me, jostling me as he lightly kicks his mate under the table. Mauvy and Edith plonk themselves down to join us, and we sit and force idle chatter for a while.

We catch up about the farm and how Caelan had trusted Tor with a chainsaw for the first time resulting in them all narrowly escaping with all their limbs, and Edith tells us all far too much about her latest rendezvous with a Tree Spirit in the Woods.

But I think she only shared that tidbit so I'd shut her up with bottles of wine to hide around the Woods for her travels.

After half an hour or so of mundane chit chat, the conversation shutters.

"How long do we give them?" Mauvy eyes the door with a fierce frown on her face, fiddling with the ends of her braids worriedly.

"As long as he needs. This was Theo's thing the whole time, people not trusting him," I counter.

"It's not him we don't trust." Caelan's voice is more shrewd and harsh than I am used to hearing from him. "It's that other bloke. Darian."

"Darius. And yeah, but Theo won't see it that way," Tor counters, sighing heavily and shifting uncomfortably at having to be the reasonable one.

"Theo won't see what that way?" Seldon, having slid in through the back door unnoticed, now elbows his way between Edith and Mauvy on the other side of the table. He is dressed for work. Just not necessarily for work here, with his creative liberties on the already liberal uniform of a button up in white or black and clean trousers.

His cropped and perfectly pressed white shirt is in stark contrast to Edith's all black. But his high-waisted trousers, complete with pleats and wide belt, mean that he isn't flashing too much skin. It's a fine line Seldon likes to tread with his work attire. Flipping his head as if he were tossing his fiery red hair over his shoulder, he eyes everyone in turn, waving his hand to encourage us to continue our gossiping.

I rap a quick rhythm out on the hard wood of the table and avoid his gaze.

"Theo's boyfriend's here." Tor's voice is pointedly expressionless. Seldon's pointed features scrunch in confusion.

"Uh, do you mean Roan, because I can see that."

Caelan snorts next to me, and I whack him with the back of my hand in his stomach. He doesn't even register the hit. Mauvy clears her throat and leans forward on her elbows.

"Nope. Apparently there is another one."

"Well, that's bullshit because he and Roan have been all loved up and -" his laughing tease cuts off abruptly, and for a split second I wonder if it's because he thinks we're still pretending this is all a secret, but no.

He pauses unnaturally still, like the hunter he naturally is, only a flicker of emotions flashing over his eyes. His head snaps, cocking to the side suddenly, spooking us all, and we jump, a dark look falling over Seldon's face. Everything gets sharper as his eyes turn a deeper yellow colour, his pupils elongating with his partial shift. " What was his name ?"

"Damien? Darwin?" Edith waves her hand about trying to remember and being unhelpful. Before any of us can jump in with the actual answer, Seldon has shoved himself to standing, leaping to the end of the table.

"Darius?!" His screech is loud enough to disrupt the entire tavern, everyone pausing to turn and stare at my employee who is becoming more hysterical by the second. Panic grips my chest, and I shove the long bench seat back with enough force to dislodge the others sitting there with me.

"You let him go with that asshole? What the fuck guys! How could you ?"

The icy ball in my stomach explodes, sending heat throbs in my veins, pounding in my brain. A heavy hand claps onto my shoulder, pulling my attention away from Seldon's panic.

"Roan, my friend, is everything okay?" Tarook eyes us all with wary concern, and I shake my head. Tor pales as Caelan jumps from the table to rush around to comfort his mate.

"I don't know. I don't think-" I turn back to Seldon, running a hand through my hair tugging at the strands slightly.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" The others murmur their agreement and confusion. Tarook's hand squeezes my shoulder roughly.

" Darius ," Seldon says, shooting a pointed look at Edith, "was Theo's… I don't know. I wouldn't call him a boyfriend. They were sleeping together for a long time. But from what Theo told me, the guy is bad news . He toyed with Theo and his feelings for too damn long. Keeping him like a dirty secret, breaking things off whenever it was inconvenient, using him to get off whenever it was. He wasn't a nice guy. He apparently got engaged to some girl you all knew growing up…" He nods to Tor who shrugs because, honestly, it could be anyone. "…he broke it off with Theo. The guy is a fucking dick and Theo should be nowhere near him."

Why had Theo never told me any of this?

"He never told me…" Similar hurt colours Tor's voice, that we couldn't protect Theo because he hadn't trusted us with his pain. Tor's eyes meet mine, and I shrug, shaking my head that I didn't know either.

"He didn't tell anyone. He wouldn't have told me, but it became a recurring issue with other stuff,"—another pointed look at me—"and he just sort of word-vomited it out at me one day."

"This guy, Darius? He wouldn't hurt Theo would he? Maybe he just wants him back and-"

"How did he find him?" Tarook's calm, deep, almost monotonous voice interjects over everyone. "Theo told us just the other day that he had not told anyone in his old life about where he is. He was nervous that someone would come visiting here, and he would be found. It seemed to worry him, the idea of being found."

Another thing he'd kept from me.

Try as I might, I can't help but feel another lance of hurt slice through me. Mauvy meets my eyes, sensing my pain maybe, after our decades of friendship. The sympathy in her face makes me feel slimy inside.

"That is a really, really good question, handsome." Even in the grimmest moments, Edith never misses an opportunity to be inappropriate, batting her eyelashes at my old friend. I'd already noticed her pocketing the silverware from the table as we chatted. "I had a little poke and prod around his brain when he was talking to Mauvy. It was empty. Nada. Not even wards or protection. Just an open landscape of nothingness."

"And that wasn't a warning?" Tarook's mellow softness is heavy in contrast to the sharpness of Edith's voice. At least his rebuke knocks off her flirting, firing up her notorious temper.

"Well, truth be told, I just put it down to him being a man."

Tor's hand slams hard against the table, putting a stop to whatever pettiness was about to ensue.

" Enough . Edith, I love you, but now is not the time. " Now he's the one stress pulling at his hair while Caelan rubs his back tenderly. His phone is in his hand, and he seems to be texting madly. When I catch his eye, he mouths Seff at me. Thankful for his good sense, I just smile tightly and nod.

"He didn't send off signals for any of us. Is there a chance that he's here for something totally innocent? Like, maybe to apologise or whatever? Maybe we have it wrong?" Tor continues, not noticing the exchange between Caelan and I.

The hope in his voice is so fragile, but everyone clasps on to it with both hands.

Seldon raises his hands to stop everyone from talking. "Good point, I mean, after everything that's happened before, it makes sense that we're all a little sensitive, but maybe we're jumping to conclusions."

Some people are shocked when they see this more responsible side of Seldon, but it's the guy I knew him as before he broke out of his shell and became the flamboyant, dramatic flirt we'd all gotten used to.

He takes a deep breath, sticking his hands on hips, popping one dramatically. "Look, he doesn't know I'm here. Where are they? I'll go and say hi and check how everything's going." We let him know that he's out at the house and begin the anxious wait to find out what's going on.

That slimy fear still fills my guts while we wait, making me feel sick. Needing something to do, I go and check in with Woodsy and make sure he has it all in hand, along with the couple of casual servers we keep around. But as usual, he has it all under control.

He could honestly run the place in his sleep, so I leave him to it. Mauvy heads out back to check on her kitchen hands, while the others just sit….

Patrons come and go from the table to visit and have a chat and, on the outside, things seem normal. But inside, we are all freaking out, every single one of us reliving the fear from Theo's rescue.

When Seldon hurries back into the tavern, the kitchen door thuds against the wall as he slams it open in a hurry. A strange sense of calm settles over the table, conversations cease, the answer clear well before Seldon, hands wringing, voice strained, confirms our worst fears.

Theo is missing.