Devon gives him a knowing look and Xane catches on. The little fucker is playing both sides.
Smart.
“Maybe next time you try that…”
“I need a bigger ball?” Xane finishes wryly.
“Yeah,” Devon says with a smile. “What are you doing?” he asks to Constantine, who is picking up all the papers off the floor and frantically searching through them. He dumps them all on the desk and then, with a burst of blood-red smoke, he sweeps the entire desk clean, flinging the contents back onto the floor. He smashes his fist into the sturdy desk and sits down.
“We have a serious fucking problem,” he says.
The Dark Fae Kingdom, October 2014 - Lincoln
He sits next to Aefre on a long, wooden bench at a long, wooden table in the middle of the great big dining hall of Drake’s palace. The place is packed to the rafters and the food and drink is being handed out every few minutes it seems. Normally, Lincoln would be in his element around so much food, his metabolism being so fast that he is almost constantly hungry, but today he is quiet and pensive, and he has no appetite.
Aefre is sitting next to him, with Sebastian on her other side, and she is looking down at her plate of untouched food solemnly.
Sebastian is in high spirits, talking animatedly with the others at their table, but he keeps a possessive hand on Aefre’s, and she lets him. It’s sickening. He must tell her, but he is so afraid that Sebastian will banish him, and he will never see her again.
He tells himself that isn’t the most important thing. Aefre’s well-being is. If he has to risk giving her up in order to make her aware, then he has to take that chance. He has to find a way to tell her without Sebastian hovering around her like an incessant fly.
He takes her other hand and she glances up at him with a wan smile. “This isn’t much fun,” he whispers to her. “You should go and visit with your father.” Anything to get her away from Sebastian and his mind-control.
“Later,” Sebastian interrupts them. “Aeval, you will stay by my side, remember?”
Lincoln growls at him, but Sebastian pays him no mind and goes back to his conversation.
He sighs and clutches at her hand tighter. He is just about to get up the nerve and declare loudly to her what is going on, when he catches Vito’s eye and the small shake of his head. He must have seen the resolve on his features.
Lincoln’s gaze stays on Vito as the other man indicates imperceptibly with his head towards the door of the dining hall. Lincoln slides his gaze over to the open double doors that has a constant stream of traffic coming and going, with Faeries leaving and others taking their places. He looks back at Vito and sees him sidling slowly over to the doors, around Drake’s back, and picking up a jug of mead as a clear distraction.
Lincoln bobs his head and says to Aefre, “I’ll be right back. Nature calls.”
“Okay,” she says with little concern and it makes his heart ache.
He feels Sebastian’s eyes on him as he leaves the hall first and then slows down to wait for Vito to catch up. He is standing idly by an alcove with filmy black curtains wafting in the slight breeze that seems to be a constant thing on the bottom floor of this palace. He thinks it is a side effect of all the magick that exists in this place.
A second later, he is shoved into the alcove and he stumbles and curses loudly.
“Quiet,” Vito snaps at him in a whisper. “If Sebastian gets wind of this, he will kill us both.”
“What are you doing here?” Lincoln asks.
“I could ask you the same question,” Vito accuses.
“Sebastian came for me. I wasn’t exactly in a position to refuse,” Lincoln says defensively.
“I mean why were you about to blurt it out? We have to be stealthy here or we could all lose everything,” Vito reprimands him.
“She needs to know. It’s heartbreaking watching her be treated like this,” Lincoln says.
“How is she?” Vito asks.
“Not good. I can sometimes see signs of her old self but then Sebastian wipes it away. He must be spelling her more than a few times a day to keep her under his thumb,” Lincoln says despondently.
“Remiel and Constantine have tried to reach her with their respective bonds with her, but so far nothing. You need to try and get her to open herself up without giving the game away. We have to do this without Sebastian knowing,” Vito says.
“Okay,” Lincoln says with a nod. “I will try. What else are they doing?”