“I almost started a war over her,” he said quietly. “When I lost her, I wondered why I ought not start it anyhow.”
There was little that she could do. His withdrawal and her healing connection to him— Leslie had to wonder if it was all connected.
“I am not good at grieving,” Irial said lightly, as if she had forgotten how devastating grief could be.
Leslie thought back to Niall when he’d been grieving.
She walked into the room to find Niall holding a fire poker which he’d just tried to shove into Seth’s eye. There was a madness there that she’d not ever seen before, but struggled to forget. Inside one of the two faeries she loved was a darkness that was more unstable than Irial’s calculated coldness.
“You are not this person,” Leslie told Niall.
He dropped the poker to the warehouse floor when he saw her.
Slowly, carefully, Leslie walked farther into the room. Niall’s skin sizzled from gripping the poker, and Seth’s face was burned. The smell was unsettling, but not as much as the lost look on Niall’s face.
She stepped in front of the cage that held Seth, the beloved of the Summer King and friend to Niall until today.
“Niall? You don’t really want to hurt yourself... or him.”
Niall looked lost, as if his very world had vanished. He stared at her. “Seth Sees things. He knew and... He knew that Irial...”
“I heard what happened.” Leslie approached Niall with her hand outstretched, as if she could touch him and heal him with it. She understood as no one in the world did. Irial wasn’t the sort of person who could be replaced, who could be lost without a ravine in the middle of her heart. She knew what Niall felt because she felt it too.
“Ash called me. Donia called me.... You sent for me. Do you remember that, Niall? You sent Hounds.”
“I didn’t want to tell you,” he whispered.
“I’m here.” Leslie looked over her shoulder.
Behind her, a Hound stood in the open doorway. She wasn’t sure if he was there for her safety or Niall’s. It was all the same though. The court—and it was her court, too—was in pain. They were grieving, and their new king was unraveling.
“I am here with my court,” she assured Niall. “I am here withyou... because you needed me. They need me to be here with you.”
She took Niall’s uninjured hand in hers, careful not to look at the burned flesh on the other hand, and used the only words she was sure would matter just then: “Irial wouldn’t want you to hurt. You know that.”
Leslie remembered that sorrow, how it had nearly destroyed the entire Dark Court.
Her own grief was less horrifying in its results, but she would never forget that utter terror that washed over her at the thought of never again touching or laughing with Irial.
She reached out and caressed his cheek. “You’re in pain, and I understand.”
He stared at her.
“I lostyouonce, Irial. In all the world, there is no one like you, and you were dead. . . and I love Niall as fully as I love you, andhewas grieving.” She felt tears escape her eyes. “Do you think I don’t understand your fear?”
Several hours later, Leslie lifted her head from his chest and stared at him. “Are you okay?”
At some point in their lovemaking, Irial felt a tear slip from his face to hers, and he hoped she hadn’t noticed. He hadn’twept, but in the moment of union, he was overwhelmed.
“Mmm.” He pulled her down and kissed her, enjoying the sheer novelty of trusting a woman enough to have her on top of him.
She’d gotten far too able to read between his words, so his default with her was typically distraction. It was an excellent plan, if he did say so himself. Kissing Leslie was high on his list of favorite pastimes, alongside touching Leslie and making love with Leslie. Luckily for him, she didn’t seem to object.
When she pulled away for real finally, she kissed both of his cheeks and his forehead affectionately before straightening back to a seated position and saying, “I’m never sure if I should be offended that you think I’m that easy to sidetrack. It doesn’t work on Niall either, by the way.”
Irial shrugged as best he was able with her on top of him and offered her his most innocent look. “You’re the one who closed the door and attacked me.”
She pressed her lips together and narrowed her gaze. “That’s your summary of our day?”