Page 45 of Consort's Glory
Theodore was quiet for a moment, considering the facts. His claws drummed a slow beat on the polished wood of his desk. “I know we don’t want to talk about it,” he began, low and pained, “but there is a possibility that Margot was targeted not because of anything she did. It could be because someone knows.”
Valen scrubbed his claws through the short strands of his hair, more aggressive than before. In a voice heavy with warning, he said, “Only the family knows who she is to you, Teddy. Close family.”
“I know.” He shook his head. The pain of that kind of betrayal might break him. “But it’s something we need to consider, even if it feels unthinkable.”
Kaz shifted back in his seat, the leather of his chair squeaking under his considerable bulk, and crossed his arms over his chest.
His claws, naturally black, stood out starkly against the orcish skin-tone of his partially bare forearms. He was strapped with muscle, his body a weapon honed for protection, and his pretty face was almost always set in a neutral, borderline disinterested look both men and women couldn’t seem to get enough of.
But he was an orc, so Theodore wasn’t surprised. Everyone thought orcs were attractive.
In most ways, Kaz took after his mother. Almost no one would assume he was a halfling by looking at him, but Kaz was as much a Solbourne as Theodore, Delilah, and Sam — something he paid for again and again.
“That’s a line of investigation that may have nothing at all to do with the bombing.” Kaz pursed his full lips, his eyes narrowing as he considered the facts. “If we can’t get relevant information out of Sophie Goode, we have to get it out of Margot. We don’t know if she is actively in danger, or if this is a small part of a bigger plot. Until we know for sure that she’s not the sole target, we can’t rule out the fact that she could be hit again. We need to talk to her.”
Theodore wrestled back the urge to snarl. “She’s not being fucking interrogated, Kaz.”
Kaz sent him a reproachful look. “Of course not. But if she’s in danger, then so are you. We have to know the facts, Teddy, for all our sakes.”
“We can’t waste valuable resources tracking down every possible lead when we have the ability to rule things out right now,” Valen chimed in. “I know you don’t want to push her, but the Summit is nearly here, Teddy. We’re already stretched thin. We can’t afford to keep Patrol on alert for much longer. Eventually we’ll be forced to stall the investigation to protect the Families.”
It went unspoken that if something happened during the Summit, when all of the members of the elvish Parliament met, Theodore could not only lose his throne, but his life as well.
Not being able to defend his own territory was bad enough, but putting so many elves at risk, when their numbers were already so abysmally low? It would be grounds to unseat his entire family in the bloodiest possible way.
And then who would protect Margot? What would all of this be for? How can I change the world and save my people from themselves if I’m dead?
Theodore knew the answers to those questions, but it didn’t make the idea of Margot being pressed hard for information she clearly didn’t want to give anymore palatable. His instinct was to coax, gentle, not interrogate.
But being Sovereign wasn’t about making things easier for himself. It was about making the hard choices to protect the people he loved, even if it hurt them in the short-term.
Forcing the tense muscles of his jaw to relax a fraction, he ground out, “Fine, we can talk to her.”
Valen and Kaz shared a glance. It was the older of the two who started, “Teddy, I don’t think you—”
Theodore lifted his lip to show off his fangs. “No. I will not let you interrogate my consort without me in the room.”
Kaz sent him another long, reproachful look, his dark eyebrows arched high. “Do you think you can actually control yourself? I was in the car with you two, if you remember.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I didn’t do anything wrong in the car.”
“No,” his brother generously allowed, “but you also couldn’t keep your hands off her. That was a few minutes after first contact. How are you going to be now that you’re forty-eight hours into the pull? If we start pushing her, if she gets anxious, will you be able to stop yourself from lashing out?”
Theodore opened his mouth to reply, but Valen beat him to it. In his usual cool, rumbling voice, the old general said, “I remember the pull, Teddy. It makes even the sanest elves crazy — and most elves don’t have twenty-five years of built up anticipation like you do.” His voice dropped, slowed, until it was as gentle as a hard-edged man like Valen could make it. “Let us talk to her, Teddy. You know we’d never intentionally cause her any pain. She’s ours too, remember? We just want to protect you both.”
He knew that. Of course he knew that. But millennia old instinct couldn’t be so easily subverted. Theodore’s beast didn’t view either man as competition — Valen’s consort being Andy, a woman who was for all intents and purposes his grandmother, and Kaz being… well, Kaz — but the protective rage burning a hole in his gut could not tolerate even the suggestion that Margot might find their questioning uncomfortable.
It was one thing for him to push her. No one else could claim the privilege.
Theodore crossed his arms, his expression unchanging. Margot’s trust was as fragile as an eggshell. He’d be damned before he let anyone do anything to damage it. “If you want to talk to my consort, you will do it with me present or not at—”
A knock on his study door, two light taps, cut him off. Theodore’s head snapped towards the heavy oak door, polished to a luminous shine, that tightness in his chest unfurling in an instant.
Margot’s here.
His heartbeat jackhammered in his chest and his blood rushed in his ears. Without a conscious thought, Theodore was across the room and opening the door in the span of a few seconds.
Wrenching the door open, he found his witch a pace away, her hands tucked neatly behind her back and her face already tilted upward to peer into his eyes before carefully averting her eyes. His stomach knotted up at the sight of a soft pink blush staining her cheeks, just the same as when he skimmed his knuckles over her skin by way of goodbye not two hours before. Her blush hadn’t died down since she woke in his arms, delicious mussed and kissable.
