OTA

[willysilver]

Beltane was fast approaching. Beltane heralded the season of war. But of late Will's skin had begun to crawl. Magic he was familiar with, magic he had not felt for many years, magic strong and dark haunted him. It was not the strange magic of the Trooping fae that Fin possessed. No, this was familiar.

An old foe.

It wasn't simply a matter of the Unseelie whom Will and his brothers would battle and defeat, as was tradition. This was something he'd defeated with great cost long ago.

The Milesian.

He was keen and watchful as he knew they prowled the Earth. Somehow they had come back from banishment. And the strength of them had grown. Will knew the battle this year would be so much more weighty. There would be no need for a mortal on the field against the Milesian. They came from the Land of the Dead and would take as many lives as they could, fae and mortal alike. Today Will had heard tell of several people dead in the tube. Of course the authorities had their theories and suspicions, but Will knew. He just knew and so tonight with the initial investigation wrapped up he gathered his strength and descended into the tube stop. Magic crackled in the air. Dark magic. Dark as could be.

He reached for the neck of his guitar on his back and to those who could see such things his hand closed around the hilt of a broadsword. A few people waited for the train and Willy wasn't about to let them meet the same fate as the earlier travelers. Those hadn't been killed so much as claimed.

The Daoine Sidhe prince wasnt about to let his city fall to the enemy. Not even if he had to defend it all by himself.

Comments

[willysilver]

"I am torn. He says he does not want me to try to undo our binding. And I must abide by his choice. But I know how to do it now. I will continue to ask," Willy said.

[akatawitch]

Sunny opened her mouth to say something blistering about how incredibly stupid that was, but she snapped it shut and drank her cider instead. "No, I don't want to know." She was almost entirely sure that the answer would just piss her off.

[willysilver]

"What do you not wish to know?" he asked, looking at her with a steady, direct gaze.

[akatawitch]

"Why he'd say no. I don't want to know." Even in a perfect relationship, if there was such a thing, Sunny couldn't imagine willingly existing inside a bond like that.

[willysilver]

"Fin fears many things," he replied simply. "And I will do whatever makes him happiest. When he wishes to end our bond, I will do it. I assume he is simply not ready."

[akatawitch]

Fin had abandonment issues a mile wide was more like it, but Sunny wasn't sinking any more energy into worrying about that. "Is there anything else I need to know about what's happening?"

[willysilver]

"I do not think so. But be vigilant. And do not hesitate to call me if you have need, Sunny. I will give you my sword. This I swear," he replied quietly.

[akatawitch]

Sunny flushed red at that and for the life of her she couldn't have said why other than that it made her angry. "And what would that cost me?"

[willysilver]

"Nothing. In a time of war there are no need for deals. Only alliances," he replied.

[akatawitch]

Pragmatism. She could work with that. "Should I find myself in need, I'll remember you offered," Sunny answered carefully, trying to rein in her temper and avoid making any promises.

[willysilver]

"I will await your call. Speak my name thrice and I will be there to fight at your side. It is my greatest hope that you will be at peace and have no need to call," Willy replied.

[akatawitch]

"With my luck lately, not bloody likely," Sunny groused, finishing off her drink and pushing to her feet. "I should go."

[willysilver]

"Please take this money for a taxi," the fae said, offering her notes from his pocket. "Do not take the tube. Not tonight."

[akatawitch]

This really should rather have been an easy decision. It was free money. Normally Sunny didn't hesitate to take money, because it make things a bit easier. This, though?

All the same, Willy had a point. Even using her magic, it was probably best not to go back to the Underground tonight.

"Fine," she said quietly, taking the offered notes.

[willysilver]

He smiled when she took it, glad that she could see the sense in it.

"Remember, Sunny. If you have need of me I will be by your side," he said.

[akatawitch]

Sunny shivered as though those words were rather more threat than promise, her eyes drawn to the spot they'd met two years before when his magic all but groped her name. It was a good word for how careless, intimate, and unpleasant it was all at once.

She held fast to that memory as she squared her shoulders and looked at him. "I'm willing to be pragmatic, because quite simply this is a lot bigger than me and too much pride is stupid. But nothing is, has, or will change."

And really, she didn't entirely believe that if she did call on him in a moment of need that he wouldn't have her over a barrel and bargain for something. That wasn't a chance she was willing to take lightly.