Luca gave a long-suffering sigh. “Like I said, you like to court disaster. Your choice. These rooms are temporary anyway. Most get lodgings near their station in the world. Limits the coming and going from the tower, reducing the possibility of discovery. If you work in the control room, you stay here; if you’re in the field, you get your own place.”
So he could be part of The Order without actually having to put up with any of the Host. That was a consideration, especially if he had access to those weapons. There had to be a catch.
“No catch,” Luca said. “Service. Dedicating yourself to the well-being of the world, a nonissue because you already have. You wouldn’t be here, in mortality, if you hadn’t.”
Custo shook his head in denial. He was here on Earth because he’d jumped the gate and made a break for it.
“But why did you jump the gate?” Luca asked.
“Because no one up there would do anything.” Custo’s heart beat hard with sudden anger. “A war was going on, and no one would fucking listen to me.”
“How many times did I come to you during your vigil at the gate? Think about that and answer me this: who wouldn’t listen?” Luca tilted his head with subtle irony. “You’re listening now. Join us.”
Custo couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All he’d been through. Pissing off Death. Diving into the Shadowlands. His uncontrolled crash to Earth. Bringing the Shadow wolf with him.
“You always did like to do things the hard way,” Luca observed.
“Stay out of my head.”
Custo had to think, and he couldn’t think when every conclusion he came to was open to outside commentary.
“Why don’t you come back downstairs, observe for a little while, work things out?”
“Don’t patronize me either.”
Luca held up his hands in surrender. “I’m just trying to help.”
Luca turned then and left him alone in the cell. Custo could hear the soft pad of his tread down the steps. Luca was leaving him alone with his thoughts, giving him the most space he could to process this new information and come to a decision, one that Luca felt had already been made.
Had it?
Custo had no idea. Luca was persuasive, but then, Custo had been unprepared for this conversation. He thought he’d be taken into custody. Had feared that all his work would be left undone, his friends unprotected. Now, it seemed, those concerns were irrelevant.
The bright little room was claustrophobic. Custo exited and headed to the stairs. Maybe he should watch in the control room a little bit. Get a sense of The Order in action, then make his decision.
He passed the armory, remembering the dagger. It would be his to use, a compelling point in The Order’s favor. Talia would be safe with the wraiths on the defensive once again. And the Shadow wolf? There had to be something in that glittering assemblage for him, too.
Okay: An apartment in the city, near Annabella preferably. A way to fight the monsters that encroached on his friends’ lives. And all he’d have to deal with was the occasional interaction with The Order. Custo could almost see Luca’s point.
If Custo was already going to fight, he might as well do so with the best tools, under the aegis of others like him.
He reached the main floor, hovering on the brink of change. Luca stood at the rear of the control room, his back to Custo. When Custo approached, Luca shot him a glance. “Decide already?”
Nearly. But still Custo hesitated. Something was bothering him, had been itching in his brain since the conversation started.
Right. His mood darkened. “You said to Adam that the wraiths weren’t your concern at this time.”
Luca shook his head. “The wraiths are trapped in mortality; they aren’t going anywhere. Your Adam is doing an admirable job keeping them controlled while we fight active breaches in the barrier between the worlds. We have to repair them before any more dark fae can enter the world and wreak as much havoc as the one who created the wraiths in the first place.”
“But you fought the wraiths in the alley last night. What makes today any different?”
Luca heaved an impatient sigh, as if Custo kept missing his point. “We weren’t fighting the wraiths. That wasn’t our aim at all.”
“Uh…Looked that way to me.”
“Then you are still a fool,” Luca said. “We were fighting to save you. So that you can join us, add your great soul to our strength. There is more work to be done than you know. You are needed. Here. Now.”
“I can’t abandon my friends. I won’t.”