“Yeah?” Luke whispered. “What are you going to do?”
“Well, I’ve already spoken extensively about the hotness of my former lovers,” Elliot pointed out.
The muscles in Luke’s shoulders and jaw both locked at once, tense, and not in a good way.
“I don’t like that,” he said flatly.
“I know, forget that, it was terrible,” Elliot said hastily.
Some people liked it, he knew, but he could see Luke hated it. He imagined Luke telling him about how hot Dale was, and he did not think he would like it himself. He felt a little light-headed with his own daring, as if he were edging out on a thin rope over a cliff or facing the challenge of a treaty he did not know how to draft. He had always tried to show everyone before that he would not mess up, tried to win affection while feeling the weight of a hard lump of despair telling him it would not be possible. There was tension and terror in this, but Elliot laid his face against the side of Luke’s face and did not feel that despair.
“Since it’s you, and I’m unused to complimenting you, I am also going to offer very bad compliments.”
Luke laughed, and Elliot felt his muscles relax slightly. He turned his face into Elliot’s, something very natural about the movement as if Luke had been turning to kiss Elliot for far longer than two days. He kissed Elliot, a little clumsily at first but almost immediately turning it into something devastating, all-consuming and all-conquering. As was the Sunborn way. He kissed Elliot as if he really wanted to: as if he wanted nothing else.
Then he said: “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a compliment from you. Like what?”
“Picture this: the should-be tender morning after the night before, and I turn to you and say, ‘Congratulations on being athletic and well-meaning, Luke!’”
Luke laughed. “That would be bad.”
“I honestly wouldn’t mean it badly,” said Elliot, and helped Luke take off Elliot’s shirt. For a moment they were in a tangle of shirt and sheets that was complicated by the addition of wings. Elliot laughed, kissed Luke and tasted his laughter, stopped laughing, and held on.
“What else?” Luke asked, voice scraping in his throat. He bowed his bright head and kissed Elliot’s chest, and Elliot’s heart pounded.
“I am also just going to constantly insult you,” Elliot announced. His lightly stroking fingertips touched the place where golden skin was cut off by leather. He could undo tangled leather ties with one hand, with the incentive of Luke’s breathing, changing rapid and desperate, in his ear.
“Don’t insult me,” breathed Luke.
“Oh,” said Elliot. “I’m going to. There will be the more elaborate insults, but also just the casual everyday insults and insulting nicknames, like . . .”
“Like what?” Luke whispered.
Elliot looked down at Luke, gold and pearl and flesh and blood, storybook strange and known by heart. Luke was looking back at him and really seeing him, and he could see the brilliant blue of Luke’s eyes turning almost black. He felt the strain of Luke’s body, arching up to be as close to him as he could.
“Hey loser,” Elliot murmured, “I want you.”
As a graceful segue back into platonic friendship went, Elliot had to admit it had not gone well.
If he wanted to be brave and tell the truth, as Luke had, maybe he had not wanted it to.
It was difficult to get to know Golden, but Elliot was trying. One advantage was that he was as intelligent as he was good-looking, and he spent a lot of time in the library with Elliot, Myra, and Serene.
“They restricted our books in the finishing school,” Golden confided in a rare moment of openness. “It was very annoying to work out ways to get forbidden books. I did manage.”
Golden wore a reminiscent smile, as if thinking fondly of past lawlessness. Elliot did not know him very well yet, but he liked him a lot.
“Will you miss the library then, my sweet?” Serene asked tenderly. “Will you miss me, too?”
“I suppose I would miss . . . the library,” said Golden. “If I were leaving with the rest of the elven contingent. Except I am not. I explained to Commander Woodsinger that, as your future spouse, I wished to learn more about your military duties, and that moreover since I had run away with the soldiers I could not go back to the elven woods unmarried. Papa would have hysterics. The commander has kindly permitted me to attend certain select classes during your final year. I think I will learn human military history, and how to throw javelins.”
“You’ll like military history,” Elliot approved. “Can’t speak to the javelins.”
Serene sat stunned.
“We are not to be parted?”
Golden sneaked a pleased glance at Serene’s expression, half adoring and half amazed. “No.”
Serene kissed Golden. It was an intense kiss, until Golden drew away with a horrified look at the witnesses to his immodest behavior. He looked toward the librarian, obviously expecting a scolding, but Bright-Eyes-Gladden-the-Hearts-of-Women beamed benevolently down at this display of young love.
Elliot felt deeply wronged.
“Why did you not ask me to come with you to the commander’s office?” Serene asked after a pause.
Golden looked mildly surprised. “For moral support, do you mean? I suppose I could have, but I’m the independent type.”
Elliot smiled to himself, remembering standing in the commander’s office with Serene and Luke years ago. Going to support Serene then had been, he reflected, one of the best decisions of his life. He was ready to support her through anything. Including the crisis of realizing that she might be more emotional and needy than that tender flower, her betrothed.
The door of the library opened, and Luke came in. He was in the library more often these days, which Elliot thought was an excellent life choice. Elliot was about to gesture to the chair beside him, when Luke spoke.
“Just came to say good-bye,” he said awkwardly. “I have to ride out with the elven troops, so the Border guard can give their thanks for the elves’ support in person.”
“Farewell, Luke,” Serene told him. “Good fortune ride with you. My apologies that I cannot accompany you as I would wish.”
“It is ridiculous that I am going, and it’s all your fault,” Luke told Elliot. “Serene and Golden can’t come, because elven society is rocked by their scandalous elopement, and so I have to go, because I’m the only warrior cadet in the Border camp who can speak fluent elvish.”
“Ha ha,” said Elliot. “Enjoy.”
“Right.” Luke hesitated, rapping his knuckles against the table. Elliot turned a page of his book. “Okay. So I’m going.”
“Okay, bye,” said Elliot.
He heard the door swing shut, turned another page of his book, and looked up to find everyone staring at him.
“Boys!” said Myra, at the same time as Golden said: “I fear human men are not given the chance to develop their natural masculine intuition.”
“What?” Elliot demanded.
“Are you stupid?” asked Myra. “Are you going out with Luke or not?”