An Immortal's Song (Dante's Circle #6)(4)

Damn it.

If he and Seth didn’t get Amara alone soon and talk to her, he’d kick his own ass. His days of staying back from her and being afraid of what might not happen had to be over.

Amara’s phone buzzed at that moment, and she looked down at the screen, biting her lip as she did. Tristan wanted to take the phone from her and tell her everything would be okay, that she didn’t have to look so worried, but it wasn’t his place. And frankly, women in this century didn’t appreciate barbarian tendencies. At least, that’s what he’d heard from the others.

He was nine hundred years old and hadn’t been celibate by far, but he’d also only dated fae as he rarely left the realm other than to go to the Conclave. Fae women had their own set of rules when it came to sex and relationships, so he’d learned to live in that fashion.

Now things were different. The realms were becoming more open to other races as news of the lightning-struck women reached their barriers. He didn’t know how to react to a twenty-something human and a thirty-something merman. He was so far out of his depth, he was drowning. Yet he hadn’t done anything about the situation, and it had been months since he’d seen Amara at Faith and Levi’s home following the wizard attack.

If he weren’t careful, his indecision would be his undoing.

Amara stood from her chair then and sighed. “I need to take this. It’s my new boss. Sorry.” With that, she grabbed her bag and scurried toward the exit, leaving the rest of the table frowning after her.

Faith let out a curse and shook her head, her dark cap of hair swaying back and forth. “I hate that new job of hers.”

Tristan sat up straighter in his chair. “New job?” He’d been in the fae realm for the past month, and hadn’t heard that Amara had found new employment. He knew she’d been looking, and had heard that she’d subsequently declined offers of jobs and financial help from her friends.

“She’s working as a personal assistant to an * downtown,” Eliana explained. “Amara applied for the job because the man works in management for a series of hotels, and that’s what her degree is in. Yet her job doesn’t actually have anything to do with what she’s trained for. Instead, she gets him coffee, fetches his dry cleaning, and picks his kids up from soccer practice because, God forbid, he do it himself. And the man’s wife is too busy with all her committees and bullshit circles to deal with her own kids, as well.”

Tristan fisted his hands on the table. “There has to be a better job out there for her.”

“If she’d look for it, I’m sure she’d find it,” Lily supplied, a frown on her face. “Because she took a year off, her resume has that gap. It took her a while to find this new job. Now she’s afraid what will happen if she quits.”

Faith let out another curse, this time louder. “She took a year off to take care of me when I was in that damn coma. She wouldn’t let anyone else help because everyone wanted the wards in a neutral place to protect us. And now look what happened.” Levi held her close and kissed her temple, whispering something in her ear that Tristan couldn’t hear.

Faith had almost died on the battlefield protecting her friends, and Levi had been forced to create a bond between them. The resulting healing period had taken a while—a year for Faith to find her way back to the land of the living. Tristan knew of the events because of Levi, but he hadn’t known of Amara’s full involvement until now. Her self-sacrifice just made him want her more. Yet he also wanted to find her new boss and teach him a lesson or two when it came to messing with a fae’s mate.

“What will it take for her to find something somewhere she’s appreciated?” he asked. Seth nodded at him and gave him a small smile. It seemed the two of them were on the same page about Amara. They might not know the exact next steps, but standing back as they were and breaking their fate wasn’t working.

“What do you care?” Dante asked. He sat back in his chair, one arm over the back of Nadie’s as he absently played with Jace’s long, blond hair. The dragon might look relaxed, but there was nothing safe about a dragon, even in sleep.

“She’s mine,” he stated then looked at Seth, who had a brow raised. “Ours.”

“You have a funny way of showing it,” Eliana put in. “I mean, it’s been how many months since you showed up and joined our group of misfits? Yet all you’ve done is go all broody over Amara from afar.” She nodded at Seth. “And this one’s not much better.”

“We had our reasons,” Seth said, his voice calm. But Tristan heard the undercurrent of anger.

“We’ve all had our reasons for screwing up our matings, and yet, I don’t want Amara hurt,” Faith said. “I’m tired,” she said softly, and Levi held her closer. “I’m tired of all of us going through hell to find our happiness. I fought the bond because I didn’t have a choice when it came to be.” She looked at Levi then kissed his chin. “I was an idiot, but I learned to take life as it is and I found that I love this man.”

Levi grinned, and Tristan felt a sliver of jealousy slide through him. He didn’t want to be jealous. He didn’t want to feel like he couldn’t have what fate had deemed his. He wanted Amara and Seth in his life. He was far too old to be left wanting.

Yet, he was afraid.