“How did you see that? I would have walked right past it.”
He shrugged, bouncing back to Elijah’s side. “Kian wasn’t wrong. Fairies do have a connection to the forest. And the tree feels smug that it was chosen to hide the trinkets. I was just listening, that’s all.” He gave Elijah a sad smile, patting his shoulder. “I’m listening to you too, you know. And Wash. I don’t think you’re too late.”
“You don’t?” Elijah asked, a flicker of painful hope in his eyes.
Peri shook his head. “Nope. He misses you. He’s got a picture of the two of you in his apartment. It’s one of the few decorations he has. We’ve just got to figure out what’s holding him back. Don’t worry. I’ll help.”
Elijah stopped on the path, his voice choked as he asked, “Why are you so willing to help me? Most people are terrified when they first meet me. It took years for my coworkers to get close to me.”
“You’re Wash’s brother,” Peri pointed out. “And I told you, I’m not afraid of telepaths.” He tapped his temple with a grin. “Open book, remember? What’s to be afraid of?”
When the sprite started making insistent chittering sounds, reminding them they had to keep moving to keep up with Alistair and Zephyr, Peri took Elijah’s hand, tugging him along to get him moving again. “Come on. Our Wash is like a very grumpy puzzle. We’ll figure it out together.”
Twenty-Five
“Can you tell me about your falling out? It must have been bad if you two stopped talking to each other. You looked really close in the picture.”
Elijah grimaced, like the memory bothered him, which only made Peri more curious.
“It was my fault. He was getting into fights trying to protect me. It got so bad that a week couldn’t go by without him coming home bleeding or with new bruises. I don’t like to handle things that way, violence is never the answer, and it upset me seeing him hurt like that. After a particularly bad fight, I asked him to let me handle things by myself from then on. None of my bullies were ever brave enough to touch me, too afraid I’d get into their heads, so it was only words. I could take the comments. I didn’t want to see Hugo getting hurt anymore.”
Peri could understand that. He wouldn’t want to see Wash hurt either. And he doubted Elijah had ever tried climbing on his back like Peri did.
“I thought he’d be happy,” Elijah continued, picking up another trinket, this one a miniature water cooler, hidden under a log that Peri pointed out. “I couldn’t pick up much from Hugo, he’d started working on his mental shields the same week mymagic came in, but the one thing I always picked up from him was anger. He probably resented having to protect me so often. I thought after he no longer had to step in to defend me, he’d stop fighting so much.” Elijah shook his head, toying with the trinket as they kept walking. “He didn’t. He got worse. At that point, he’d made enemies, and they kept causing trouble for him. I was grateful when my parents moved him to another school. He needed a fresh start, even if I missed him terribly.”
Peri’s heart ached for the younger versions of Wash and Elijah. Neither had it easy.
Elijah might not have seen it, but Wash did care. Peri had experienced that kind of treatment from Wash too, but he saw it differently. Maybe Elijah didn’t see it like he did. He hadn’t gotten the story from Wash, but he felt like he knew him well enough to say, “I don’t think he resented you. He cares about you. He shows that by making sure you feel safe. He does the same thing to me.”
Elijah nodded slowly. “Alistair said the same thing. He was overprotective of his brother too and would have willingly gone to war for him. He explained to me that it was a form of love, that Wash only ever wanted to have my back. I guess I was so focused on the anger, I didn’t even consider anything else.”
The sprite popped up again, this time hovering in front of Peri’s face to stop their movements. He guessed they were getting too close to the other group, so he gave the sprite a thumbs up and stopped for a minute. While they did, Elijah rested his back against a tree, still fiddling with the little trinket they’d found.
Stepping closer, Peri leaned over until he could make eye contact with the telepath. He gave Elijah a soft smile, wishing he could hug the stuffing out of the man. He kept that impulse to himself. They didn’t know each other that well, and Peri didn’t want to overstep his boundaries.
“You tried to reconnect recently?” Peri prompted when Elijah went quiet.
Nodding, Elijah said, “I’ve tried asking him to join me for dinner. I want him to properly meet Alistair. I figured he’d be happy to know I was anchored and safe. He always says he’s busy.”
That didn’t surprise Peri in the slightest. Elijah’s story made it sound like he had asked Wash to stop helping him to protect him. Peri got the feeling Wash didn’t see it that way. His protective demon might have taken that demand as a rejection. Elijah inadvertently asked Wash to shove aside a big part of himself, to stop showing Elijah he cared in the way he knew best. He got the feeling there was still more Wash wasn’t telling him, his walls wouldn’t be so high for just one rejection alone, but it did give them a starting point.
“I can help with getting him in the same room, but he’s stubborn. We’ll have to figure out the right thing to say to get him to open up again,” Peri pondered, tapping his chin. “Maybe we can get the four of us on a team next time? That should get him to relax a little.”
Elijah’s eyes ran over Peri’s face, and his responding smile was warm. “I’m glad he found someone like you. Even if we can’t mend bridges like I’d hoped, I want him to be happy. You make him happy.”
Beaming, Peri pulled Elijah’s hand, tugging him back on the path so they could get moving again. “Don’t give up just yet. I got him to call me his boyfriend. I can get him to talk to you, too.”
Before Elijah could reply, they heard a muffled thud and twin groans from not too far ahead of them. Peri and Elijah shared a look, worried, then hustled down the path until they found both Zephyr and Alistair on the ground, grimacing and groaning.
“What happened?” Elijah demanded, kneeling beside his anchor.
“The damn thing is too high,” Zephyr complained, pointing at where a line of trinkets sat on top of a nearby rock face. He was right that it was too high for anyone to reach. You either needed wings to get it, or to climb up the side of it. Or…
“Aren’t you a wind mage?” Peri asked, fluttering his wings so he could reach the trinkets. These were the cutest by far, little laptops with the company logo on the screen. He grabbed two, just to spare the two men more injury. “Couldn’t you have just knocked one down?”
Alistair and Zephyr shared a look, neither of them had thought of that apparently, and an amused grin slid over Elijah’s face.
“Didn’t occur to you?” he asked teasingly.