Stalking Darkness

fog. I look at the rest of you, see you healing, going on. I want to, but I can’t!”
    “Just like I couldn’t make myself jump that time at Kassarie’s keep?”
    Seregil let out a small, choked laugh. “I guess so.”
    “So let me help you, the way you helped me then,” Alec persisted.
    Seregil wiped his nose on his sodden sleeve. “As I recall, I threw you off the roof into a gorge.”
    “Fine, if that’s what it takes to show you that I’m not about to let you slink away like some old dog going off to die.”
    The guilty look that crossed his friend’s face told Alec his worst fears had been correct. “I’m not letting you go,” he said again, gripping Seregil’s sleeve for emphasis.
    Seregil shook his head miserably. “I can’t stay here.”
    “All right, but you’re not leaving me.”
    “I thought you’d be happy at Watermead.”
    “I love everyone there like my own family, but not—” Alec broke off, feeling his face go warm.
    “But not what?” Seregil turned and brushed a clump of damp hair back from Alec’s face, studying his expression.
    Alec forced himself to meet Seregil’s questioning gaze squarely. “Not as much as I love you.”
    Seregil looked at him for a moment, grey eyes still sad. “I love you, too. More than I’ve loved anyone for a long time. But you’re so young and—” He spread his hands and sighed. “It just didn’t seem right.”
    “I’m not
that
young,” Alec countered wryly, thinking of all they’d been through together. “But I am half ’faie, so I’ve got a lot of years ahead of me. Besides, I’ve only just begun to understand Aurënfaie, I still don’t know one style of snail fork from another, and I can’t jigger a Triple Crow lock. Who else is going to teach me all that?”
    Seregil looked out over the pond again. “ ‘Father, brother, friend, and lover.’ ”
    “What?” A coldness passed over Alec’s heart; Mardus had spoken almost those same words when asking about his relationship to Seregil.
    “Something else the Oracle of Illior said that night I asked about you,” Seregil answered, watching an otter slip into the water. “I kept thinking I had it all sorted out and settled, but I don’t. I’ve been the first three to you and swore that was enough, but if you stay on with me—”
    “I know.”
    Catching Seregil off guard, Alec leaned forward and pressed his lips to Seregil’s with the same mix of awkwardness and determination he’d felt the first time. But when he felt Seregil’s arms slip around him in a welcoming embrace, the confusion that had haunted him through the winter cleared like fog before a changing wind.
Take what the gods send
, Seregil had told him more than once.
    He would, and thankfully.
    Seregil drew back a little, and there was something like wonder in his grey eyes as he touched Alec’s cheek. “Anything we do,
talí
, we do with honor. Before all else, I’m your friend and always will be, even if you take a hundred wives or lovers later on.”
    Alec started to protest but Seregil smiled and pressed a fingeracross his lips. “As long as I have a place in your heart, I’m satisfied.”
    “You always have to have the last word, don’t you?” Alec growled, then kissed him again. The feel of Seregil’s lean body pressing against his own suddenly felt as natural and easy as one stream flowing into another. His last remaining worry was that he had very little idea about how to proceed from here.
    The sound of a horse coming up the trail at a gallop forestalled the issue for the moment.
    “I can guess who that is,” Seregil groaned, standing up.
    Micum burst into the clearing. “So here you are!” he exclaimed, glowering down at Seregil. “By the Flame, the whole house is in an uproar because of you!”
    He pulled a rolled letter from his coat and held it up angrily. “You gave us a scare with this, you idiot. I don’t know whether to kiss you or kick your ass from here to Cirna!”
    For the first time in months, Seregil summoned a cocky, crooked grin. “Don’t strain your leg on my account. Alec’s already done both.”
    Micum took a second look at the two of them and returned the grin knowingly. “Well, it’s about time!”
    Two days later Micum and his family gathered in the courtyard to wish Alec and Seregil a proper farewell.
    “Will you be heading to Mycena from here?” asked Micum as they made a final check of their horses and gear. “I imagine the queen will have some