Liam Takes Manhattan (3 page)

Hugh removed the lid from his coffee and blew on it. “What’s going on?”

“My life is all knotted up,” Liam muttered. “And I don’t know how to untangle it.”

The gargoyle gave a slow, calm nod. “Why don’t you start with one piece and let’s see what happens.”

The cute girl
walked by. Slouching in his seat, Liam watched her until she was out of sight. He said, “I feel so damn guilty.”

“What on earth do you have to feel guilty about?”

The surprised kindness in Hugh’s expression brought unexpected tears springing to his eyes. Shoving his fingers through his overlong hair, he blinked rapidly until they disappeared.

Sometimes things felt so raw that they were almost
impossible to say out loud, no matter how much privacy one had. He forced the words out through gritted teeth. “I feel sick that Constantine is dead, but I feel even sicker about the fact that he was barely cremated before I took advantage of it.”

Hugh’s gray eyes sharpened, and his expression turned very serious. “Liam,” he said with quiet firmness. “There is no way on earth anybody believes
that you took advantage of Con’s death.”

Hunching his shoulders, Liam wrapped his hands around his hot coffee cup and stared down at it. His hands seemed like they belonged to a stranger now, large and powerful. He clenched them into fists.

“As soon as he was cremated, I started pushing my dad to let me fight for the empty sentinel position,” he muttered. “And I didn’t stop until he said yes.
It was all I could think about. It’s almost all I can think about right now too.”

Hugh took a small, thoughtful sip from his coffee before he replied. “The way I heard it told, the sentinels asked Dragos what he was going to do to fill the position. You joined in the conversation. Nothing wrong with that, Liam. And there was nothing wrong with getting your dad to take you seriously enough to
promise to at least give you a chance.”

Every careful word Hugh said stung. But then everything stung these days. Liam rubbed his tired eyes and replied flatly, “You don’t think I can do it, do you?”

He shouldn’t be surprised. Nobody thought he could. Hell, even he wasn’t sure if he could.

Dragos’s seven sentinels were among the most deadly Wyr fighters in the world. They combined strength,
cunning, ruthlessness and experience, and when they went after something, they did it with complete, unswerving dedication.

Liam had one huge asset in his favor—his dragon form. Because of it, he was faster and more powerful than any of the other sentinels, but that didn’t give him the experience he needed to win the empty position in a trial by combat. It didn’t give him investigative skills,
honed by years of work, or tactical battle experience.

He had virtually nothing he could take to the position except for raw magical skills and brute strength. And if there was one thing he would bet on, it was that his father would not pull any punches when it came down to a trial by combat to fill the vacancy.

If anything, Dragos would probably be more ruthless than ever, because he had made
it crystal clear: he would not give Liam the position. He would give Liam almost anything else Liam asked for, but not that. Liam would have to earn it, like every other sentinel had earned their place, or he would be out.

And if he was out, he truly had no idea what he would do with his life. He was too Powerful, too unique. There was no place for him in the Wyr demesne that felt genuine.

Dragos had offered him a starter position in one of his companies, but that felt fake and unsatisfying. He didn’t want to work for his father. As much as he loved him, he was very much aware that Dragos’s age, reputation and Power meant he cast a very long shadow, and Liam didn’t want to live under that. He wanted to fight, to claw his way to his own place in the world, and own it.

Searching his
gaze, Hugh asked, “Do you even want the position? Because you should think long and hard about that. The sentinels live a hard life. Their lives are dangerous, and they’re always on call, always. Getting hurt would be a way of life. Loneliness might well be a way of life too. There’s a reason why none of them have mated until recently. It’s a rare person who can genuinely, wholeheartedly commit
to having a Wyr sentinel as their mate.”

Liam’s gaze went to the fountain. He said, “I think so. I mean, I think I want it. Fighting for the position, and winning it, and facing those daily challenges sounds … satisfying. But how can I know for sure? The possibility didn’t even come up until this week. All I really know for sure is that I want the chance to try for it, even if it seems unlikely
that I’ll get it.” The bitterness crept back into his voice. “Besides, what else am I going to do?”

“First,” Hugh said, “feeling at a loss as to what to do with your life is something every young person goes through, Liam, so take heart. As unique as some of your challenges might be, you’re also going through something verra normal. Second—you can’t become a sentinel just because you don’t know
what else to do with your life.”

He closed his eyes. “I know.”

“You’ve got a lot to think about.”

“Yeah. And somehow I’ve got to find the right kind of training. The training that you and the sentinels have given me has been great, but—it’s not enough. You guys love me. I need the kind of experience where somebody’s not going to give a shit if they knock my teeth in. I need to go through real
life, live with real danger.”

Hugh pursed his lips. “That’s not going to be the easiest thing to come by. You also need space to think, and while you might not want to admit this, Liam, you still need some schooling. You’re so talented and book bright, and you have a lot of facts crammed into that extremely capacious head of yours, but you don’t have real-life application.”

“I know,” he muttered
again. His shoulders slumped. The challenges he faced felt all but insurmountable. “I have no idea how to get any of that. I just . . .” He took a deep breath and forced himself to say what had haunted him all through the sleepless night. “I don’t think I can get any of that at home.”

The older man studied him in long silence. Then he leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table, and said
softly, “I’m going to tell you something that, well, nobody told me
not
to tell you. But at the same time, I dinna think your mom and dad would take too kindly that I
do
tell you, so I would appreciate it if you and I can keep this between ourselves. Can you do that?”

Liam’s attention sharpened. He replied, “Sure. Whatever you say stays between the two of us.”

“Okay.” Hugh rubbed his face with
one large raw-boned hand. “Have you ever heard of Glenhaven?”

Liam frowned, searching his memory, and came up with a vague reference he had heard at some point. “Isn’t that a Scottish college?”

“Yes, it is. More accurately, Glenhaven is
the
college for the Elder Races. It’s not actually in Scotland, but in an Other land, with the crossover passageway located just outside of Edinburgh. While
the college is run by the gargoyle clans, it’s not affiliated with any one demesne or race. When you were very small, yet still clearly showing what a prodigy you were, Dragos and Pia had a brief discussion about whether or not they should send you to Glenhaven.”

He frowned, the vague memory teasing him. Was that where he had heard the name? Had he overheard his mom and dad discussing it? “They
never said anything about it to me.”

“That’s because they quickly ruled it out as an option. At the start of each term, Glenhaven closes the crossover passageway. Nobody gets in or out until the term is over. The school claims that blocking access to the outside allows them to maintain their impartiality and high academic standards. It’s also supposed to create an atmosphere where students develop
their own relationships with each other, with a minimum of influence from outside politics. I think the real truth is that people take their political biases with them into the college, but that’s neither here nor there, I guess.”

As Liam listened, his mind began to race. “If the college is in an Other land, time doesn’t pass there like it does for us. What’s the time slippage like?”

Hugh shrugged.
“I’ve heard time passes faster for the college than it does on Earth, but I don’t know any actual numbers.”

“If time passes faster there, I could possibly get more time to prepare,” Liam said, beginning to feel the first stirrings of excitement. “It would be pushing at the terms of Dad’s promise, but it’s worth considering.”

“I think it is,” Hugh replied, giving him a sidelong smile. “There
are disadvantages too, though. It’s a long way away. If you went to Glenhaven, you would be completely cut off from everything and everyone you’ve known in your life. There’s no phone calls home. No email, no Internet, no microwave popcorn, cars or movies. No changing your mind, at least until the end of a term. For those reasons alone, I don’t think Pia and Dragos did more than discuss it once or
twice and ask me a few questions about it. Also, you might squander a significant portion of your year on something that you find doesn’t meet all your needs the way you had hoped, or help you get ready to face the sentinel trial.”

Absorbing the information, he nodded. Going to Glenhaven would be a risk. But it might be his best shot to figure out what the hell he needed to do with his life.

Liam asked, “Have you been to Glenhaven before?”

The older man shook his head. “No, I haven’t. I’m not from any of the clans that run the college. I have seen drawings and paintings, though, and they look quite beautiful. They have some images posted on their website, if you want to take a look.”

“I do,” he said absently, as his mind raced through possibilities. Then he caught up with what Hugh
had said, and laughed. “They’re based in an Other land, yet they have a website?”

The gargoyle chuckled. “Yeah, it’s not an extensive website like academic institutions here have, with web portals, online databases and class curriculums. But it does offer some general descriptions. Tuition fees are pretty astronomical, or so I’ve heard, but I think they also have scholarship programs for intellectually
and magically gifted individuals. It’s not just the wealthy and privileged of the Elder Races that attend.”

“I need to get to a laptop.” Tossing back the last of his coffee, Liam stood, and Hugh did as well. He paused to give the other man an earnest look. “Thank you. Seriously. I really needed this conversation.”

Hugh’s smile creased his lean cheeks. Hooking an arm around Liam’s neck, Hugh
pulled him into a brief, tight hug. “You’re most welcome, sport. I’m glad it helped. I’m going to get some breakfast. Want to join me?”

He shook his head as he returned Hugh’s hug with enthusiasm. “Can’t. I’ve got too much to do.”

Along with a conversation he needed to have with his parents.

“Call if you need anything else.”

“I will,” Liam promised. “Talk to you later?”

“Any time.”

As they
parted, Hugh strolled back to the Starbucks line. Liam strode toward the nearby bank of elevators. Then he paused. While his dad probably had too much to do in the aftermath of Constantine’s passing, he would bet money that his mother was spending time in the penthouse, keeping watch for his return.

He still wasn’t ready to talk. Not quite yet.

Digging out his phone, he typed out a text.
Hi
Mom. I love you.

Almost immediately, his phone pinged in reply.
I love you too. How are you doing?

Pretty good.
His thumbs moved rapidly across the small screen.
I’ve been getting my head sorted out. I have a few things I need to do, but can we talk at noon?

Of course. Do you need anything?

He smiled.
No. But thank you.

You’re welcome. You know I’d do anything for you, right? Just say the
word.

Yeah. I do know. Talk to you soon.

Once he hit send on the final message, he tucked his phone back into the pocket of his jeans, swiveled and headed out the wide glass doors. The public library would be opening soon. He could use one of their computers to find out more about Glenhaven.

And, just for the hell of it, he might do a little Internet searching on dogs while he was at it.

S
everal hours later,
right at noon, Liam walked into the penthouse to find his mother and father waiting in the living room.

Dragos sat in an armchair nearest the Christmas tree, reading a book on ancient Egyptian treasure, one ankle hooked over his knee and a cup of aromatic coffee on the nearby table. Pia curled up at one end of the couch, flipping through a magazine. The
scene looked peaceful and inviting, and they looked quite calm.

Calm was good. Calm was super good.

Dragos was also present in the middle of a workday, during a highly stressed time, so Liam knew just what a priority his parents had placed on talking to him.

As Liam entered, Dragos laid his book on the table, and Pia straightened to set her magazine aside.