"When you leave I advise exercising caution, William detected someone watching the entrance from the parking lot earlier," Marshall warned

"No clue whose scout it is," William shrugged.

"We will. You two can go to Hell though," Daniel said through his text-to-speech program. 

Daniel's joke cut through the tension of the room and there was laughter of varying degrees of nervousness among the group.

"I certainly hope that's where we end up," William chuckled. "Good luck, folks."

With that, Marshall and William went off to do whatever they had to do to get to Hell. Daniel followed behind them.

"I need to get going as well; gotta talk with the boss. Furcas should be on Earth now, so I shouldn't be long," Leon waved and left the room.

"Imma go get some more sleep so I can be up tonight," Vincent yawned and gave Ashe a loving kiss, then said "Love you, Ashe. Stay safe."

"I will. Love you too, Vincent"

"You two are so cute together," Mark commented.

"Hot too," my eyes went wide as I realized I had said that aloud.

Ashe smirked and Vincent blushed. Mark laughed at my slip up, but nodded in agreement. 

I was glad Mark wasn't upset by my comment. Mark and I had only started dating a couple hours before and I wasn't keen to fuck it up, especially so early in the relationship. 

I had to admit it felt good to be honest with myself about my attraction, even if I hadn’t done it on purpose.

"You know who else is cute? This lovely person here," Mark cooed, then he gave me a peak on the cheek.

A wave of emotions washed over me. It was part embarrassment, part excitement, along with some else I couldn't quite put my finger on, but whatever it was it felt amazing.

"Such a reaction to being called cute!" Mark cooed.

"S-stooop it," I flustered half-heartedly. 

I didn't actually want him to stop his teasing, but my embarrassment from the others seeing me like this dictated my reaction. 

To my disappointment he relented and gave me a side hug instead. I happily melted into the embrace.

Vincent bid farewell and went to his room. That left Mark, Ashe, Ventusa, and me in the room.

Ventusa watched the proceedings with an unreadable expression.

"You got a problem?" Mark dared her to object to him dating me.

"I have several, but who you choose as your mate is not one of them." 

I choked at her use of the word mate. Not that I hadn't considered the thought of Mark and me… mating before, but it still felt wrong to think about me, a man, having sex with another man.

I wasn't sure what my hang-up was, I didn't feel icky about dating Mark, so why did it feel weird to think about having sex with him? I chalked it up to the remains of my repressed sexuality.

"Never mind all that, we've got bigger things to worry about right now," I said.

Ashe and Ventusa were to come help me retrieve The Morrígan’s Grimoire from my father. Unfortunately, since Mark was number one on the Unseelie's most wanted list he was stuck here for now.

"Lucas is right; we should get ready to leave," Ashe agreed.

"Before we leave I would like to know both of your combat capabilities," Ventusa stated. 

"I'm sure you would," Ashe scowled. "Know that I can handle myself fine in fights."

"I have been told you are barely an adult. That is not long to gain much experience in combat." she commented. Her tone was one of concern, but I could hear the venom under the façade. 

"I'm not barely an adult, I'm 26!" Ashe flushed in embarrassment.

Inadvertently, I noted that Ashe was well within my age group if I were ever in a position to date him.

What the hell, brain? I just got into a relationship with Mark, chill the fuck out.

"Is that not considered a rather young adult? No matter, 'fine' will have to suffice. How about you, Lucas?" Ventusa asked, this time the concern was genuine.

Gah, why does she have to be so nice to me? It would be so much easier to hate the bigoted bitch if I didn't know she would literally die to protect me.

"I'm proficient with firearms and can somewhat reliably use magic to taser stuff with my fists," I answered.

"That is not much," she frowned. "What about wind magic? The speed it can offer is invaluable in a battle." 

“I’m pretty sure I’ve done it before. Just not on purpose,” I answered.

“If you agree to it, I would teach you some of the basics before we leave. You would likely be able to gain some use of wind magic within an hour since you have used it before,” she offered.

“Is this some sort of bargain you’re trying to get me to agree to?” I asked cautiously.

I had been warned about entering deals with sidhe before. Ashe had even shown me how easy it was to accidentally enter one by making a similar offer to the one Ventusa made.

“No, this is part of my orders from Glaistig to keep you alive. Teaching you to use wind magic will be of great use to that end.” 

I looked over at Ashe and raised a questioning eyebrow. 

“It's your decision, but I see no reason not to go with it. One hour for a better chance of your survival seems worth it to me,” he concurred.

“It is good to see you are willing to look to those experienced in these matters, even if it is from him.” She emphasized the last word with detest.

I had expected Ventusa to disapprove of me turning to, according to her, 'our mortal enemy’ for advice at all. 

"Do you think it's a good idea to spend more time away from completing our objectives?" Mark asked.

"He makes a good point," Ventusa allowed.

"I'll go see what Marshall thinks before they leave," Mark said.

"We'll head to the gym. I've got to grab a couple things before we go anyway," Ashe informed.

Ashe led the way to the gym. The gym was much in the same state Ashe and I had left it the night before, a large empty area designated for sparring and assorted exercise equipment along one wall.

Ventusa stepped into the fighting ring and beckoned me to stand opposite her. I entered the ring hesitantly, Ashe stood off to one side and watched Ventusa silently.

I was unsure what her plan was and I decided caution was the best option when dealing with this bitch.

"Are you prepared?" Ventusa asked.

"Prepared for what exactly?" I replied cautiously.

"Deflection is the simplest useful wind magic, we shall begin there."

She flicked her wrist and with a whoosh of air a two pound medicine ball from the exercise equipment near one wall flew towards her at great speed. She caught it in one hand and went to throw it at me.

Two pounds may not sound like a lot, but it's plenty enough to break bones when thrown at speed. I had heard baseballs have killed people in rare cases, and compared to that, the inhumanly fast Ventusa might as well have been aiming a cannonball at me.

"Hold the fuck up!" I shouted in a panic.

"What is it?" she frowned. 

"This is a little high risk for my first time!"

“This is more or less how I was taught,” she countered.

“Throwing that thing at me could seriously injure me, aren’t you supposed to be protecting me?”

“Of course I am, Glaistig ordered your safety. I will not aim for anything vital with this. On the worst case scenario you get a bit hurt.”

“If you get hurt and can’t leave the co-op you’d be under much better protection than if you were to leave,” Ashe pointed out.

I looked between the two in disbelief.

“We’ll start with something just a bit lighter,” I demanded.

I looked around the room for something that wouldn’t maim me if I failed to deflect it. My eyes settled on a corkboard with various event flyers pinned to it. I found one for an event that had already passed and crumpled up into a ball, then handed it to Ventusa.

“Have it your way. You’re not doing yourself a favor by coddling yourself. Our enemies will not come at you with paper balls.”

“That may be true, but I'd rather like to make it to that point!” I contended.

"Let us move on to the lesson," she began. "What do you know of channeling magic?"

"You have to turn strong emotions into fuel for magic."

"That is a rather basic way to look at it, focusing on strong emotional memories starts the process, but you can't directly turn emotions into energy."

"You can't?"

"No, I just said it is not possible. Pay attention or your lesson will be less effective," she chided, then continued. 

"Ideally you would have years to learn the exact details of the process, but we don't have years so that will have to do. Using wind magic is far easier to do outside, so you may have to strain to use it here. Now lick your finger."

"Why the hell would that help?"

"So it is easier to feel the scant air flow in the room," she explained. I did as she asked.

"Good, now hold your finger up and close your eyes."

"You going to try something when I do?" I asked.

"No. Please, just do it," she sighed. I relented and closed my eyes.

"Now focus on the slight movements of the air around your finger."

I could feel a miniscule breeze on my wet fingertip.

"Good, now open your eyes."

I did and I briefly saw something flying right at my face. The ball of paper lightly bounced off my nose. Ashe lightly chuckled at the projectile hitting me.

"We will have to work on your reaction time," Ventusa commented. She flicked her hand and the paper ball flew back into her hand. "Again."

It took several more attempts, but I eventually was able to reliably deflect the wadded up paper and I reluctantly agreed to do a few tries with a dodgeball we found. 

The first dozen throws slammed into me rather painfully.  It was grueling work, but eventually I was able to deflect about half the throws. 

“That’s an hour, we should probably get going,” Ashe asserted. "I need to go grab a few things before we go," and with a pointed look at Ventusa he added, "I'll be back extremely soon."

Ventusa rolled her eyes at his comment and he went to collect his things. As soon as he was out of earshot Ventusa spoke.

"The whelp doth protest too much, I think. You and I are both of Spring and serve the same master. I know not what he intends to prevent me from doing."

"Glaistig may be part of Spring, but even if I'm her child, I sure as hell don't serve a master," I snapped.

Ventusa stared at me, taken aback by my assertion.

"Child… I know you were raised as a human, so I will forewarn you. Refusing the duty to serve your Court is considered blasphemous and there are those who would slay you on the spot for saying such things."

"Oh... well, I can't lie about it, now can I?" My indignation was slightly deflated by her warning.

"Indeed, but I implore you to stay your tongue on such topics in the future. Despite what your... friend might think, I wish only for your protection."

I wasn't particularly convinced of that fact, even if she technically couldn't lie. I made a noncommittal shrug and we waited for Ashe to return.

As promised he was back within about two minutes. When he re-entered the gym he carried my dad's authentic Red 9, it's bulky wooden holster, and the ammo I had brought with me to Mark's apartment yesterday morning.

Besides the gun, he now had a rapier on his belt along with a metal buckler strapped to his wrist, and two pairs of thick work gloves, he handed me one pair.

"Wear those, they'll help protect you from iron when we're out and about." 

They were nearly a perfect fit and were oddly flexible for how heavy-duty they were.

It occurred to me that since iron hurts the sidhe, myself included in this case, that none of my two companion's equipment could be steel since steel is an alloy of iron and carbon.

"What metal do the sidhe use if we can't use steel?"

"It is primarily made of a metal humans call titanium," Ventusa said uninterestedly.

"Huh, I was kinda expecting something a little more mystical to be honest."

"The specific alloy is called grey adamant if that makes it sounds more magical to you," Ashe smirked.

"Yes, it does, thank you very much," I replied with false indignation. I was tempted to stick my tongue out at him, but thought better of it, because of what happened last time someone did that.

"I'm going to skip on the holster," I lifted my left arm that was still in the sling from the fight with the troll yesterday. 

As trite as it sounded, yesterday morning really seemed like a lifetime ago, but I guess that's the thing about having your life flipped, turned upside down in such a dramatic fashion.

The wound stung when I moved my arm, but it felt a lot better than it had just last night, oddly so. I wondered if my sidhe blood was helping me heal faster than I used to.

I slipped the gun into the sling. Luckily for me the sling was large enough to hold and dumped the clips into my pocket.

"I would have liked for you to have some actual armor, but Cynthia hasn't had the time to work with you on it," Ashe grimaced.

"Tis unfortunate, but it can't be helped," Ventusa agreed. 

Ashe led us to the entryway to the complex. Ventusa opened up a trapdoor that served as the front door and we were greeted by the sound of a downpour going on outside.

She peeked out over the trapdoor and peered around for a moment, then took a cautious few steps up the ramp into the store above.

"They're still out here," Ventusa said.

"Who?" I asked.

"Scouts," she replied.

"Okay, whose scouts?" I tried not to sound exasperated, but Ventusa wasn't making it easy.

"If I knew, I would have said whose."

Ashe rolled his eyes at her while she was busy peering out.

"It should be safe, just act natural," he assured.

Act natural he says, like being told that does anything besides make people hyper-aware of their movements. 

The three of us went up the ramp into Willowwisp Co-op's mundane front, Marshall’s Used Books.

Ashe closed the hatch behind us, when closed it was flush with the store's floor. On the trapdoor was a wooden layer with carpet on top of that.

He ran one finger along the subtle seam around the hatch and it disappeared as he did, rendering the entrance invisible to any nosy customers. I was unsure how we were supposed to get back in as it had no handle.

Trying to act super casually I took a moment to glance around the store. I'm not sure exactly what else I expected, but it just looked like an ordinary bookstore.

The same books you find anywhere else lined the shelves of the store, there wasn't even an occult section. The only thing that set it apart was a small shelf behind the counter full of various pride flags.

Curiosity sated, I turned to follow the two sidhe to the door. I looked outside and half expected to see people in trench coats milling about or maybe someone hiding up a tree with binoculars, but besides a few vehicles the parking lot was vacant. 

"How are we getting to my place?" I asked.

“Horseback,” Ventusa replied as a majestic bay horse appeared as if from thin air in front of us.