They cleaned up again and this time made it upstairs. Rafe handed him a white shirt—one of the ones Rafe was given each year but rarely wore, or if he did, it quickly filled with holes—to put on with his best pants. Calvin’s best pants weren’t up to visiting the castle, but he had a cat’s muscular thighs while Rafe was rather more delicate.
The color and style of the formal clothes changed a little depending on the fashions. Sometimes there were bold patterns or heavy embroidery, dark colors or bright.
Rafe pulled out several of the more recent coats, but he ran his fingers over an older bright blue one with silver leaves around the edges. Even Calvin knew the bright shade wasn’t in fashion at the moment, but it would look good on Rafe.
“It’s pretty.”
“I got it when I finished my apprenticeship, thus the silver. It’s all lace trims this year.” He handed three coats to Calvin, pulled out the blue one, and slipped it on over his shirt.
In the polished silver mirror, Rafe did up silver buttons and arranged the collar of his shirt so the silver disk was visible. He considered himself for a moment before turning. “And?”
“You look like a princeling.” Calvin forced a smile. He felt like a fool. The shirt was too crisp and unworn; his pants were more of a dark gray than black. He didn’t belong up there and they both knew it.
“It doesn’t look terribly out of fashion?”
“Do you really care?”
Rafe wrinkled his nose in the expression that meant not really but I should. “Let’s get you dressed.”
The most recent coat was far too fitted. But the yellow one from the year before was more forgiving across the shoulders as long as he didn’t do up the buttons.
Rafe fussed with the collar of the shirt, then the coat, until he had them sitting just so. “There.”
Calvin stared at his reflection. He didn’t look as ridiculous as he felt—which was rather like a roast trussed and stuffed and ready for carving. The side of his face was dark with the bruise, but there’d be no hiding that. Nor the matching necklaces.
Rafe put his arm around Calvin’s shoulder so they were both in the silvery surface of the mirror. “Ready to make trouble?”
“Wouldn’t want to be late.”
They walked up the hill toward the castle hand in hand. The people they passed bowed, recognizing royalty when it walked past, and Rafe gave his best royal smile and nod. But it wasn’t the humans or elves Calvin paid attention to—it was the way the other crested cats looked at Rafe and then him before lowering their gaze and bowing. They saw the necklace on Rafe and they knew what that small piece of silver meant. By the next market day, they’d be finding reasons to talk to Calvin.
Calvin glanced at Rafe and smiled. Silver glinted at his princeling’s throat. Maybe this new year would turn out all right after all.
TJ NICHOLS is the author of the Studies in Demonology and Mytho series. Having grown up reading thrillers and fantasy novels, it’s no surprise that mixing danger and magic comes so easily. Writing urban fantasy allows TJ to make sure that evil gets vanquished and the hero gets his man.
With two cats acting as supervisors, TJ has gone from designing roads to building worlds and wouldn’t have it any other way. After traveling all over the world and Australia, TJ now lives in Perth, Western Australia.
Website: tjnichols-author.com
Twitter: @TobyJNichols
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TJNichols.author
Patreon: www.patreon.com/TJNichols
By TJ Nichols
Elf on the Beach
The Legend of Gentleman John
Lucifer’s Litigator
Olivier
Poison Marked
The Vampire’s Dinner
The Wolf’s Résistance
MYTHO
Lust and Other Drugs
Greed and Other Dangers
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Silver and Solstice
© 2019 TJ Nichols
Cover Art
© 2019 Brooke Albrecht
http://brookealbrechtstudio.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
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Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-782-7
Digital eBook published December 2019
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America