57. Chapter 57
Chapter 57
We had returned home in darkness and tumbled into exhausted sleep. Benji and Frogmatch were ensconced in a guest room each. Bastion’s home had five bedrooms so there was more than enough space for us all. Which was good, because I’d promised Benji would live with me. Luckily Bastion had been more than happy with that arrangement, for now at least.
When I woke, Bastion was already up and exercising. He’d had his home privately warded by Kass, and on top of that it had a state-of-the-art security system which was being monitored by one of the griffin security companies that Shirdal ran. All that security meant that Bastion could relax here in a way that I hadn’t seen before. He was actually willing to leave my side, which was nice, but I also found I missed his steadying presence .
I showered, runed and dressed for the day. I sat in front of the mirror to say my affirmations, but found that today I didn’t need to say them. I did have a familiar, and I was a strong and successful witch. I did need someone though – more than one someone. I needed Bastion, I needed Oscar and my Mum, and I needed Benji and Frogmatch. And none of that needing made me any the weaker – if anything it made me stronger. What a shame it had taken me forty-two years to realise that friends and family are a strength in life, not a weakness.
I squared my shoulders and re-framed the thought. I was grateful that I’d discovered friends and family were a strength.
Anyway, I had a new affirmation. ‘I am a strong, successful witch. With my friends and family beside me, I am unstoppable. I will change this world for the better.’ I smiled. It was true, and I was working towards it every day. I was going to build this Coven Council up into something I was proud to be a part of, and then I was going to go evil-witch hunting. Between me and Voltaire, we’d weed out those last five. And I’d make damned sure no one else thought that joining the evil Coven was a good idea.
I made my way down to the kitchen where I stopped abruptly. One wall of the kitchen had been made into a huge mug shelf. It hadn’t been there when we’d left for the Home Counties Coven yesterday, but here it was. Neatly painted, it was a whole wall of little individual cubbies for each of my mugs, and Bastion had already unpacked them and set them in their new homes. I gaped at it. It was like a bookshelf, but for mugs.
‘Do you like it?’ Bastion murmured from behind me.
I whirled round and flung myself at him. ‘I love it. Thank you so much!’
He smiled. ‘I want this to be as much your home as mine. If you want to change anything, different décor or furniture, you just have to say.’
I shook my head. ‘Your home is beautiful Bastion. Maybe with time I’ll want to add little things here or there, but it really is lovely just as it is.’
‘I’m glad. This house is special.’ He reached out and patted the walls again. This time, I could have sworn there was almost a shiver running through the house. Bastion hesitated a second, looking at me. ‘Are you hungry?’
My tummy growled, making him laugh. ‘I could eat.’ I shrugged nonchalantly. He pressed a kiss to my hair and released me. He strode to the fridge and pulled out a bowl of overnight oats and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. My eyes filled with tears at the thoughtful gesture. ‘Thank you,’ I managed.
He frowned. ‘I broke the juicer,’ he confessed. ‘I’ll have to ask Oscar which brand he used. Or maybe I just did it wrong.’
I smiled. ‘I didn’t think you knew how to do things wrong.’
‘It’s rare, but it does happen,’ he admitted. He looked serious. ‘I’m not perfect, Amber. I try to be – for you – but I’m not.’
‘I know who you are, Bastion. I know every inch of your heart.’
He smiled. ‘I have something to show you. I thought it could wait, but it turns out it can’t.’
‘What about my oats?’ I protested half-heartedly.
‘Fuck your oats.’
‘That wouldn’t be sanitary.’
He snorted a laugh. ‘Come on witch. I want to amaze you.’
‘You already do,’ I admitted.
He tugged me out of the kitchen towards what I’d thought was a walk-in larder; instead it had a trapdoor under it. He pulled it up, locked it open and led me down some stairs. ‘If this is where you kill me,’ I quipped as I followed him into the darkness, ‘I’ll die happy.’
As we came to the bottom of the staircase, Bastion flicked on a light and my jaw dropped.
We were in a state-of-the-art potions laboratory. It made my secret laboratory back at the Coven tower look like a supplies cupboard. He had thought of everything. There were stainless-steel worktops and wooden worktops and marble worktops. There were cauldrons of every shape, metal and size. There were tripods and lids and a rack full of paintbrushes.
Bastion tugged me forwards to a metal door. He pulled it open to reveal a walk-in fridge full of potions. They had neat little ‘use by’ dates marked on them.
‘Brewed by Eleanora Moonspell,’ he confirmed. ‘I thought that you could set up your own free clinic here, once you get the Coven Council to allow you to give free medical aid legally, of course.’
I was speechless, possibly for the first time in my life. I gaped at him, my mind frozen in wonder at all that he had done for me. I would love to start my clinic again; free access to healthcare was something I was completely passionate about .
‘One last thing,’ he said, as he pulled me forward. ‘I have another book for you.’ He reached behind himself to a bookshelf and pulled out a book. This one was entitled The Witch and the Griffin. Half in a daze I took it, still somewhat in shock. I flicked it open and frowned when I saw that the pages were blank. ‘It’s empty,’ I said in confusion.
I looked up from the book to see that Bastion was down on one knee before me. He was holding out a ring. ‘Bambi, you said not today, but soon. Well, now is soon. I’m not always the best with words, but I love you. I love you with everything that I am and will ever be. I want a future with you. I want to write our own story into these pages. Amber DeLea, will you do me the honour of marrying me?’
I burst into inelegant sobs as I tried to nod, then I pulled him up so that I could bury myself in his arms.
‘Is that a yes?’ his low voice teased.
‘Yes!’ I burst out.
‘Thank God,’ he muttered, sliding the ring onto my finger.
I pulled back to try and examine it, but my eyes were so blurry it took a few attempts. Bastion hadn’t given me a diamond ring; no – he knew me too well for that. Instead, he had given me a ring made of swirling runes: algiz, for protection; fehu , for love and luck – and for a joint familiar; uruz, for strength, and finally the lemniscate, the symbol for infinity.
A happy sob tore from my throat – it was perfect. I pulled him down to my lips, desperate to show him how I felt even though words escaped me. I kissed him with all of the passion in my heart and through our bond I knew that he accepted how much I loved him.
He was everything to me, and I would spend the rest of my life making sure that he knew it.