Chapter Nineteen
CHAPTER
Nineteen
When they arrived back at the apothecary, Thea slid from the back of Eclipse and walked in first, still humming with happiness, expecting to see Zofka pacing, keeping up the pretence that she was concerned about Thea’s whereabouts.
She did not expect to see Malek standing behind her counter, flipping through her Compendium of Magic.
‘Malek?’ she gasped, hearing Jasper enter behind her.
Malek snapped the Compendium shut and strode over. ‘Are you all right?’ He gave her a once-over. ‘You appear . . . out of sorts.’
A kind way to allude to her bedraggled state.
‘I’m fine,’ she said, subtly removing the violet from her hair and slipping it into her pocket.
Guilt surged up her throat, unsettling her stomach.
It had been the most peculiar day and she didn’t know how to process it all.
She was desperate to curl up in bed with Cinnamon, a book, and a big bowl of something comforting.
The apothecary seemed to agree; she was sure she could smell butternut squash soup, the kind that Zofka made; roasted and caramelised with lots of garlic and cream and a kick of spice.
‘She’s fine,’ Jasper echoed.
Malek ignored him, placing a hand on Thea’s shoulder as he peered down at her, full of concern. ‘Did something happen?’
Jasper muttered under his breath. Thea chose to ignore it, smiling at Malek. ‘We fell into a lake when gathering ingredients, that’s all. I’m just tired and cold.’ A shiver followed, with uncanny timing.
‘What can I do to help?’ Malek asked, tucking a runaway strand of Thea’s hair behind her ear.
‘Honestly, I’m fi—’
‘That won’t be necessary.’ Jasper stepped forward, taking Thea’s arm. ‘I promised I would escort her home, and I mean to stand by my word. Good day, Pan Jaromir.’
He marched Thea into the backroom and upstairs.
‘Was that necessary?’ she hissed at him.
‘He’s going to think—’ Her cheeks heated, imagining all the things that Malek might possibly think, in full vivid colour.
The worst of it was that he would be right while Malek had been nothing but kind and considerate towards her. What had she done?
Jasper glanced down at her with interest. ‘Yes?’
‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ Thea said instead. She was still conflicted when they reached her door at the top of the stairs. Before she could bid him farewell, Jasper opened it.
‘Ah, you found her!’ Zofka’s gasp of delight was too loud and Thea cringed, hoping Jasper wouldn’t pick up on how contrived it sounded. ‘I was so worried.’ Zofka stood, shaking crumbs from her skirts with one hand and folding the leaf of Thea’s book she’d been reading with the other.
Thea cast a sad little look at the bookmark lying beside it, forgotten.
Jasper regarded Zofka, perplexed. ‘Indeed.’
Zofka straightened under his look with a gleam of intrigue. ‘Why are you both bedraggled?’
‘We took a swim in a cursed lake.’ Thea’s mood was eroding, fast. She hadn’t expected to face Malek so soon after she’d .
. . dallied with Jasper, and now Jasper was acting as if he was her personal protector, and gods knew what Malek thought.
Zofka widened her eyes a touch, filled with silent question.
There was an apology floating in there, but grudges were little ghouls: if you held them close, they would haunt only you.
Besides, thanks to Zofka’s misguided attempts at engineering another kiss between Thea and Jasper, that thing hiding at the bottom of the lake hadn’t gobbled her alive, and she’d come out of the encounter with the exact ingredient she needed to complete Malek’s key.
When Thea gave her an imperceptible nod back, Zofka looked relieved.
It was chased with burning curiosity. ‘I’ll explain everything soon,’ Thea said in a hurry, before Jasper read the truth from Zofka’s expression.
‘But I need to . . .’ She gestured at her tangled hair and ripped dress.
Cinnamon hopped over, patting a hanging hem with a curious paw.
‘I’ll go and check on Gretel, then. She was meant to be keeping an eye on my stew but that woman’s got the memory of an earthworm,’ Zofka said fondly.
‘I’ve left a pot of soup in your stove,’ she added, making herself scarce, though not before giving Thea a suggestive wink that thankfully Jasper did not see.
‘Well, thank you for bringing me home,’ Thea told Jasper, taking her cloak off and blushing furiously.
‘You need a bath.’
‘Excuse me?’
Jasper had the sense of decorum to look appalled. ‘I meant before you catch a chill. That water was freezing, and you sustained a great shock. And then we—’
Thea’s blush deepened.
‘Stayed too long outside,’ Jasper finished decorously. ‘It was most ungallant of me. I felt you shivering behind me on the ride back.’
‘You were never ungallant,’ Thea said softly. ‘But I can assure you I know how to take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for at least seven years now, perhaps more.’
Would the loss of her past ever stop stinging? How could Jasper know her history, when she did not? Her voice sharpened with the unfairness of it, her words biting at him as if she could make him feel the same pain.
‘The moment you take your leave, I shall get changed.’
Unless he was inclined to stay, a little voice whispered. One of her more unbidden thoughts. She swallowed hard.
Jasper’s look was rife with something left unspoken. ‘Very well. Then I shall fill your bath for you – you ought to warm up quickly before you take ill.’
‘That’s not necessary.’
Thea’s protest slipped off Jasper’s back as he took her pail and walked out of the door. Several journeys to the Quarter’s crooked well later, Jasper had filled Thea’s copper tub. Then, taking the large, flat stones left warming in her fireplace, he slid them into the water with a hiss.
‘It would have been quicker if you’d asked a weather-witch,’ Thea pointed out, hovering in the kitchen.
Jasper blanched. ‘Weather-witches are a flighty sort. I can’t get close enough to one to ask.’
Thea slid him a considering look. ‘Perhaps if you came to one of our Quarter meetings, they’d stop fearing you as much. You don’t help matters by stalking around after dark and scowling at everyone.’
‘No,’ he scowled, filling her bathtub with a bottle of scented oil.
‘You’re impossible.’ Thea’s teeth chattered harder as steam rose from the tub. Then, because she was hungry and tired and unable to control her raging thoughts, she asked, ‘Why haven’t you kissed me again?’
Jasper froze. It would have amused Thea had she not been mortified.
‘Do you want me to kiss you again?’
He looked like a winter storm, like thunder rolling across the sky at night. He looked like every bad idea Thea had ever had, and still she couldn’t stop dwelling on their kiss. On how she had come undone at his touch and how he had looked at her as if she was the sun.
‘Perhaps,’ she admitted.
Jasper crossed the small space of Thea’s home, stepping between stacks of books, plates of forgotten biscuits and Cinnamon’s paws.
He didn’t stop when he reached Thea, sending her pulse scudding like clouds fleeing a storm.
Lowering his head, he whispered in her ear, ‘Until that answer is yes, and until you deal with that man who insists on courting you, I will not be touching you again. When I next kiss you, I want to know that you have been dreaming of my, and only my, mouth on yours.’ His breath whispered against her earlobe, warm and sweet and irresistible.
‘I will not kiss you again until you beg me to.’
Thea’s head whirled. Malek was sweet, and understanding, and kind: the right choice for her. But Jasper’s words set her aflame.
Jasper searched her eyes, looking for something he couldn’t find. Something she could not give. ‘You smile at everyone,’ he said. ‘Everyone except me. Today was the first time I have been granted a single smile from you.’
‘Fine words from someone who looks like they’ve never smiled a day in their life,’ Thea retorted. ‘I do believe if you actually smiled, it would kill you.’
Jasper laughed. It was full-bodied as a rich red wine, and warmed Thea more than she’d admit.
She’d spent years provoking Jasper, secretly delighting in each frown, each glare, each dark mutter she’d coaxed from him.
It had felt like winning a small prize each time, like, if she had enough of them, it wouldn’t matter that Jasper held her heart and memories.
But that would always matter. So why did she now crave his laugh more than her petty vengeances?
‘Why did you come for me today?’ she asked, trying to harden herself against him once more. To remember where her loyalties lay.
‘The thought of you, wandering through the forest alone.’ Jasper drew in a tortured breath. ‘I could not bear the thought of something happening to you.’
‘I can’t alter my habits simply to make you more comfortable,’ Thea said, clinging onto her resentment, trying to ignore the way he was looking at her.
How she’d felt when he’d sighed into her ear, admitting I have been dreaming of this.
She relented. ‘But I have the final ingredient I needed, and I am grateful you saved me from that thing in the lake. I won’t go near the Crossroads by myself again. ’
Jasper exhaled. ‘Good. The forest is dangerous, Thea. You are not equipped to handle the dangers that stalk those trees. We saw but a shadow of what lurks in those depths today, others are far more awful – things that would see you as prey, that would hunt your scent, stalk you through the streets of Prague after nightfall.’
Cold fingers danced down Thea’s spine. ‘You’re afraid,’ she realised. What prowled through the forest that was terrible enough to strike fear in the heart of someone as powerful as Jasper? ‘What are you not telling me?’
He shook his head. ‘I have said too much already.’ He made for the door, but Thea reached it first and stood in front of it, her arms stretched out.
‘You know something about the Magic Quarter, don’t you?
Do you know something about those fate-weavers I overheard?
Why they are meddling with our Quarter?’
‘I do not.’
‘What about that threat that was nailed to my door?’
‘I am still—’
‘Looking into it,’ Thea finished for him, giving him a suspicious look. ‘Just like the wards. I’m starting to wonder if you’ll ever figure out either.’
Jasper flinched. ‘Believe it or not’ – he ran a hand roughly through his hair – ‘I do not have all the answers. But I am not the only fate-weaver interested in this world. You may have certain . . . opinions about me, but know there are worse out there. Old enemies of mine that, should they come to light, would threaten everything.’
Thea twisted her mouth, unsure what to make of that. ‘Those old enemies of yours,’ she asked carefully, ‘could they be the culprits behind the failing wards?’
Jasper tilted his head back, considering. ‘I am not inclined to believe they are.’
‘But you’re not sure?’ she pressed.
‘Take your bath, Theodora,’ Jasper said. ‘I shall lock up the apothecary tonight.’
She knew when he had closed a conversation; he was every bit as stubborn as she. Dropping her arms, she stepped aside. Just in time, she remembered to call out, ‘Isabella?’
His soft, ‘No,’ echoed up from the stairs.