Chapter 29 #2
He waved. “It doesn’t matter. Niamh says it’ll be fine. Time will tell. Anyway, Patty said I was to join you for dinner tonight. I wanted to check to make sure that was correct? If it is, please let me take off this cape.”
I dissolved into giggles. “Yes, lose the cape. And yes, I guess you should come to dinner. Wear Elliot Graves stuff with a very fancy watch. Also, does Nessa have a watch I can borrow? Mr. Tom only packed that Ivy House pocket watch you guys found in a drawer or whatever.”
He hesitated, scanning my dress. “You look beautiful, by the way, and no, you don’t need Nessa’s. That pocket watch is perfect. I’ll see if Mr. Tom has a sewing kit, and I’ll make it work.”
“No, Sebastian.” I clucked my tongue in frustration. “I’m not going to do this weird mage pocket-watch-Cinderella thing you chose—“
He held up a finger. “Niamh said I needed to wear a cape to help you, and so I wore the cape because she knows about gargoyles, and I do not. We each know our jobs, and we need to trust each other. I know watches. I know which ones will work best when. We can talk about your persona in the mage world, but tonight, you wear that pocket watch.”
I was ready to argue, remembering all the internal arguments I’d had about that mage dinner and him choosing what he thought was right for me. I’d looked ridiculous, and I wanted to choose what I wore instead.
But as I looked at him, I saw the Elliot Graves confidence shimmering in his eyes, along with his assurance that he knew what was best. I felt in my gut that he was right.
We needed to trust each other. There were so many moving parts at this point and each one was important.
We couldn’t all be an expert on everything.
We had to let everyone handle what they were best at.
“Okay.” I deflated. “Just…please don’t make me look as ridiculous as you do in that cape.”
“Salt, meet wound,” he mumbled, and I laughed again. “Give me the dress, please. Mr. Tom has the watch?”
“Yes.” I slipped into a robe and let him take the dress away.
After I’d finished my makeup and hair, I found Sebastian in his full Elliot Graves garb waiting for me on Austin’s and my bed.
“I swear,” Mr. Tom said as he bustled around the room, tiding things that didn’t need to be tidied.
“The shambles that these gargoyles call guest rooms would make a lesser butler faint. Hardly anyone can fit in that excuse for a living room out there, and there isn’t even a kitchenette!
How do they expect me to prepare snacks and breakfast, with a camping stove?
They try to squeeze our betas into the only solitary rooms they provide besides this one suite, force everyone else to share, and somehow question our status and profitability?
” He tsked as he straightened up and faced me, his wings rustling angrily.
“It’s absurd, all of this. You are the Ivy House heir!
They should be begging to join you, not the other way around.
Begging!” He made a disgruntled sound and went back to it. “Preposterous.”
“He’s not wrong,” Ivy House told me. “These gargoyles have things backwards, and you need to show them.”
I needed to do a lot of things.
Sebastian stood with a little grin and held out the dress. “It isn’t perfect, but it should work.”
He’d sewn a little black loop on the red sash at the waist. The watch would then tuck into the sash, secured with black material to make up a pocket. The chain would then dangle down.
Mr. Tom stopped to survey Sebastian’s handiwork, his lips thinning. “It’ll match the guest rooms, at least.”
“I promise.” Sebastian held the dress out to me.
How I presented myself to Evan was important.
He’d be going out on a limb with someone who had no status and trusting that I boosted prosperity and convocation stability.
Only recently, he’d taken over one of the largest cairns, and he was contemplating allying with a start-up, and an odd start-up at that.
Wearing an old pocket watch sewn into an evening gown…really didn’t hit the right note, here.
Sebastian’s eyes were pleading. He could see my hesitation.
“I promise,” he whispered.
Trust. In the end, that’s all we really had.
I nodded and took the dress. He let out a breath and withdrew to give me a moment to dress.
Mr. Tom didn’t say a word as I slipped out of the robe and stepped into the luxurious material. He zipped me up in the back and went back to his task.
“What do you think would sway Evan our way?” I asked him, checking myself over in the mirror.
“You.” He handed me a shawl. “In the end, miss, it is always you who bring people into the fold. You never do it the same way twice, and you are never calculating. You are just unequivocally you, and people realize there is nowhere safer or better than to be by your side.”
I smiled at him, my eyes glistening with unshed tears.
He tsked. “There is no reason to get so emotional. It’ll ruin your makeup, and then all that undeserving cairn leader will see is an old watch haphazardly sewn into—and ruining—a new dress. Let’s keep the distraction to your face, shall we?”
“What’s wrong with my face?” I asked, glancing in the mirror as I trailed after him.
“It’s pretty. Unlike that horrendous watch. Here we go.”
Two couches faced each other across a small coffee table. Austin and Sue sat on one, with Tristan in the other. The men held snifters of something or other. They wore tailored suits, dress shirts, and ties, each as dapper as the next. I would’ve totally fit in if not for the freaking watch.
Sebastian waited by the door, hunched. Despite the clothes, he hadn’t yet donned his other persona. There was so much alpha power in this room, not to mention menacing muscle, it had probably squeezed out all his desire to be noticed.
Austin’s eyes softened as he beheld me. “You look gorgeous.” He noticed the watch but didn’t comment. Neither did the others. I could only assume that was because Sebastian or Mr. Tom had already filled them in.
He finished his drink and stood as I approached. His lips lightly touched mine, and then he paused for me to wipe away the lipstick left behind.
Tristan and Sue stood as well, finishing their drinks and readying to go.
“If their hired help is as shoddy as these horrible guest rooms,” Mr. Tom said, “send for me. I would be happy to take over and show this cairn what is expected of someone with my prestigious job title.”
“Thank you, Mr. Tom. I will,” I lied. There was no way in hell. He’d probably come in a disguise or throw away all the food he didn’t approve of, or some other embarrassing thing.
“He’s laying it on a little thick,” Sue said after we’d left the room and now walked down the hall.
“Actually, his attitude is perfect,” Tristan replied.
“He’s responding to what we’re all seeing.
This cairn can’t hold a candle to any part of our emerging convocation.
Its territory is much smaller. Its wealth is insignificant.
Its productions have no real outlet to make the sort of money Alpha Steele is thinking, and its people don’t have even a fraction of the power.
We are vastly superior in every way. The only thing holding us back is your lack of history—yours personally and the convocation’s.
That and the fact that Alpha Steele often presents as the alpha when they assume you should be the leader of the gargoyles. ”
“So then…all the things that grant the highest status.” I took a deep breath as we emerged into the frosty evening air. My teeth chattered before I wrapped magic around myself to keep out the chill.
“The things that grant the highest status in gargoyle culture at present, yes,” Tristan said.
“But those things aren’t the most important to gargoyles.
They’re just what gargoyles have fallen back to in times of extreme boredom resulting from peace.
And he is only the most dominant when you can’t be troubled to take control.
Which, yes, is often. All they need to see is you handling trouble in the air. ”
Frustration started to rise. “Right but…we’re not here to raid. How are they going to see that?”
“I’ve got it handled,” Sebastian said from behind the others. “Trust me, that’s all sorted, as Niamh would say. Ten times over.”
I twisted around to look at him, but Tristan and Sue were in the way.
“How—“ I cut off as I spied the first Guardian against the wall. Something told me this wasn’t the conversation to have when others might overhear.
Austin threaded his fingers through mine as we walked along the sidewalk. We could’ve driven, but it wasn’t far. Also, Tristan wanted us to be seen by more than just the cairn leader, although he hadn’t said why. Thankfully, the darkness masked the presence of the pocket watch.
Evan’s residence loomed in front of us.
“I wonder how much of the interior he inherited,” I mused. “Did he redecorate like we’re doing, or was that all Withor’s doing?”
“He hasn’t been here long enough to redecorate to that magnitude,” Austin replied. “All the interior matches. He would’ve had to do the entire downstairs, and it’s only been a couple months. You’ve seen from Ivy House what sort of undertaking all that is.”
“So then…” I frowned at the beautiful architecture. “He’s not that different from me, just like Tristan said. Why does he get status just for moving in?”
“It’s for essentially taking over, either by force or by family,” Tristan replied as we drew near. “The gargoyles assume someone had the power to take it over. For family, they have the training. The status passes that way.”
“Ah. I didn’t take anything over, and I don’t have the family or training.” I shrugged. “That makes sense.”
“That’s…not…” Tristan seemed at a loss for words.
But I did make it so Evan could take this cairn over. My maneuvering gave him the in.