Chapter 73
Arina and Thal play cards at the kitchen table. Twino is on his fourth book in two days. Sorza is chatting Ren’s ear off in the kitchen, leaned halfway across the bar to grab samples of the candied nuts recipe he’s currently experimenting with.
“And here you are.” Ren passes me a mug of mulled wine.
“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this.” I bring it to my mouth. Spicy. Hot. Sweet, but also with the sharp tang of liquor. “Perfection. Just like she used to make.”
“Glad I finally got a recipe right when it matters most.” We share a sad smile. He sets out two mugs of wine on a side bar near where Twino sits. They won’t be touched for the rest of the night. The coffins for Jura and Gregor are full, and this is how we mourn. “But—”
A knock on the front door. Gilly lifts his head from where he had it resting on his paws by Twino’s feet. Twino reaches down to scratch him between the ears, and the pup settles down once more.
“Ah, excuse me,” I say, stepping away.
Ren nods, a knowing but still somewhat wary look in his eyes.
I cross through the rooms and open the front door. I am greeted by Kaelis, hood shadowing his face. He doesn’t lower it until the door is shut behind him. I refrain from asking how things were at Ravin’s manor. He couldn’t completely get out of familial obligations.
“Where are they?” he whispers as he sheds his cloak and hangs it by the door.
Underneath he’s wearing shockingly simple clothes—by his standards.
A pair of navy trousers and a loose blue-gray shirt that barely skims his lean frame.
He fumbles with his silver cuff links, even though they’re not the slightest bit out of place.
“Kitchen and balcony,” I answer.
He nods, staring across the foyer and down the hall.
“You look terrified.” I wrap my arm around his.
“I have faced many horrible things…but this, I fear, might be the most terrifying of them all.”
“You know everyone who’s here,” I remind him.
“That was very different,” he says flatly. “There wasn’t much time for socializing as we planned to break you out of Halazar. And it’s not like Arina and I spoke much.” All right, he has a point on that last part, I admit.
Still, I continue to remain positive. “You were here with me when we saw this place, you spent some proper time with Twino and Ren then.”
“You did most of the talking.”
“Must you be determined to catastrophize?”
“Yes.” He grins.
I smack his shoulder lightly. “Stop stalling.”
“If I must.” Kaelis heaves a dramatic sigh that puts a broad smile across my face.
Arm in arm, we walk down the hall. With every step toward the kitchen the air before us seems to grow more dense, slowing our steps like a barrier. Kaelis pauses and I tighten my grip around his arm, sensing a part of him is considering just leaving.
“Gilly will be happy to see you,” I say softly. “If nothing else, you can pet the dog.”
“Oh, he will be.” That seems to genuinely relax Kaelis enough to take the chance.
Still, the second we step into the room, everyone falls silent.
Thal glances up from their playing cards and then tosses them onto the table with a dramatic sigh. “And here I thought I was getting a break from the academy. Now the fucking headmaster is here.”
Arina fights a laugh and loses.
“Tell me what you really think about me, Thal,” Kaelis remarks dryly.
“Oh, you really don’t want me to say.” Though Thal seems keen to do so anyway.
I fight a laugh.
“It’s good to see you again,” Twino says warmly.
“Is it?” Ren mutters under his breath. I give him a wary look. He merely smirks, and I roll my eyes at it.
So all my loved ones are content to tease the man I’ve chosen. This fits, but I hate it. And, secretly, love it.
“Thank you for joining our little end-of-year celebrations. Please, make yourself at home.” Twino gestures around the room.
“At least you can help eat the food. Jura’s recipes by their nature feed far too many people,” Ren says, louder, and a bit more friendly.
“And you have the audacity to say that like it’s a bad thing,” Arina huffs.
“I did no such thing.” Ren seems aghast. “In no world is someone going hungry around my table.” He is effortlessly falling into Jura’s old role. “Now, sit.”
Any tension there was at Kaelis’s presence completely eases as the hours pass. By the time another round of drinks are passed, even Sorza is acting like Kaelis is an old friend, hanging off his shoulder. I’m nearly as amused by this turn of events as he is.
Cards are spread out. Arina gives everyone the customary readings for the year ahead. No one talks about their spreads. I politely refuse, but she lays out the cards for me anyway—face down—so neither of us knows what’s there but no one wonders why she isn’t reading for me.
“May I have one?” Kaelis asks, a bit nervous as he approaches her table.
“My one rule is I read the cards as I see them, Prince. Can you handle that?” Arina’s eyes dart up to him.
“I’d expect nothing less.” He sits and I take a long sip of my wine, anxiously watching how they’ll get along. Kaelis extends a hand. “I don’t think we’ve formally met. But I’ve heard so much about you I feel like I know you well already. I’m Kaelis.”
Arina smiles slightly and a thousand things glimmer behind her eyes at once. Things I can’t read from up at the counter in the kitchen. She takes his hand. Her scarred, tan skin in contrast to the flawless white of his.
“Technically we passed in the halls once two years ago when I was in the academy,” she says.
He shifts, looking somewhat guilty, and Arina laughs.
“I didn’t want you to notice me then. It’s nice to meet you officially, Kaelis.
” No formality before his name, no tension in it.
She releases his hand and shuffles her deck once more.
“Now, let’s see what the cards have to say about you. ”
Out of respect for her reading, I turn away.
After that, Kaelis lands himself in an intense debate with Twino over some latest book published on arcane theory. Then he makes his way back to the table, but this time he sits next to me as I’ve taken up a perch beside my sister. He’s looking far more comfortable than he was when he entered.
When I pass him a mug of Jura’s mulled wine, I’m surprised he doesn’t fall out of his chair. The man is practically drunk on its aroma.
“It really is the most splendid thing,” he murmurs into the wine after his first sip.
“Told you so.” I nudge him under the table.
“I’ll take that as high praise coming from you.” Ren preens a bit and continues to stir the pot.
As we eat, the knots in Kaelis’s back that had pulled his shoulders to his ears when he first arrived continue to untie. He’s more engaged when another round of card games is started. He laughs and talks freely, smiling in a way I’ve only ever seen him do with me, and the sight warms my heart.
The longest night of the year is at its apex, the moon in its splendor.
Fire crackles warmly in the hearth, and everyone nestles back into separate spots.
Sorza is now on the balcony, admiring the stars.
Kaelis and I still sit at the table. Ren and Twino have cuddled up next to the fire.
Thal and Arina are opposite, and I do not miss how close they’re sitting.
Tension cords along my spine, trying to pull it taut. I force my shoulders to stay at ease.
It’s natural something might have developed, after all they did for her…Thal has been at her side for months, bringing her back from the edge. And they’re wonderful, inside and out, as bright and brilliant as the card they embody.
Kaelis leans forward on the table, the faintest hint of a rosy flush on his cheeks from a little too much wine, his movements far more relaxed.
He catches my eye and gives a knowing smile.
I narrow my eyes slightly in reply. Kaelis only grins more widely and slowly stands.
Without a word or so much as a glance back, we slip out into the hall.
“I’ve never seen that protective big sister side come out,” he murmurs as he leads me up the stairs by the hand to one of the guest rooms Twino and Ren made for us to stay in.
For one night, it feels as if the crew is back—different, but back as it should be.
I know it’s an illusion, but it’s one that makes my heart warm.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” With my other hand, I’m gripping the railing to keep myself from swaying too much. Jura always used an orange liquor to enrich her mulled wine, and it is delightful and dangerously strong…Ren continued the tradition.
“It’s not so bad if she were to fall for them; they’re a good one,” he says.
Somehow, Kaelis’s reassurances do make a difference.
Still…“I know. But I’m afraid that the feelings she has—whatever they may be—are only because they were the one to bring her back from the brink.
That they’re inflated for that reason. I don’t want either of them to get hurt. ” My stomach knots with that fear.
“Maybe it is real, maybe it’s not. It’s up to them to find out.” Kaelis glances over his shoulder, and I can almost hear him whispering, Like us.
Is this love destiny? Or our desire?
Does it even matter?
No…Not when he brings me out onto an upper terrace—secluded from the rest—that looks out upon the river and sky. That feels as though he handcrafted this place, this moment, just for us.
The night air is a brisk embrace as I step toward the railing and rest my elbows upon it. I breathe in the night and stars as Kaelis comes to stand next to me. For a moment, we’re the only ones here. The only ones in the whole world.
“I told you they’d accept you.”
He hums uncertainly. “Ren is clearly still unsure.”