Chapter 6 #2
“No, that was supposed to be sexy,” he muttered irritably, rolling off me so we were lying side by side.
I dissolved into laughter.
“You’re the worst,” he said belligerently.
I couldn’t even breathe, almost wheezing, the relief that he was here with me nearly overwhelming, all of it draining out of me and then gone. It was over so fast, dissipating, and I was left trembling as he turned onto his side to look at me.
“It’s okay,” he promised, his voice resolute. “Don’t be scared, love. We’ll figure this out. We’re together now.”
He wrapped me in his arms because he was a very smart man and knew that the tears were not far behind. It was too much, and all of it, everything, the buildup of the emotion, the fear, the pain, the hope and horror, and worst of all, waking up without him was more than I could cope with.
“You’re all right,” he soothed me, holding me close. “I’m here, I knew you’d find me, no way you wouldn’t. I never doubted.”
He never doubted. How lucky was I?
“I knew you were alive. I just had to give you time to arrive.”
I was afraid to ask but had to. “How did you know I was alive?”
His hand went to his heart. “I can feel your magic right here, all the time. It would leave if you were gone, so I know.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Just under a month,” he replied, slowly letting me go, his gaze on my face. “I’ve slept with Argos watching over me, and I wake up in the morning and walk around the house with him, making sure all the servants are accounted for.”
“You’re protecting everyone. I heard you saved some women on the fourth floor.”
“I was told what was happening, so of course I took Argos with me and we cleared the rooms, marked their debts as paid, and sent them home with money. I also said they could send their fathers or brothers here to me, and I would explain that they had all been scullery maids, nothing more.”
“Because whoever says anything different, it’s your word against theirs.”
“That’s right, and I’m in charge of the biggest house in Osprey. Who are people going to believe?”
“You did a wonderful thing doing what you do best—protecting people.”
“That’s what I do at home, so that’s what I should do here.”
I nodded.
“But only until you found me. Now the two of us need to untangle what he’s done and go home. I’m so ready to go home.”
“I feel like the answer is right under our nose.”
“Yeah. Me too. Now c’mon, let’s get you in the bath so you won’t be filthy anymore.”
“You’re making fun of—I feel terrible that you’ve been here alone for any time at all.”
“Don’t look so distraught. Everything’s okay now.
The band is back together,” he said, sounding a bit choked up, “and as I said, I wasn’t alone.
” When he turned his head, I did as well, and we both saw Argos still there at the end of the bed.
“He found me in the graveyard, and I had him with me when Giles and his men surrounded me on the road. When he demanded I enter the house, I didn’t fight, but I made sure to carry Argos in with me. ”
“He allowed that?”
“The craziest part is that somehow, he’s forgotten what Argos really is.”
“How?”
“I have no idea, but I’m certainly not going to remind him.”
“I knew you were here because these hunters I met in the woods knew your name.”
“Yeah. I’m the house steward, and because you and I are stewards of Corvus, the title doesn’t bother me. What does concern me is how time moves here.”
“Well, for me, this has been all one evening. We went over to James and Cass’s house earlier tonight. I feel like I’m having some crazy fever dream.”
“You haven’t slept at all?”
“No.”
“That’s concerning.” He rolled off the bed. “After we clean you up, you should try and rest.”
“I doubt I can, not in the middle of all this. Every second this goes on, I feel like we get further away from unraveling it. Which is maybe why he created the slip here, in this time, so that more of it passes.”
“That makes sense, because for you it’s one night, and maybe that’s because you’re a witch and your magic can discern reality. For me, as I’m magic adjacent,” he said with a chuckle, “it feels like so much longer. But for people here, they perceive my time with them as years.”
“I know.”
“That’s madness.” He shook his head.
“And because I heard that, I was worried you might have forgotten me.”
“No, love, I’ll never forget you.”
I nodded quickly, unable to speak.
“We have to figure out how to undo what he’s done to Corvus.”
Silently, both of us thinking, he walked me to his bathroom, where there was the biggest bathtub I’d ever seen.
“Tell me that’s not solid gold.”
“Oh, I think it’s solid gold,” he teased. “My thought is, because of all those years bouncing around, having to move from place to place, never having a home, now that he can, he’s created this monument to indulgence and bad taste.”
“Lots of triggers and unhealed trauma here.”
“Without a doubt,” he said, moving around to plug the tub and turn on the water.
“Hot and cold running water?”
“Only the best for Giles Corey.”
“I hate that he locks you in here.”
“He does it at night, which doesn’t bother me. I have free rein of the house and grounds all day up until after my evening meal.”
“He doesn’t worry about you and Argos cutting out during the day?”
He shrugged. “Where are we gonna go?”
“Then why lock you in at all?”
“To have some semblance of control, I’m sure.”
“And you don’t care?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s only the outer door. For whatever reason—and I do have a theory—he can’t pass the threshold into this room. Neither can Ilara, his companion, which is a constant source of frustration for her.”
“It sounds like she wants you.”
“I think wherever she came from, she was either a princess or was treated like one. She wants this place to function like a court, and she wants me downstairs, kissing her ass, like all the other men and women who live here. The fact that she has no dominion over me, added to the fact that neither she, nor Giles, can get rid of me, makes her crazy.”
“He could kill you, just as he could me.”
His scoff was loud. “He can’t kill either one of us. There’s a residual power in you through your ancestral ties to Corvus that he can’t sever.”
“Everything I ever read says he—”
“No. It says he’s powerful, yes, and that he’s killed others, but not one has reported him ever hurting a member of his family.”
Funny that Lorne knew the archives, the journals, better than I did.
“So yeah, he can’t kill us. That’s not to say he can’t make life unbearable by keeping us apart, but thus far, that doesn’t seem to be working.”
“He can throw one of us through the rift.”
He shot me a look. “That’s dark. But again, no. That could be construed as a death sentence, and your power wouldn’t allow that.”
“You’re talking about my magic as though it’s separate from me.”
“And it is and isn’t. Because as you explained it to me before, there’s universal or passive magic, and then there’s the kind you practice, which is intentional or active. In this case, that active magic will not allow you to be harmed, and so it will work instinctively to shield you.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am. It’s kept me safe here while I awaited rescue.”
“Some rescue.”
“Stop talking yourself down. You’re doing great.”
“As long as you’re with me, I’m counting it as a win.”
“Smooth talker.”
“Knock it off,” I groused. “Because he could do lots of things to hurt us.”
“We’re gonna get this figured out before he lashes out again.”
“He’ll be livid when he finds out I’m here.”
“I’m sure he knows.”
“How?”
His mischievous grin, coupled with the glint in his eyes, made my breath catch.“You made biscuits.”
“How did you know?”
“Because I ate, like, five.”
I laughed.
“What? They’re good. I prefer the sour cream, chive, and ricotta ones, but that’s because I’m spoiled. The fact of the matter is, when I walked by and smelled them, then took a bite, I was happily surprised to be eating my husband’s biscuits again.”
“Why is everything out of your mouth pervy today?”
“Because I’ve been away from you for nearly a month.”
The man annihilated me, and when I reached for him, he took my hand in both of his, turned it over, and kissed my palm.
“Tell me about the clothes this Ilara wanted you to wear.”
“She had her servants deliver them to me, and when I tried to carry them in, I felt a push in my chest. I must have said no to a hundred pieces of clothing before she finally gave up and brought me items purchased in town.”
“Do you have a theory?”
“I do, and it’s a good one,” he assured me.
“I’m aging here.”
His husky laugh then that I loved. “Okay, so I think this room, and only this room, is a part of the cottage. And I know that sounds crazy, but I feel like some piece of it remains, and that sliver knows me and is working really hard to protect me.”
“That doesn’t sound crazy at all,” I said as he let go of my hand and squatted down to check the temperature of the water. “Something similar happened to me in the kitchen earlier.”
“Which means…we’re being cared for because this whole mansion is the cottage.”
“How?”
“It must have something to do with making Corvus, and our home, bigger. By expanding them, by having both take up more space, neither the land nor our home is able to focus intention like normal.”
“But why would he do that? For what purpose?”
“I don’t know. Ostensibly, he wanted to be a wealthy landowner, so he increased the acreage of Corvus, basically making certain that in our time, the neighbors on either side of us will never be there.”
“Which is awful.”
“It is, but also, your ancestors warded not solely Corvus, but those properties on both sides because they were your neighbors, and that was done to protect them.”
“Yes. And he made our sweet cottage a monstrosity because he wanted to live in a gigantic mansion—at least that’s what he would have us, and everyone else, believe.”
“But by altering both, he’s taken the power from both.”
“Not all of it, though,” I pointed out. “You have a safe space, and I willed a talisman into existence for a maid. The cottage is still interfering on our behalf.”
He nodded and then, after a moment, said, “Which maid?”
“What?”
“Which maid did you create a talisman for?”
“Oh, Constance.”
“That’s good, she’s a sweetheart, and I was fairly certain I was going to need to tangle with Giles sooner than later over her.”
“Not anymore. He’ll be repelled by her, but he won’t know why.”
“That’s good work, Xan.”
“I try,” I said with a sharp exhale. “All right, so what now?”
“You’re asking me for the answer?”
“I am.”
He laughed then. “I’ll get back to you.”
The tears were instant.
“Oh, honey, I’m sure we will—”
“I’m not sad that you don’t have a solution right this second. I’m just so happy to have you to talk to again. I missed you terribly.”
“Take off your clothes, Xan, and get in the tub.”
I stripped quickly, so ready to be clean.
“Jesus,” he groaned.
“What? I’m gross now? You don’t want me anymore?”
“I will drown you in the tub if you don’t take it back.”
I was snickering as I got in, but then moaned as the warm water enveloped me.
“God, you’re covered in bruises and scratches….”
“Yes, but at least the werewolf bite will not turn me into one, so nightmare averted.”
“Way to see the silver lining,” he praised me.
“Thank you.”
He shook his head at me, and all I could do was smile back like a simpleton.
I scrubbed, washed my body and hair, rinsed, and repeated.
I missed my shower. I had never been a bath person, not much of a soaker, but Lorne loved them as long as he could shower first. We were of the same mind that baths were no way to actually get clean.
But he’d borrowed a wooden bucket from the kitchen days ago and filled it up and then dumped it over me so I could thoroughly rinse myself.
I returned the favor after he took his bath, dumping water on him a final time even after he’d said he was good.
“What was that?” he asked, raking his fingers through his damp hair.
“You look really good wet, so…let me do what I want.”
He laughed, all flirty and husky, and I got a towel for his hair and took my time drying him off.
“I miss that oil you cover me with after my bath,” he told me, his eyes warm as he stared at me.
“I miss it too, because touching you all over is one of my favorite things in the world,” I whimpered, my eyes filling.
“You’re about to pass out right here,” he murmured, taking my hand and leading me to the bed. “Get under the covers. I’ll be right there.”
“Come now,” I insisted, and heard the frustrated whine in my voice. I was being unreasonable, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“We’ll freeze if I don’t get a fire going. Get in bed.”
Argos leaped back onto the bed then—he’d been walking around a bit—and I saw the nest of smaller blankets Lorne had made for him. It was the semblance of normalcy, whispers of home, Lorne checking the cottage at night before he got under the covers with me.
But everything here was different. In this bed, the mattress was too soft, the sheets were silk, so they stuck to my damp skin, and the room was freezing, not cozy like the cottage, always protecting us, sheltering us. Usually, I could feel the nurturing in the very air.
“Nothing’s the same,” I said under my breath.
But then Lorne climbed into bed and spooned me, and the comfort of his touch, his sleek, warm skin sliding over mine, made everything instantly better.
“I take it back,” I said under my breath. “As long as you’re with me, I’ll be all right.”
“We’re gonna get back. You’ll see.”
I hoped with my whole heart that he was right.