Chapter Twenty-Four #2
The hubbub had come closer, close enough to almost make out Lord Corombos’s words, which had a pleading tone to them. The hair rose on the back of my neck. The other voice…
“Lock the door if it’s not already, and help me dress,” I said, rolling out of bed and dashing for the bathroom.
I refused to be in bed, with no pants on and a full bladder and fuzzy teeth, when the Lord Chancellor walked in unannounced, as he obviously intended.
Bastard. “Tell them you’ll open the door in a moment when they start rattling the knob. ”
They’d progressed to pounding by the time I sat back down beside Stefan, taking his hand again immediately. The contact grounded me, all the little anxious tendrils of my magic wrapping around the glowing spark deep within him that maintained his life, feeding it my strength, making us one.
“Let them in,” I said, and poor harried Aldrich unlocked the door and swung it wide, stepping back as far as he could and half concealing himself behind it. I didn’t blame him. The Lord Chancellor strode into the room in an aggressive swirl of black robes, beard bristling, eyes blazing.
“What has happened here?” he demanded. “Where are the healers? The physicians? Why wasn’t I summoned at once, last night? Explain yourself!”
My skull gave a new, sharp throb, my head wobbling on my neck, hopefully not visibly.
Fuck this. All at once, I simply didn’t have the energy to care about anything but Stefan.
Not even myself, although luckily I had Aldrich for that.
And certainly not my father-in-law’s blustering and hostility and unearned self-righteousness.
I couldn’t throw him out; not only would he ignore me, but so would Lord Corombos, and besides, his son lay ill. He had the right to see him.
But that didn’t mean I had to humor him.
“Aldrich, show all of these people out, shut the door, and remain outside,” I said. “Lord Ettori, feel free to sit.”
To my amazement, Lord Ettori shut up, waiting until the door had shut behind Aldrich, Lord Corombos, and what looked like the rest of the household all gawking at the spectacle.
But he didn’t sit down. He advanced on the bed, staring down at Stefan with an expression very like my husband’s when he didn’t want to show his emotions.
“Well?” he asked sharply, looking up at me with a glare that would’ve terrified me a few months ago. “I said explain yourself!”
Three months ago, I’d have been not only terrified, but furious and at a loss for words.
But since then…since then I’d been married to Stefan, who believed me when I told him the truth and believed in me when he needed someone to trust. He’d nearly died last night protecting me. Now he couldn’t even protect himself.
But I could. I damn well could. I gripped his hand a little tighter, feeling our pulses beating in unison, knowing that he was mine. I lifted my chin, my magic coursing through me, giving me the strength to straighten my spine and meet that outraged glare of Lord Ettori’s without flinching.
“Listen carefully, my lord, because I’m going to say this once. I’m too tired to repeat myself. We had healers in last night. Now he needs to rest, and that’s all there is to it. I don’t owe you any explanation at all, anyway.”
“The hell you don’t! I am his father, I am the one who makes these decisions for my family—”
“That was only true until you forced me to marry him!” I hadn’t meant it to come out as a shout, and I winced, coughed, and glanced guiltily at the door.
Hopefully only Aldrich had stayed in the hall.
“Now I make the decisions for Stefan when he’s unable to himself,” I said more quietly, into an ominous, ringing silence, the hush before a storm.
“It’s my legal obligation and my moral right. That’s your doing.”
A swollen vein beat in the Lord Chancellor’s forehead. Would I help him if he collapsed with an apoplexy? Maybe. Maybe not. On the other hand, he probably wouldn’t collapse, damn it all, and I still needed to deal with him.
I added, “And before you start throwing a fit or trying to separate us, it’s my magic that’s giving him the strength to keep healing. He needs me.”
Watching Lord Ettori stifle his rage and force himself to calm down was almost fascinating, like a master class for courtiers and politicians. The purple tinge to his skin faded away, and his hands unclenched. He eyed me with a more calculating gleam, gaze hard and assessing.
“Corombos told me the same, that there had been two healing mages here last night,” he said at last. “If I summoned them back and asked them the same questions on pain of death, would they give me the same answers you have?”
My vision washed crimson, my magic rising up like a flame in my chest. “Leave us alone, and Stefan has a good chance of living. Interfere, and he might die. If he dies, I’ll have nothing to lose by lighting you on fire, and I’ve gotten very good at that, although not so good at putting the fires out.
Which isn’t a drawback in that scenario, in my opinion.
” He stared at me. I cleared my throat. “And yes. They’d give you the same answers. ”
“Nothing to lose but your sister’s life,” Lord Ettori ventured, but he sounded…uncertain. Gods, he sounded uncertain. “I have those letters. Stefan persuaded me not to use them, but—”
“Lord Benedict’s aware of your threats,” I said briskly, because if I allowed myself to slow down at all, I might start slurring and forget my next words.
Gods, I was so tired, and my head ached!
And Stefan still hadn’t woken. I longed to lie down and wrap my arms around him and close my eyes, sink into our shared warmth.
Lord Ettori needed to go away. “I have no doubt Duke Lucian is, too. I’ve been assured they don’t execute children.
Burn the letters. Or choke on them. I don’t care. ”
Another silence fell, but this one had a different quality to it, calmer and more contemplative. Lord Ettori gazed down at his son, his expression gone—not soft. I doubted this man had ever been soft. But certainly thoughtful.
“Stefan and Benedict have always been as thick as thieves.” He stroked his hand through his beard, eyes still fixed on Stefan’s face.
“When they were boys, I encouraged it. In fact, I encouraged Treviso to marry Benedict’s mother, to add one more tie between my family and the throne.
Not that Treviso knew my reasoning, of course.
And see how well that’s worked out for me, eh? ”
I stared at him. He had to be joking. He simply had to be. But when he laughed, a dry little chuckle that set my teeth on edge, it sounded more like satisfaction than amusement.
“You know, I love my son,” he said, and glanced back up at me.
“So d—” I cut myself off so quickly that I gasped, wheezed, and doubled over coughing. Oh, gods. Gods. Fuck. What had I almost said? What had I, what…my eyes watered, and I wiped at them with my free hand, but I still clutched Stefan’s with the other like a lifeline.
So do I. The unspoken words rang and rang in my skull like the clang of a bell. So do I, so do I, so do I.
When I looked back up at Lord Ettori, his eyes had narrowed, his eyebrows raised.
“I see,” he said, and then repeated, “I see,” in a knowing way that had me blushing to my eyeballs.
“I chose better for both of you than either of you would have for yourselves,” he went on.
“Admit it. Or don’t. It doesn’t matter to me if you do.
I’ve achieved what I needed to. Stefan’s going to carry on my legacy whether he likes it or not, because I planned it for him before he was born, and my plans tend to work. Mark my words, Remi.”
Oh, he had to be mad. And Ennolu save me, but I didn’t care anymore.
He could plan anything he wanted as long as he went away and left me alone to bury my head under the covers and scream into a pillow.
While keeping a tight grip on Stefan’s hand, of course, because even a moment’s separation from the man I… I…oh, I couldn’t.
“Will you please leave?” I asked bluntly, my head spinning to the rhythm of so do I.
Stefan. Oh gods. “Come back later if you like. Bring Lady Estella. Stefan would want her to come.” I had no idea if he would or not, but she was his mother, and that was that.
He’d left me in charge. “But now, would you, I beg of you, just—leave?”
“Yes, I will, since you seem to have matters in hand,” he said, making me blink in shock.
“You see? We may not like one another, Remi, but I want my son safe and cared for, something you are now going to accomplish for your own reasons. My plans tend to work.” That had the ring of a warning—but not a threat, this time.
Merely information that he hoped I’d be intelligent enough to remember.
“You will let me know if there is anything on this earth that he requires that you are unable to provide for him yourself, of course.”
I bit back an answer to the effect that if I needed anyone blackmailed or murdered, I’d be sure to send for him immediately.
Lord Ettori and I seemed to have reached a truce. It would be best not to push him too far, because I had no illusions about who’d ultimately win an open fight.
“I’ll send a servant to you every couple of hours with an update on Stefan’s condition, and anything I need,” I said instead, and sighed, because I could hear Abbot Junius in the back of my mind, urging me to do the right thing.
“You’re right that I should have sent word to you and Lady Estella last night.
I was too distracted. I didn’t even think of it. ”
“She was taken ill at the news early this morning and rendered unable to accompany me. I will expect you to apologize to her at the earliest opportunity, although I’ll attempt to smooth the way for you.
” He smiled, and it almost, almost reached his dark eyes.
“This time. The next time you displease her, I’ll let you twist. I suggest you don’t let it happen again. She’s less forgiving than I am.”
Oh, and that was a glimpse into their married life that I could’ve gone my own entire life without. A shiver ran down my spine. What did they do to enjoy themselves together? Murder people? Raze small villages to the ground?
I could only nod my understanding, and Lord Ettori nodded in return. He reached down and took Stefan’s other hand in his, giving it the briefest of squeezes before he laid it gently on the bed.
He left without another word to me, although I caught a few sharp ones addressed to poor Aldrich as he walked out.
I fell more than lay down beside Stefan, my head dropping onto his broad shoulder. At that moment, I’d have given anything in the world to have his arms around me, but I had to settle for wrapping mine around him, holding him close.
So do I.
“Wake up, Stefan,” I whispered, because I couldn’t quite say the words that quivered on the tip of my tongue. Once they fell out into the world, they couldn’t be recalled. Or denied. “Please. I need you.”
But he didn’t answer me. And I fell asleep like that, between one hitching breath and the next.