Chapter 26
The entire walk back to the manor I was lost in thought and trying to make sense of everything.
Filomena, when I asked, let me know that the delivery boy had just left and that she could use help cleaning ash from the first-floor fireplaces later that day.
I agreed, then headed up to my room and fell into bed.
As I stared at the ceiling in a daze, Bethany’s face came into view, hovering over mine.
“Where have you been?” I asked.
“Spying on a boy who came to the house.”
“You mean that delivery boy? Did you see why he was here?”
“Dropping off a message for the master,” she said, shrugging. “But he wasn’t the slightest bit handsome, and likely he’s as poor as we are, so I wasn’t interested in sticking around.”
“Ever practical,” I mumbled. “Next time, try to see if you can read the message.”
“It was sealed, so I doubt that’s gonna be possible. Anyway, what about you?” she asked, perching on the edge of the bed. “Did you find the ballroom?”
“I did not.”
She leaned over, squinting at me. “What’s going on? You’ve got a funny look on your face. Should I fetch the smelling salts?”
“What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You look like my mother did when Daddy bought her that jacket with the fur collar.”
“What does that even mean?”
“You look dazed and lost, like you can’t comprehend that your cheap husband actually spent money on you and did a thoughtful thing, and it’s all too overwhelming.”
I laughed. “Okay…?”
She tried again. “You look happy but you can’t process it.”
What a strange thing to say. Now I was self-conscious. “I can’t process a lot of things going on in this house, but I don’t think much of it makes me happy.”
Her nose wrinkled. “This doesn’t have anything to do with that demon boy, does it?” Her eyes widened. “Oh God, it does. You like him?”
“Like him? I… w-what?” My cheeks warmed, and that only made me anxious. “I don’t like him. He’s just a friend.”
“He’s a devil. Molly, what’s wrong with you? You’re supposed to have romantic feelings for real princes, not demon princes.”
“Ugh, he’s not a devil! He helps people grieve the dead. How is that devilish?”
“You like him.”
“Do not!”
“Well, he sure likes you. He looks at you very seriously.”
He does? My cheeks were practically on fire now.
“Hush, Bethany. He looks at everything very seriously. And you should too—we’re not in school, for the love of Pete.
” I tried to push her off the bed, and my hand went through air.
This only made her double down on her accusations.
But I didn’t want to hear any of it. “Bethany! Can you please give me a minute alone to rest? Go spy on Hoffmann and see what he’s doing—just don’t let him see you. ”
She groaned loudly. “Fine. But he’s the most boring man alive, so if I fall asleep, it’s not my fault.”
I was relieved to see her go, but it left me alone with my scattered thoughts. There was so much to ponder—the skull-headed coachman, the ghost of Agnes, and a million other things. But thanks to Bethany, all I could think about was the feel of Nin’s body resting upon mine.
He’d only done it to protect us. It hadn’t been a romantic act.
So why couldn’t I stop thinking about it?
His scent. The way his knee slid between mine.
I re-created the entire episode in my head a dozen times before I got so frustrated that I had to walk around my room in circles until I cooled down. Then I dug out the red book from under my mattress and started reading it from the first page.
Sadly, I didn’t get far before the daily grind of the manor took me away.
I helped Filomena clear ash from a dozen fireplaces with a broom and dustpan.
I washed the soot off me and laundered my uniform again.
I took the master’s evening vitals. It was an uneventful visit apart from the fact that his heart rate was quite high, and he seemed…
excitable. But when I questioned why this could be, he didn’t say much.
“I’ve been extremely busy of late. It will be over soon, and…
Ah, well. If you’re finished, I’ll get back to my business. ”
It almost felt as if he were pushing me out of his rooms, uninterested in my advice.
“What about your cough syrup?” I asked.
For the first time since I’d been giving it to him, he hesitated to take it. Then he outright refused. “I don’t need it tonight.”
“But—”
“None tonight, Nurse. Now, if you’d please give me some privacy…”
This made me slightly paranoid. Did he realize that the cough syrup was making him sleep? It wouldn’t take a brain surgeon to realize it, I supposed. But like it or not, the syrup did work to calm his lungs. If he had another coughing episode, he’d reconsider.
For now, though, I’d have to rely on his natural sleep patterns for a chance to see Nin again. Which is what I did. Long after dinner was over, I waited for the master to fall asleep and for Nin to come to my room.
I waited, and waited…
In fact, I waited so long, I realized I’d fallen asleep and it was already morning.
He never came. What did that mean? Surely the master had fallen asleep at some point last night. Was Nin avoiding me? I’d spent so much time indulging in fantasies about him after the carriage incident that I’d started to believe—hope?—that my feelings weren’t one-sided.
But of course they were.
He was avoiding me. That was the only thing that made sense. And realizing this made my stomach churn. I felt sick, and panicky, and wounded. I needed to talk to him, to tell him that I wasn’t some silly girl—he didn’t need to worry. I could be professional. Hadn’t I been?
Hadn’t I…?
He probably had a lover in the Nightlands.
He was a little older than me, and he said he’d moved out of his family home and lived alone.
I’d already pictured him in some dark castle by a windswept beach, but my daydreams had never included a companion.
He was a demigod. He probably had his pick of girls who were far more interesting than me.
The more I thought about this—far too much—the more I realized that I just needed to apologize. For… something. I wasn’t sure what. The most important thing was that I needed to convince him that I was not interested in him in that way.
Yes, that’s what I’d do. Then everything would be fine again.
I spent the next day repeating this like a mantra, avoiding the master as much as I could by helping the servants. I didn’t look for the ballroom. I didn’t do anything. I just waited to see Nin again.
And yet, once again, he didn’t show himself.
I didn’t know whether to be worried or insulted, but those were my only options. Because either he’d been detained—injured, a new trap, something—or he was avoiding me because of the carriage incident.
I couldn’t spend my days twiddling my thumbs, waiting for him and feeling sick to my stomach.
I just couldn’t. Regardless of how I felt about him or he about me, I’d made him a promise that I’d find the ballroom.
I had to try, with or without him. The only leads I had were weak: the story from Agnes Voss’s ghost, and the request that Kesh had made to bring down the aegis border—the hourglass key.
Maybe Kesh had some idea where it was. Despite Nin’s warnings, his brother wasn’t a direct danger to me because he couldn’t get inside.
And by that reasoning, visiting him was a safer option than trying to get back down into the underground food storage to look for Agnes again.
Maybe Kesh had more information about this hourglass he wanted me to find.
Before dinner, the master came downstairs and requested that Hoffmann bring him some paperwork to sign. “And another bottle of that wine.”
Wine? The only wine I’d seen was down in Agnes Voss’s hiding spot, so I felt mildly paranoid for a long moment… until I spied Hoffmann retrieving a dark bottle from inside a locked cabinet in the butler’s pantry. “I didn’t know the master drank wine,” I remarked.
“He just started,” he murmured before calling out for Voss. “Are you still down here, master? I’ll just get a glass for you and meet you in the eastern study.”
Huh. That study was near the back of the house on this floor.
I was surprised they were working down here, but maybe it was a blessing that there was only a view of the garden back there—not the goat pasture.
Would the master be sufficiently distracted with his wine and paperwork, allowing me time to walk out to the border? I didn’t know, but I had to try.
“I’m taking a quick evening stroll before dusk falls,” I told Filomena on the way out the kitchen door.
“Don’t go past the carriage house.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I mumbled, shutting the door behind me.
I set my feet upon the path and speed-walked around the house, toward the goat pasture, and over the hill that ended near the aegis border. It took me almost ten minutes.
Breathless and worn out, I paused to calm myself, scanning the wood beyond the aegis for any signs of movement. Nothing. When my breathing slowed, I dared to take a few steps toward the stone obelisks, feeling bold.
“Hello?” I called. “Kesh? I know who you are, Prince of Murder.”
Movement in the shadows caught my attention. A moment later, a dark figure stepped into view. Kesh. My pulse rocketed at the sight of him dressed like a dapper gentleman, and I took a step back before I realized what I was doing. Silly girl, I scolded. Now he knows you’re afraid of him.
“Good evening, Molly O’Rinn,” he said, doffing his top hat and bowing deeply without taking his eyes off me. The X scar above his eye was shiny and pink in the light of day. “To what do I owe this unique honor, a visitation from my baby brother’s favorite human?”
Favorite? My heart fluttered inside my chest. I did my best to ignore my own emotions.
“Have you found the hourglass key that brings down the aegis?” he asked, eyes scanning me up and down.
“I haven’t. I was hoping you could tell me more about it.”
“I’ve already told you what I know,” he said, holding on to his hat in the crook of one arm while he smoothed down his dark hair.
“It is shaped like an hourglass. It holds a grain of sand dug out from beneath each obelisk. Very old magic. Humans shouldn’t even know about it.
Your master is playing a very unfair game with my brother’s life. ”
Yes, someone was playing games, but it wasn’t me. “Hourglasses all look similar. Describe this one in detail.”
He snorted softly. “So demanding, little nurse. I don’t think I have any details to share with you. How many could there be in the house? Whichever ones you find, bring them to me. I can free Nin right now. Both of you.”
“I’m going to need more information first.”
His head tilted in the same way that Nin’s did when he was curious. “I hope I can oblige. What is that you’d like to know?”
“What’s your beef with the occultist?”
His brow wrinkled.
“Your complaint. Your problem. Why does he fire arrows at you and call you a poacher?”
“Your occultist entered into a bargain with me, and then raised this aegis in an attempt to evade his debt. My family has been warring with this person for several hundred years.”
Aha! “What is the occultist’s true name?”
Kesh squinted at me with an amused look on his face. I knew in that instant that I shouldn’t have asked this question.
“I wish I could tell you, but unlike your master, I honor my debts.”
Dammit!
“Look,” I said, struggling to outwit him. “You have to give me some reason to trust you.”
“We both want the same thing, to be able to freely step over this magic ward.”
“So why you are stalking the aegis border here? Are you actually here, in my world? Or are you in the Nightlands right now?”
That seemed to throw him for a loop, but he quickly recovered. “I’m here, of course.”
“Why?”
“I’m trying to help my brother escape his bonds.”
“Because you’re so close,” I said with sarcasm. “You’d do anything for him.”
One brow crooked upward. “Funny, but it doesn’t sound like you believe that.”
“Because I don’t. I know you’re not close to him like Mercy is.”
His entire body stiffened. “Well, I see that my little brother has been indulging in soppy family gossip. Did he send you out here to question me? Tell him to come out here himself.”
“He didn’t send me.”
Kesh’s eyes narrowed. “How interesting. Then I’ll repeat what I’ve been saying to you. If you no longer want Nin to be trapped, you must oblige me in my request. Other than your master, I’m the only one who knows how to use it.”
“But—”
He settled his top hat upon his head. “I’ll take my leave of you, little nurse. Do not question my motives again. Find the hourglass and bring it to me before it’s too late.”