Chapter 57
Caius watched Rory pull a suitcase from under her bed and throw clothes inside like a madwoman. They were packing her things to leave first thing in the morning.
“This place is quaint,” he said, folding her clothes into neat piles.
She threw a shirt at his head. “That’s something rich people say about poor people’s houses.”
“You are a rich person,” he reminded her. “I like it here. If your dad moves back to the city, this can be our Erdikoa home.” A heap of clothes landed on top of his folded piles, and he frowned. “Why do you have so many clothes?”
“Or we can stay at my place in the judgment chambers now that I’m the Scales of Justice.
” She looked around and waved her hand over the piles of clothes.
“I don’t have that many.” She must have forgotten she had an entire closet and dresser full at home.
“Why do you have ten million sets of the same thing?” she shot back, looking pointedly at his shirt.
He moved his eyes from his outfit to her and winked. “I look good in black.” Caius grabbed the bottom of his shirt and untucked it. “I look even better out of it.”
A pair of balled-up socks hit him in the stomach. “We don’t have time for that, but yes, you do.”
“Stop throwing clothes at me,” he warned and placed the neatly folded piles of clothes into her suitcase, arranging them methodically by clothing type. Rory stood still, watching him, and he stopped. “What?”
“What are you doing?” she asked, pointing at the clothes.
He waved a hand over the piles. “I’m helping you pack.”
“You pack like a serial killer,” she replied, folding a pair of pants and throwing them onto a pile.
He stared at the mess she called folded clothes. “Clearly, I do not.” Her stunned silence made him grin widely. “What’s the matter, Miss Raven?”
“Is that still my name?” she asked. Stopping, he looked at her in question. “Raven,” she clarified. “Is that still my last name? Do you even have a last name?”
“You will always be Miss Raven to me.” The suitcase cover fell closed with a thud. “And no, Royals don’t have last names until they relinquish their positions.”
“And then what is it?” she pressed.
His eyes lifted to hers as the corner of his mouth pulled into a smile. “Ours will be Raven.”
Patrick knocked on the bedroom door. “You can come in, Dad,” she called out.
He pushed his way in, looked at Rory’s sloppy pile of clothes, and shook his head. “I have a meeting with Dr. Waddingham in an hour.”
“Dr. Waddingham from your old clinic?” she asked as she plopped on the edge of her bed.
“Yes.” Leaning on the door frame, he sighed. “I quit the library yesterday. I’ll miss the slow pace, but I’m more useful at the clinic.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” she agreed. “You saved Keith’s life in the middle of a shit show. That’s not a talent you want to waste.”
Caius noticed Patrick tapping an envelope against his palm. Rory looked expectantly at her father, and Caius thought he seemed nervous.
Patrick held out the envelope. “Can you give this to your mother?” Rory nodded wordlessly and took the paper gently. “There’s nothing about Erdikoa in it,” he promised Caius. “I want to tell her a few things while she’s clear of mind.”
Rory’s hand tightened on the envelope, and her voice came out a little hoarse. “I’ll give it to her.” She placed the envelope in her suitcase and moved around the bed to peck Caius on the cheek. “I’m going to walk Dad out.”
“I’ll fix this,” he said, referring to Rory’s heap of shoes in the closet. He watched her follow her father down the stairs with a smile, thanking the Seraphim for her safety.
It’d been two days since everything had happened. Caius and Rory had returned to the safe house and slept off and on for close to thirty-six hours.
A word doesn’t exist to explain the bone-deep exhaustion they felt. But even sleep didn’t come easy. Rory often woke up screaming from nightmares of Gedeon’s torture chamber.
Lauren immediately disappeared to Vincula, claiming that she needed to check on the legion and update Lenora and the others. Caius knew that wasn’t the only reason; she needed alone time to deal with the loss of Sam.
They all did.
The hospital released Sera yesterday, and Rory wanted to see her before they went back to Vincula the next day. She insisted on seeing her immediately, but Caius reminded her she was half dead on her feet, and she reluctantly agreed to rest first.
He kept his mind occupied with his wife and her friends, doing what he could to help them after all the trauma his brother caused. It distracted him from his own problems, like confronting his sister and losing his best friend.
Adila was busy putting the Lux Palace back in order, which would take weeks, if not months, as well as finding time to help Rory adjust to her new position while adjusting to her own.
She found him before they left the palace and asked if they could talk, but he wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet.
One thing he told her she could do to earn his forgiveness was to have the Crown’s lab begin research on modifying the Merrow elixir to work on Sibyls.
Adila expressed great interest in the idea and said she would press to have it finished as soon as possible.
It was shameless to use her need for his forgiveness to get the project rolling, but he wanted it finished before Lenora’s release from Vincula in a year.
In truth, he already forgave his sister, but it would take time to repair their relationship.
If the roles were reversed, he wouldn’t have stopped looking for a way to contact her, but Adila wasn’t him. Not everyone would put forth the same energy given to them. It didn’t always mean they loved any less, just differently. He understood that, but it was still a hard truth to accept.
Caius zipped the second suitcase filled with her shoes and rolled both bags into the hall. Rory appeared and reached for one, but he lightly popped the back of her hand.
“I’ll carry these,” he said, lifting them to go around her.
He readied himself for her retort. “I can carry my own suitcase,” she insisted as he carried them downstairs.
“I know you can,” he drawled when he returned. “But I’d rather you use your strength to ride me, not carry your ridiculous amount of clothing up the stairs.”
“There’s only one suitcase of clothes,” she argued.
“Did you forget the four other boxes that are already in the car?” he asked her, relishing in the look of her plump lips as she pouted. “Let’s go, little mate. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner I’ll have you on your back.”
The car pulled into Bruce’s house, and Caius unfolded his long body from the backseat before offering Rory a hand. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans, nervous to see the condition Sera was in.
Dume said Bruce was hysterical when he found Sera chained to the bathroom sink. He hadn’t heard from her in a few days and went to her house to check on her. When he knocked on her front door, he heard her faint yelling and used his spare key to get inside.
Rory couldn’t imagine finding a loved one like that. Eager to see her friend, she knocked on Bruce’s door and waited impatiently for him to answer.
When he opened the door and stepped aside to let them in, he reached out and squeezed Rory’s arm. “She’s been asking about you. Dume told her you’d come.”
Caius’ hand landed on the small of Rory’s back as a show of support she desperately needed.
“She’s in the guest room,” Bruce said, pointing to a door down the hall.
They thanked him and made their way over. When Rory stepped inside, she gasped. Sera looked perfect. No cuts, no swelling, no bruises, no anything. She was talking animatedly with Dume, and when she saw them enter, she jumped up and threw herself into Rory’s arms.
“I’m sorry,” she blubbered, stepping away. “I couldn’t fight him off, and he changed into me. He even sounded like me.” Sera’s voice wobbled. “He took my phone.”
Rory reared back like she’d been slapped. “None of this is your fault. It’s Gedeon’s. Don’t apologize for something you had no control over.” She tugged Sera back into a hug. “You need to get back in bed.”
When they were seated, Rory’s eyes roamed Sera’s body. “I’m glad he didn’t hurt you.”
Sera and Dume glanced at each other, and Rory stiffened. “He didn’t, right?” She motioned to Sera. “I don’t see any injuries.” Another possibility sucked the air from her lungs.
“No,” Sera said sharply, guessing the direction of Rory’s thoughts. “Nothing like that, but I had severe bruising and cuts around my neck, wrists, and ankles. I had a few torn ligaments and a broken wrist from trying to break free.”
Rory tried to look around the house without being obvious.
Potions to heal immediately were extremely expensive.
She’d planned on paying for whatever Sera and Keith needed, but she didn’t know what that was yet.
Her father promised to get her a list for Keith today, and she had planned to take stock of Sera’s injuries during this visit.
Her guilt over not arranging it immediately ate at her, but Caius assured her they were stable and insisted she rest before going anywhere. He was right, but it didn’t make her feel any better.
Dume read her mind and nodded toward Caius. “He made arrangements for the potions.”
Rory flipped around to look at her husband. “You did?”
Reaching out, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’d do anything for them,” he said, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Because they’d do anything for you.”
“Keith?” she asked, and he smiled.
“Yes. We were going to surprise you tonight.”
Dume chuckled. “She would have made the arrangements for his care before the end of the day. We would’ve had to tell her, anyway.”
She shrugged sheepishly.
“How long did Gedeon masquerade as you?” Caius asked Sera.
“Three or four days, I think,” she replied. “My bathroom doesn’t have windows, and I had to guess.”