Chapter 5 Tea And Whiskey #2
Maybe in part to give myself something to do, I leaned forward, and caught hold of the handle of the teapot. I poured myself a cup and added milk from the small pitcher. Picking up the saucer, I leaned back and curled my legs under me, holding the saucer balanced on my thigh.
I tried to think logically about what Alaric had said.
His description reminded me of that horrible night in Southhampton, when Bones killed my aunt to keep her from killing me.
I didn’t have any gold tattoos, but my aunt definitely tried to connect my magic to someone else’s that night.
In my case, that someone had been my long-dead, great-great grandmother, Morticia La Fey.
This was different, obviously, but I didn’t yet understand how it was different.
I took a sip of tea. I’d made it too strong, so I grabbed the honey off the tray and dabbed some into my cup, stirring it in with a small spoon.
“Do you think a tracing spell could be configured to find the other side of the bridge?” I asked, taking another sip. Better. “Heavily hidden, I mean. Behind a lot of chimaeras. And possibly with help, so we didn’t get caught?”
“Help?” Alaric looked at me warily. “Help from whom?”
I shrugged. “I was thinking Bones.” Clearing my throat, I added, “Or possibly Forsooth.”
Silence greeted my words.
When I looked up, Alaric’s mouth was quirked in a nuanced expression that somehow managed to convey humor, irritation, disbelief, and a touch of…
was it approval? I honestly wasn’t sure what that last emotion was, but I definitely got the impression he was pleased.
I also had a very good idea what he was grinning about.
I exhaled, not hiding my own exasperation.
“Yes,” I said flatly. “I’m friends with Bones now.
Sort of. Friendly enough that I would be happy for the three of us to talk about this, and try to figure out how to fix it.
It’s not like he won’t have his own interest in unraveling this kind of connection.
If we can figure it out for you, maybe we can figure it out for him, too. ”
Alaric broke out in a real smile.
“Amun’s cock, that’s a story I need to hear.
Please tell me that’s one of the things you’ve decided to tell me tonight.
” He lifted his glass, giving me an apologetic look.
“And if I haven’t mentioned it yet, I’m glad you cut off that prick’s arm.
For Cal, if nothing else. If ever there was a sick fuck who deserved to lose a major body part, it’s Malefic-bloody-Bones.
He’s owed that a hundredfold and more, from what he did to Cal alone. ”
My jaw clenched, even as a pain rose in my chest. I remembered being in that closet, listening to the things Malefic said to Bones, not to mention what he’d done to him. The rage and feelings of helplessness hadn’t lessened at all.
Looking at Alaric, I frowned, fighting back and forth in my head.
Would Bones want me to tell Alaric about us?
What exactly would I tell Alaric about us?
I decided it was probably safer to leave the more salacious parts out.
“How strong is that bridge?” I asked, motioning towards his chest. “Can they listen to you through it? Your words? My words? Your thoughts?”
“No.” Alaric sounded surprisingly certain.
“No?” I was a lot more doubtful. “Are you sure?”
He gave me a sad smile. “I’ve had a lot of time to look, lovely. Believe me, it’s a question that’s been somewhat of a preoccupation since I got the shiny new tattoos.”
“But wasn’t that only a week ago?” I asked, lips pursed. “They told us at the bonfire it was supposed to be last weekend.”
Alaric was already shaking his head.
“No.” He lowered his glass, letting out a low gasp and a quick cough.
“It’s been four weeks now… nearly five. There was supposed to be a second ritual.
” He pointed at his chest. “I mentioned it was meant to be part of a series? The break-in at the Sanctum and Malefic’s arrest meant the second ritual never happened. ”
He filled his glass a third time, and I had to bite my lip to keep from telling him to slow down. I wished I’d brought Wraith over with me from Valarian.
Wraith had always been good at calming Alaric down.
“Also,” he added, setting the bottle back on the table.
“The Praecuri examined my magic extensively. I’ve been in London at their offices for most of the last four days.
They even brought an Obeah and two Oracles in to look at me.
” He gave me a sideways look. “Maybe you read that my father got arrested, as part of the break-in at Sanctum Occulus?” At my nod, he gestured fluidly.
“Well, what you may not know is, that’s how they found me.
Locked up in the dungeons of my family estate. ”
I felt my heart stop.
He barely paused on those words, as if they didn’t mean anything.
A smirk formed on his lips, but I saw him wince when he saw the look on my face. “I’m sure I looked very sexy hanging there, chained and half-naked. I’m quite sure at least a few of your cousin’s people fell very much in love with me.”
“Gods, Alaric.” My throat closed, and I fought a pricking behind my eyes. Anger tried to rise, a kind of impotent rage I didn’t know what to do with. “Where was your stepmother?”
“Upstairs,” he said, a ghoulish grin on his face as he raised the third glass. “Puttering around in her garden. Inviting friends over for tea. Meeting with the interior decorator she’d hired to design the ‘look’ for this year’s Yule bash.”
He chuckled at the expression that must have come to my face, but something about the way he said all of it, even the way he laughed, made me think he wasn’t joking in the slightest. Thinking about what kind of person could do that, could just go on planning a Christmas party, prattling with their society friends, shopping in London and going to restaurants while their stepson hung from shackles below her feet, I felt sick.
“Is she just a fucking moron?” I asked furiously. “Or––”
He cut me off, his voice a touch more gentle.
“Well, there is that,” he conceded. “I suspect the real reason is she can’t cope. She just chirps around and wears pretty dresses and tells herself the rest of it isn’t happening. She’s never struck me as particularly well-equipped to deal with reality.”
I fought back another string of harsh words.
In the end, I decided Alaric didn’t need to hear that, so I only nodded.
He gauged my face. “If it makes you feel better, they arrested her, too. Strangely, they didn’t believe her when she claimed to have thought I was away at school, and had no idea I was down there.
I suspect a jury won’t be particularly sympathetic to her version of events, either.
Particularly considering the testimony of the staff that they heard screaming from below on more than one occasion. ”
I ground my teeth but only nodded again.
“Where did the Praecuri take you?” I asked. “Besides to the bloody doctor, I hope,” I added, a touch more viciously.
Alaric patted my hand, then left it on my fingers.
“After they’d freed me from my father’s house, and after they took me to hospital to make sure I wasn’t dying imminently, they brought me to their offices in London.
They performed a lot of magic to discern just how connected I was to Dark Cathedral.
The wife of your cousin, Valor, was particularly thorough.
” He gave me another bitter smile. “The tattoo interested them a great deal, as you might well imagine. It was all ‘voluntary,’ of course.”
He shrugged, but his smile turned more cynical.
“But then, no one offered me any alternatives that I remember. I didn’t sleep while I was there, so perhaps I simply didn’t hear them offer to take me somewhere else.
I suspect they found it easier to question me around the clock, as they could take turns and I was a bit less likely to resist when I could barely hold my head up. ”
I bit my lip until I tasted blood.
“My cousin was there?” I asked coldly. “The whole time?”
Alaric shrugged, but didn’t answer me directly.
“I can’t say I blame them.” He gave me another of those apologetic looks, but something about seeing it made me want to scream. “I think they were looking for any witnesses they could find at that point. They were angry, too, Leda.”
I finished off my tea and set the saucer and cup down on the tray. Folding my arms, I settled back in the couch and looked at him, my jaw taut.
“Valor doesn’t know what anger is yet,” I said coldly. “No wonder he’s been avoiding me.”
Alaric exhaled, then leaned over the table, picked up the bottle, and used it to fill up my tea cup.
I stared at it for a beat, then snorted.
Picking up the cup, I downed what he’d poured in a single shot, and set it back down on the saucer.
I’d learned that was the safest way to drink any alcohol Bones had lying around.
Even so, I coughed at the burn in my throat, my eyes watering.
Alaric smiled, picked up the bottle, and filled my teacup again, that time bringing the line nearly to the brim.
I snorted, shaking my head. “Prat,” I told him.
“You knew that about me,” he said serenely.
“Now how about telling me about this bonfire party, Leda? From the beginning, if you please.” He cleared his throat, and his voice grew a touch warning.
“But before that, you’re going to tell me exactly how you and Cal decided to be friends again. Also from the beginning.”
I waited for him to top off his own drink before I let out a resigned sigh.
I leaned over the table and picked up my second whisky-filled teacup, courtesy of Alaric Greythorne, who I’d missed very much. That time, I only gasped a little after I took a healthy swallow. I lowered the cup to my thigh, and met his gaze.
“Okay,” I said.
And I began to talk.