Chapter 11 The Holiday Club #2
It was surprise, I told myself. Maybe just unfamiliarity.
He’d never been this close to me in front of other people before.
Well, no one apart from Alaric, that morning in his room.
And at the bonfire, where no one had been able to recognize me.
He certainly hadn’t been this close to me this often, not where others could see us.
He’d never let his magic get this close to mine in public, and he wasn’t even shielding it from from view.
Even at the royals’ bonfire, he’d been a lot more cautious and careful in how he interacted with my magic, at least until both of us were fairly drunk.
I could guess the reasons for the sudden change.
His father being in prison and Bones being widely viewed as a blood traitor who’d chosen to align himself with “the hybrid” likely greatly diminished his urgency in keeping our… whatever we were… a secret.
Really, I could see his point.
Now that the London newspapers printed daily rumors about the two of us sleeping together, and speculation about our relationship had been amplified all over school, the stakes had obviously changed.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, to be honest. While I got why Bones would be indifferent about others’ opinions, and I agreed with him that they weren’t likely to make much difference to our physical wellbeing, I wasn’t ready to go full public with us yet.
Whatever we were, I wasn’t up to explaining it to anyone else.
Bones seemed to think the cat was already out of the bag. That, or he simply no longer cared about hiding any part of his life, now that his father was in prison.
Again, I could see his point.
“Really, you’re stupid to have told me,” Bones added to Luc, a touch more scathingly. “Why in the gods would you trust me or Alec with any of this information? I thought you were supposed to be smart.”
He pulled his arm off the back of the couch long enough to lean down and catch hold of Wraith, who’d been rubbing against his shins, and haul her up by the scruff of her neck.
He deposited her in his lap, and promptly began stroking her fur.
He rubbed her nose and paws, and began massaging the back of her neck.
Within seconds, Wraith looked completely hypnotized.
I was beginning to think my cat was being stolen, between Alaric and Bones.
We’d relocated to Frumpy’s a few hours earlier.
The five of us had left Bones’s tower not long after Luc finished his slide show. He’d given us the bare-bones outline of his project, then suggested we head for the student lounge, order some tea, and talk about next steps.
Since arriving on the second floor of the east wing, we’d taken over the largest of the couches in front of the largest of the fireplaces.
The latter, made of river stones with a heavy wood mantle, was so wide and tall, Bones could have stood inside it without stooping.
Three armchairs half-circled the left side of the hearth, and we all stayed clustered in that same area, even after we’d cast chimaeras and spells to make sure we were alone and wouldn’t be overheard, including by anyone who might wander in.
Bones now took up the far right of the sofa, with me next to him, Luc on the couch next to me, and Alaric on his other side.
Nyx used magic to move one of the overstuffed armchairs closer to us.
As it was now somewhere around five or six o’clock in the afternoon, we’d ordered food more than once.
Dirty dishes were scattered over several small tables and on the rug by the sofa, more than half still decorated with chips, partially-eaten sandwiches, small pies, biscuits, eclairs, fruit cups, crisps, and chocolate.
A tea service on a silver tray sat on one of the long side tables along the wall to our right, next to an equally large silver carafe filled with hot coffee.
Both the teapot and the carafe were kept magically full all the time, one of the things I loved about studying in Frumpy’s. I’d never been in there when hot drinks weren’t constantly available, always hot, always fresh, even at two in the morning.
Like the fireplaces that lit themselves if you walked near enough, and the chairs that would provide blankets and pillows and writing desks with a thought rather than a spell, the endless supply of coffee and tea was just a Frumpy’s staple.
Bones’s eyes never left Luc’s.
“For all you know, I could tell half the royals about your project by the end of tonight,” he continued grumpily.
Bones jerked his jaw in Alaric’s direction.
“Alaric’s practically incapable of shutting up when you get enough alcohol and drugs into him.
I know he’s capable of being quiet about things when it’s important.
But most people don’t know that, so I have no idea why you’d trust him. Just ask your friend Shadow, here.”
I held up my hands. “Oh, for Ra’s sake, leave me out of it,” I protested.
Luc stared between Bones and Alaric warily.
“Blackstone vouched for you,” he said. “Both of you.”
“Which only reinforces my point,” Bones scoffed.
“Why in the gods would you trust Blackstone?” When Luc opened his mouth, Bones cut him off.
“You know he’s worked for my father for longer than…
well, longer than I actually know? I called him ‘Uncle Corvid’ until I was fifteen.
He’d come over and show me dueling tricks after dinner, or give me little talismans he’d make in front of me, sometimes using my own blood.
He taught me to draw ritual circles when I was six years old.
He’d come to the Tower for secret Cathedral meetings in my father’s study, along with Scravenci, Orrin, Mordopast, Calvarias, Ribaldi, and the rest of those pricks.
Only Blackstone would stay for dinner after. ”
I felt myself stiffen.
I recognized some of those names he’d listed off.
One of them had been Alaric’s torturer.
A student with the last name of Mordopast had been at the bonfire party that night.
I’d actually gone on a really horrible date with a student with the last name of Orrin.
And was the Ribaldi Bones referenced related to Marcus Ribaldi, who’d spread those rumors about Miranda all summer and the first half of the school year?
I had to guess he was related, especially since Bones rattled the names off to Luc as if Luc would know exactly who he meant.
Which meant Ribaldi, who’d talked Miranda into dragging me out with him and his creepy friend, Christian Orrin, were both likely the sons of two of the inner circle sorcerers of Dark Cathedral.
It shouldn’t have surprised me, and didn’t, really, but something about it shocked me anyway.
Had Bones known about that? Was he actually friends with Marcus? Or with that rapey wizard, Christian Orrin?
Bones glanced at me, and I saw his jaw tick.
Without changing expression, he looked back at Luc.
“You need to be more fucking careful,” Bones added, his tone a few degrees colder.
“The circle doesn’t get any bigger than this.
Not even by one. Not unless we vote on it unanimously, as a group, and we unanimously decide there’s a damned good reason to bring someone else in.
No more bringing your friends to a study session just because you happen to like them.
No more roping in students you don’t know just because one of your professors suggests it.
Not without talking to all of us. It’s our arses on the line now, too. ”
I blinked a little at that, surprised.
So Bones apparently still cared about keeping some things quiet.
Luc stared at Bones in disbelief, his jaw hard. “I don’t need your permission for shit, Bones,” he said, equally cold. “This is my project. I decide who I want involved.”
“Not anymore––” Bones began angrily.
“You’ve got to understand,” Alaric broke in, holding up a hand from the other side of the couch, and aiming his words gently at Luc.
“Dark Cathedral will view your work as an existential threat. You’re risking your life working on this, Mocking.
Their entire mythology, not to mention their identities, are based on this idea that humans are the reason for the decline in our magic, and that human blood would annihilate our bloodlines––”
“I’m aware of what they think,” Luc said, now sounding even more annoyed. He pushed the glasses he didn’t often wear up his nose with a knuckle. He fingered some of his long, red hair behind one ear. “My family is technically royal, you know.”
I turned at that, startled, and stared at Luc.
“It is?” I asked, unable to hide my surprise.
Luc had confided in me at our Halloween party that he, Alaric, and Bones had all been friends when they were young.
They’d all been housed in the same dormitory in primary school, and had remained fast friends until Luc’s parents got divorced and he got sent to Middle School in Switzerland, where he met Miranda and Draken.
Luc hadn’t mentioned that he was technically one of them.
It shouldn’t have been so surprising, I suppose.
There must be a lot of royals running around who didn’t choose to hang out with the royals clique, given how they behaved. It definitely didn’t surprise me that Luc wouldn’t have any interest in that, even apart from his complete indifference to social climbing in general.
I was a little surprised he hadn’t told me.
“I’ve got relatives who follow The Priest,” Luc went on angrily, giving me a brief glance.
His ears turned red as he leaned his forearms on his thighs and clasped his long-fingered hands together.
“Half of them practically worship your father,” he added to Bones.
“They’d lose their bloody minds if they knew we were sharing a room right now, discussing this, given they likely see you as a traitor deserving of death after the headlines of the past week. ”
Bones grunted.
Alaric gave Bones a subtle warning look, as if to tell him to stay quiet.
“We know you understand,” Alaric said, aiming his words more diplomatically at Luc.
“But you’ve likely not had to deal with them to the degree we have, and you have to admit, it’s not the same.
The point is, Bones isn’t wrong. We all need to be extremely careful who we tell about this.
He’s really trying to protect you, since he and I are seen as traitors already––”
“Not only him,” Bones muttered, darting a glance at me.