Chapter 20 The End Of A Vigil
The End Of A Vigil
She caught hold of my wrist, her slight fingers surprisingly strong.
Before I knew it, I was being half-led, half-dragged into one of the very last places I wanted to be inside her monstrous-sized castle, which was her and Malefic’s bedroom.
I couldn’t stop my momentum as I followed after her, though, or think of anything to say that wouldn’t potentially hurt her feelings.
Which was something I definitely didn’t want to do.
“You simply must allow me to provide you a dress,” she insisted, still pulling me by those freakishly strong fingers as we entered her walk-in closet.
The sheer number of fabrics and dresses hanging from the racks made my eyes cross. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t dying to touch a few of them, and to maybe even pull them out so I could get a glimpse of the specific designs.
Like she did sometimes, Varya laughed, like she’d overheard my very quiet, and utterly passing, semi-guilty thought.
In some ways, she really did remind me of her son.
In others, they couldn’t possibly be more different.
“I have all of these that don’t suit my figure anymore,” she fussed, finally releasing my wrist now that she had me where she wanted me. She began looking through the back part of her closet, where a number of gowns hung from wooden hangars.
Her mouth pursed as she surveyed them, almost like she was looking for something specific.
“I shouldn’t be gone too long,” I muttered, feeling deeply awkward. “Should I?”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter, now he’s awake, does it?
” she said absently. “Blackstone assured us both that he’s holding his own magic quite normally again, and regenerating it normally.
He seems to think Caelum’s magic isn’t just on the mend but nearly back to full health…
he was very surprised about it, and checked him over so thoroughly mostly to make sure he wasn’t mistaken. ”
Maybe from something she saw on my face, she hesitated, and smiled tentatively.
“Anyway, dear heart, he told me he wanted a bath. I thought it better if we gave him a little privacy, rather than rush up there right away, now that Blackstone’s gone.”
“He is gone, then?” I asked numbly. “Blackstone?”
She turned to look at me then, and flinched a little.
“Yes. You didn’t see him?”
I shook my head, keeping the bitterness out of my voice with an effort. “No.” I fought to smile. “I’m sure he’s busy.”
She continued to study my eyes for a moment, then gave me a teasing smile.
“Well, I’m sure my son will wish to speak to you,” she said knowingly.
“He would talk of little else while we were up there. In fact, I’m quite sure he would have preferred to have you along for for his bath.
” She smiled at me coyly. “I’m afraid I’m too much of a mother, and a little too old-fashioned not to thwart any designs he may have had in that direction. ”
She winked at me again.
“My son will just have to learn to control himself,” she said, matter of fact. “I won’t have him behaving like an animal, not when he’s finally brought someone of substance into my house. You have no idea how long I have waited for him to grow up in that regard.”
Her teasing look faded, and she smiled at me more warmly.
“Besides. I have my own plans for you this evening, lovely. Just because he’s awake doesn’t mean he gets to monopolize you entirely.”
I had to fight with my facial expression again, that time not to roll my eyes.
Bones knew very well he could speak to me any time he wanted.
I appreciated Mrs. Bones’s attempts to be kind, but I highly doubted he would have said a word to his mother about me, particularly not with Blackstone right there. If anything, he was probably wondering what in the underworld I was doing there at all.
Of course, he’d mentioned me coming home with him for Yule back at Malcroix.
I highly doubted he’d meant that to include two weeks with me wandering alone through his family’s castle-like estate, pillaging the family library in my spare time when I wasn’t taking up space in one of their ridiculously opulent guest rooms.
That whole conversation with Bones, Luc, Nyx, and Alaric felt so long ago now, I couldn’t even decide if Bones had been serious about me coming here at all.
Mrs. Bones (“please call me Varya!”) was still chattering at me, though, in her Russian-accented voice, so I fought to pay attention. She’d turned back to the clothing rack where she now fingered a pale green fabric, her eyes shrewd as she assessed the ruffled lines.
“This color would look absolutely lovely on you, dear, but I don’t think the cut would do your figure justice.
” She hummed absently, fingering through a few more fabrics before settling on a dark burgundy dress that looked shorter, and significantly more form-fitting.
“This would be lovely. However, I’m not sure my son will behave appropriately if you wore it. ”
She smiled slyly at me again.
I tried to smile back.
I honestly knew she meant well, despite her frequent attempts to pry.
I knew she was trying to figure out how I felt about Bones, and probably how he felt about me, and what was going on between us, which she’d been doing in subtle and not-so-subtle ways since Forsooth first brought me here.
Varya definitely seemed intrigued with the idea of her son possibly dating someone, which apparently was a novelty for her.
I told myself it was understandable she’d be curious about me, and curious about our relationship. Maybe it was even a welcome distraction from her son nearly getting himself killed. Even so, I had to bite my tongue to avoid telling her not to get her hopes up.
After all, her son had also left me that night, without so much as a note, or a word about what he intended to do. That hardly boded well for any kind of “relationship” between us, at least not one where he viewed me as anything approaching an equal.
She was still chattering though, so I struggled to follow along.
“…I’m sure he’ll be much more pleasing from your point of view once he’s cleaned himself up a little,” she said, winking at me. “I did make a handsome son, didn’t I?”
I smiled politely, but I didn’t have a good answer for that.
I didn’t have any answer for any of it, really.
Truthfully, I still felt mostly nervous about seeing Bones awake.
All of my fury and frustration with him, and even my desperate questions around what the hell he’d been up to that night, why he’d not told me, why he’d not told anyone, and why in the gods he’d gone alone, had all gotten confused and diluted by trying to manage his magic in the time since.
I still hadn’t seen him with his eyes open.
I’d heard all about the meetings he’d had the night before, the talks with his mother, Forsooth, and Blackstone that took place while I’d been dead asleep, drugged to the gills and apparently drooling on his lap, but I’d only gotten the bare bones of the actual meat of those discussions from Varya.
Our positions had reversed when I woke up the next morning.
I’d left him sleeping in his room, not even knowing he’d been awake, to return to the room Varya had given me for my things, what was, in theory at least, my bedroom while I stayed at the Tower.
I’d been desperate for a shower. While I hadn’t gotten much use out of the gorgeous, canopied bed that came with the room she’d given me, with its mountain of silk pillows and shockingly soft mattress, I’d made a lot of use of the equally decadent bathroom.
I’d also made a fair bit of use of the fireplace and the chairs that sat there, which I generally used for reading in the mornings, while I drank tea and waited for the rest of the house to wake up.
I waited to eat breakfast until later, with Varya, mostly because she seemed hurt and disappointed when I didn’t.
The house servants knew my routine.
One had tea and a newspaper waiting for me in that same area by the fire when I got out of the shower that morning. I’d gotten dressed and read the paper and sipped the amazingly delicious tea, occasionally staring out the window at the gardens.
Once I’d gotten through the paper’s headlines, including about the increasingly violent protests spreading through major cities across Europe, I spent another two hours reading through one of the books on magical maladies I’d brought upstairs.
Through all of it, I still hadn’t known Bones was awake.
Getting my brain to operate reasonably normally had been difficult for me most mornings in the Tower, so I tended to wake up early.
Sometimes, like that morning, it meant waking up before the sun, although I’d never managed to get up so early that the servants hadn’t known and brought me tea, along with whatever most recent newspaper might be available.
Waking up seemed even more difficult that morning, probably due to the sleeping draught Varya convinced me to take.
Despite my early rising, it took hours for me to feel even marginally normal, even after a shower and two cups of black tea.
I woke up feeling wiped out, and tied to Bones in a way that felt nearly physical.
That feeling of connection made it difficult to be away from him for long.
I tried to view that connection as primarily mechanical, a function of his strange magic, not to mention the sheer volume of magic I’d shared with him over those two weeks, but it felt disconcertingly personal.
I could feel it messing with my head.
I worried I might overreact to things stupidly as a result.
I already was overreacting to things.
Luckily, I’d been overreacting quietly so far, but I didn’t really trust myself to remain that way, especially once I had to deal with Bones himself.
When I’d first heard what happened right after he woke up, I definitely had thoughts, and some pretty intense feelings.
I’d managed to keep those to myself while Varya told me everything over breakfast, but I hadn’t reacted calmly, whatever I wanted to pretend.
I still wasn’t reacting calmly.