Chapter 29 Old Friends #2
Chances were, whatever Luc had done, it wouldn’t be enough for Bones to consider it safe while we were all out in public.
Bones definitely wouldn’t want them to be in there right now, talking about Leda Shadow and Caelum Bones being in Bonescastle for the New Years’ celebration.
The fact they’d invited two more people to our little gathering, and without asking Bones or me if that was okay, likely only worsened his annoyance.
However paranoid or angry he might be feeling, he continued to follow Nyx towards the Victorian-style gazebo.
When we reached the entrance on the lawn, he took my hand tightly in his, in a way that felt like another message about what we would be doing if he decided it wasn’t safe.
As he did, another burst of intensity rippled off his magic.
Calm down, I told him softly. Bones. Hey. Try to calm down.
He didn’t answer.
I glimpsed Luc, Alaric, Dervish, and a witch I didn’t recognize all sitting on pillows inside the tiered structure.
The four of them leaned easily against the railings, talking and laughing in a casual and familiar way, like they’d all known one another for years.
I saw Alaric pass a flask to the strange witch, right before Luc burst out in a laugh.
Then I felt myself pass through the strange warping of a chimaeric bubble as I followed Bones onto the gazebo floor.
The image abruptly changed.
The same four Magicals were still talking, but now their faces looked a lot more serious, and significantly more tense. They also sat more closely together. The witch still held Alaric’s flask in one hand, but the entire mood of the scene felt completely different.
The witch I didn’t know glanced over when we emerged.
She stood up as soon as she saw Bones.
Despite him not looking like himself, she walked directly up to him and threw her arms around him.
Bones hugged her back, one-armed, without letting go of my hand.
I stepped slightly away from the two of them, and glanced over at Alaric, Luc, Dervish, and Nyx, who’d just joined them.
The first two looked faintly grim, but Dervish grinned widely at me, standing up like the witch he’d obviously come here with and walking over to where I stood.
“Leda, I take it?” he asked humorously, looking over my disguise. “The hair’s a nice touch. So’re the freckles. I wouldn’t’ve known you, if I hadn’t run into this lot first.”
He gave me a hug, kissing me on the cheek.
“Well, someone obviously knew someone,” Bones muttered.
Dervish looked over at him as the witch who’d walked up to hug him stepped back.
I saw Dervish glance surreptitiously down at where Bones held my hand, then exchange brief looks with that same witch, who looked roughly our age.
She stared at Dervish with wide, serious blue eyes on a pale face framed by chestnut-colored hair.
Dervish didn’t say anything to me, but I felt a slight flinch in his magic, with him standing so close. He quickly muted his reaction so that it didn’t show in his aura, but I don’t think I imagined it. When I looked past him, to Alaric and Luc, they didn’t look much calmer than Bones.
“It was Elsbeth,” Luc said, answering Bones’s muttered comment. “She can see past our shields, and she recognized Greythorne. Said there’s something in his magic that’s unmistakeable.” He gave me a faintly worried look.
I looked at Alaric, who was looking at Elsbeth.
“You can see Bones, too, can’t you?” he asked her.
Elsbeth looked at Bones, squinting a little.
“Not exactly,” she said after a pause. “I mean, yes. I can. I don’t know if I would have caught it quite as fast as I did with you, because his shields are a lot more sophisticated.
Also, he looks a lot different than he used to…
magically, I mean, not only the disguise.
But I can see an intensity there I remember.
There’s a particular flavor of magic I’ve never seen on anyone else…
as much as he tries to hide it.” She smiled faintly as she looked at his face.
“It’s not quite the same as I remember, but, like I said, it’s unique, so I might’ve suspected it was him, at least.”
“You’re an Obeah,” Bones said, his voice bewildered.
I flinched, then looked at the other witch in surprise.
She looked back at him and nodded, her expression tightening. “I thought maybe you would’ve heard. My parents have done their best to keep it a secret, but your father always seems to know everything.”
Bones shook his head slowly, his expression still astonished. “If he did know, he didn’t tell me.”
I felt some area of his mind whisper, If he’d known I was in boarding school with an Obeah, he probably would have killed you.
“Yeah.” Elsbeth sighed, as if she’d had this conversation more times than she liked, and was tired of it.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Our parents aren’t exactly friends, and my parents went out of their way to keep it quiet, like I said.
They initially sent me to one of the Obeah enclaves outside the U.K.
That’s why I left school. I was sent to the enclave in Bhutan.
I’ve only transferred to the Sanctum Occulus this past year, to complete my university-level studies.
I’m going to be at Malcroix next term on a project I’m doing under Vivian Underwood and Professor Dominion. ”
I flinched at that. Dominion? Didn’t he teach Praecurology Studies?
What would an Obeah be doing studying Earth and humans?
But Bones was still focused on other things.
“How did you––”
“Hide it?” she asked, a little bitterly.
“It was surprisingly easy. Most people don’t really notice when someone isn’t doing magic, only when they are.
And my parents helped quite a lot,” she added apologetically.
“Mostly by pushing me towards the Seer Arts, which can seem a lot like our natural abilities, and magihistory, and praecurology, which is a lot of magihistory and cultural studies at the lower levels.”
“But why?” Bones asked, puzzled. “Why put you through that?”
Elsbeth sighed again, taking a step towards Dervish.
“They didn’t want me going to the Sanctum when I was that young,” she said, holding up her hands in a shrug.
“They didn’t want to lose me at that age.
And technically, you don’t have to go just because you’re Obeah.
Most people send their children there if they’re caste-sorted that way, but it’s not a law or anything. You can say no.”
When Bones remained silent, his brow furrowed in that face that wasn’t his, she reddened a bit, and her voice grew defensive.
She stepped closer to Dervish, and he took her hand.
“The teachers knew,” she added, moving even closer to where Dervish stood.
“But my parents got them to agree to keep it quiet. So they left me in regular Magical school until it became impossible to hide.” She paused, studying Bones’s face, as if trying to see his real features behind the mask. “I can’t say I’m sorry they did it.”
I glanced at Bones and saw him still struggling.
I could feel another question in his magic, but he didn’t seem willing to articulate it.
“Why didn’t you tell them?” I asked her for him. “Your friends?”
She looked at me, and I saw open curiosity in her eyes.
“I was only a kid,” she said. “I think I was afraid they wouldn’t like me anymore. My parents made it seem like something to be ashamed of.”
I felt Bones relax, and realized he’d been worried it was because of him, and because of his father even more than him.
“It’s good you didn’t,” he told her.
The Obeah witch was still looking at me curiously, and looking at where Bones held my hand. Her curiosity was a lot more open than Dervish’s had been. I could see a question on the tip of her tongue, and she hesitated a few times, as if not quite sure if she should say it or not.
In the end, her curiosity seemed to win out.
With her free hand, the one that wasn’t gripping Dervish’s, she pointed between Bones and me with a graceful line.
“Are you aware that there’s a––”
“We should save any other catching up for later,” Bones broke in, his voice suddenly sharp. He might as well have snapped at her to be silent.
I looked up at him, frowning, but he didn’t return my gaze.
“You’re going to be living on campus, I assume?” Bones asked Elsbeth. “We’ll have lots of time to talk.” He cleared his throat. “We were getting ready to go to the auric boxing. Did you want to come with us?”
“We are?” Alaric asked, bewildered.
“We’re going under false names,” Bones added to Elsbeth, talking past Alaric. “If you’ve been looking at the papers at all, you must know why. So you can’t call me by my name. Don’t call her Leda, or him Alaric––”
“Of course,” Elsbeth broke in. “Yes, we know.”
Dervish gave me a grim look that held a fair bit of sympathy.
“Honestly, I was surprised when Alaric said you’d come here.” He looked me over though, smiling. “But you’re golden, honestly. No one will recognize you like that. The situation with Elsbeth and Alaric is different. Her, Luc, Bones, and Greythorne were friends back in primary school.”
“Oh,” I said, glancing at Luc.
It was still strange to me that they’d all known one another for so long.
And even if they’d drifted apart in the time since, knowing someone at such a young age, particularly in boarding school, particularly when you didn’t have siblings or a healthy family life, had to create a stronger bond than most.
It struck me suddenly that Luc, despite his obvious irritation with Bones on and off over the past few weeks, had never trashed Bones the way Draken had, or even Darragh and Miranda.
Even when he had joined in, his comments never had the same kind of venom behind them. Mostly, he’d just remained quiet.
Bones glanced at me, and I saw an odd look cross his face, right before he looked at Luc.
“You still like to fight, then?” Elsbeth mused, pulling Bones’s eyes back to her. Her full mouth quirked in a sideways smile. “How frightening are you at it now? I seem to remember you being fairly terrifying even when you were shorter than me.”
“We really wouldn’t know,” Luc told her with a smirk. “He’s still not allowed to play with the other boys and girls. They make him fight alone, just like when he was thirteen.”
Elsbeth laughed, but Alaric smirked at me. “Well, not entirely alone. But I’m not convinced they spend their time in there fighting.”
A silence fell while Elsbeth, Dervish, Nyx, and Luc looked at me.
I kept my expression still, and made my voice deadpan.
“I’m not sure why you all find it so difficult to believe that he’d enjoy ordering me around. Or telling me I’m doing everything wrong. Or scoffing at me, and rolling his eyes for several hours a day while he watches me flail around like an idiot.”
Luc snorted an involuntary-sounding laugh.
Alaric grinned, then stood from the bench and walked over to us.
“Are we really going to get to see you fight?” he asked Bones. “Are you really that determined not to tell us anything about you and your new witch? You’re willing to get yourself bloodied up to avoid it?” He winked at me. “Or is this a showing off situation?”
Bones made his voice deadpan, too.
“Can’t it be both?” he asked.