Chapter 19 A New Offer
A New Offer
He wore only a towel when he emerged from his washroom, wreathed in clouds of steam from the shower, his hair wet, looking taller and more broad-shouldered, and even more scarred than before, given his flushed skin.
He scarcely looked at me, but I couldn’t tear my eyes off him.
Even knowing it might be weird, rude at least, I continued to stare.
He walked straight to what turned out to be a walk-in closet to the left of his bed. He opened the door and disappeared inside, and that time, realizing he must be getting dressed, I did look away. I very deliberately didn’t look in that direction at all when he left the door open.
“What if we made another deal?” I asked him. “A different one?”
I’d raised my voice slightly so he could hear me from inside, clutching a mug of espresso and milk in both hands as I sat on the edge of his bed, my legs dangling down. I kept my eyes trained on the desk in his study.
He scoffed through the open door, his voice hard.
“You planning to prostitute yourself, Shadow? I’m flattered, but I think I’ll pass.”
I rolled my eyes, but bit my lip as I felt myself flush.
“Eye of Ra, you are maddening. And no, that wasn’t what I had in mind.
” Tossing my head, I cleared my throat, still speaking a touch loud.
“What if you went back to using me to manage your magic, though?” I asked next.
I took a sip of espresso, my eyes on his desk.
“It’s pretty obvious you haven’t found a good substitute, given how you’ve looked for the past six weeks.
You’ve looked positively awful, even on the carriage from London. ”
There was another quiet moment where I could only hear the rustling of clothes. The sound got broken by an occasional, sharper scratching sound that struck me as likely to come from hangars being moved around on poles.
“And?” he asked, after that pause. “What would I be paying you in return for this generous privilege, Shadow?”
I exhaled another exasperated sigh.
“You’ll let me help you with Alaric, of course,” I said.
“You’ll let me in on whatever it is you’re doing yourself, in relation to Dark Cathedral.
We’d work on it together, like we did with my parents’ murder.
You wouldn’t keep putting me off with vague and dire warnings about how I need to keep away from it all. ”
There was another silence.
He walked out of the closet then, still shirtless, and barefoot, but now wearing black trousers. He shoved his arm into a long-sleeved shirt as I watched, pulling it around his back and shrugging it onto his shoulders without taking his eyes off mine.
“No,” he said coldly.
My hands curled into fists. “Why in the gods not?”
“I’ve told you why,” he growled. “Repeatedly. If you want to kill yourself, Shadow, you’re going to have to do it without my help.”
“But I can actually be of some use to you with this!”
He laughed, not bothering to hide his derision, which probably should have offended me, but mostly just aggravated me.
“I can, though,” I retorted. “I can finally actually help you with this. I’ve been invited by Forsooth to attend some secret meeting of his.
He’s already told me they’re looking into the disappearances of humans and Magicals, and now they’re looking into what happened to Alaric.
He strongly implied he could answer a lot of my questions if I went. ”
Bones froze where he’d been buttoning up the front of his shirt.
He stared at me, his pale eyes sharper after the shower.
“What?” he asked. “When was this?”
“Last night. At the party.”
“You’ve been tapped for The Golden Sun?” he asked, disbelieving.
I blinked at him, then frowned. “You knew Forsooth was doing this? That he had some secret group working against Dark Cathedral?”
He didn’t answer, but a shrewder look rose to his eyes. “Did he say why he wanted you there?” he demanded. “Did he actually offer you a spot in their group?”
“No.” I thought about that, and amended my words. “Well, I guess he sort of did, but he mostly invited me to a meeting, at least to start out. He didn’t name it. He did say he’d intended to invite me to join them eventually, but the Alaric thing made him do it sooner than he’d originally planned.”
I frowned, a little disconcerted by the intensity I saw in Bones’s eyes. I’d known I was taking a risk, mentioning this, but Forsooth specifically told me I could talk to Bones. I was still a little taken back by just how effective it had been, even bringing it up.
“Am I supposed to know who they are?” I asked. “Is Golden Sun well known?”
“I wouldn’t say that, no. I can give you books,” he said, in an almost bizarre mirroring of what Forsooth had said. “When is their next meeting?”
“He didn’t say. They get together every few weeks. Tuesdays, usually.”
“But you’re planning on going? On joining them?”
I hesitated, watching his eyes bore into mine.
“I mean, without having attended anything, or really knowing anything about it specifically… probably? If they’re what Forsooth implied, why wouldn’t I join, whether you want to help me or not?
I’d absolutely intended on going to that first meeting. I’d go for Alaric, if nothing else.”
Bones’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t seem surprised by my answer.
As if he heard me, he rolled his eyes.
“Are you saying I shouldn’t join?” I asked. “Is that what the eye roll meant?”
“No,” he said, a touch coldly. “It meant of course. Of course you’d join. Why would you pass up any opportunity to put yourself in mortal danger?”
“Of course I’d want to be part of an organization that’s doing exactly what Alaric and I tried to do all summer, only with real resources behind it?
” I retorted back. “Of course I’d take any opportunity to try and help my friend?
Yes. That shouldn’t surprise you, Bones.
I’ve told you, I’m doing this, with or without you.
I don’t get the option to ignore a group that kidnaps my friends and wants me dead.
I have my doubts you do, either, frankly. ”
Bones only nodded to that, his expression closed.
He stood there for a few seconds without moving, staring down at the carpet and the stone floor. Then, as if shaking himself back to the room, he frowned. He glanced at me as he finished doing up the last few fasteners on his shirt, then adjusted his collar.
“All right,” he said.
Despite the surety of his tone, I saw conflict in his eyes, mixed with an intensity I couldn’t easily identify. He looked at me in something like resignation, mixed with a determination I didn’t fully understand, either.
“All right, Shadow,” he repeated. “You have a deal.”
I fought not to react too much, or let him see my relief.
Even so, while I still heard the reluctance in his voice, a steel lived behind his words, like we’d already signed a pact in blood. As if he heard my thoughts, his eyes glanced towards my monocerus, which was pawing at the gilded edge of his mostly-black duvet.
“I think we’re probably beyond needing to bind it through our primals,” he said. “But we might as well make it official.”
His gold eyes flickered to mine before I could manage to get the relief out of my expression. Briefly, a harder, more vicious look returned to his. A wave of gold and green fire curled through his irises, causing me to stare.
“I have one more condition, mongrel,” he added next.
His jaw tightened as he held my gaze. He folded his arms.
“It’s about our mutual friend, Strangemore,” he said. “In case you’ve forgotten why you ended up in my room last night.” His gold eyes grew deadly. “It’s also utterly fucking non-negotiable.”