Chapter 32 Honesty
Honesty
Ihadn’t really thought about how we’d get back to the campus buildings, not until the party began to break up.
I suppose, if asked, I would have said we’d walk, since that was how we’d gotten there.
But the party fell apart quickly in the end, not long after the first snowflakes drifted down, landing on conjured couches, loveseats, chaise lounges, and armchairs, softly at first, then rapidly thickening into denser flurries with larger, wetter flakes.
A sudden scramble ensued as everyone began retrieving coasts and jackets, bottles and wings, readying to leave.
They could have held the snow off with spells, most likely, but I guessed it was too late for anyone to want to bother with that, and it might be more involved than I imagined, since I’d never tried to hold off actual weather before.
I had no idea what time it was.
It struck me that it would be harder now, for Bones and I to get out of there inconspicuously, with so many walking in the same direction as a large group.
Then Bones moved his hand in a graceful mudra, and his topcoat appeared out of the pile of fast-vanishing outwear and flew to his hands. From inside the folds of cloth, he pulled out a set of familiar-looking black wings he must have magicked smaller so they’d fit inside.
I’d barely comprehended that much by the time he’d shouldered on the coat, and found an empty spot to lay out the wings, now folded, but back to their regular size.
I watched, silent, as the enormous black wings wove themselves onto his back, the threads of black and gold magic filtered through his bone dragon primal.
Within a few seconds, they hung heavily behind him, as if the gold bones, muscle, and feathers had pierced the thick wool of his topcoat.
I’d nearly convinced myself he intended to leave me there, that I would be walking back alone, when he held out his arms, his gold eyes holding an unambiguous meaning.
I walked into his embrace without thought, and he wrapped the thick topcoat and his arms tightly around me.
“Ready?” he murmured in my ear.
I nodded, gripping hold of his arms.
We rose into the air so smoothly, I barely felt my feet leave the ground.
If it hadn’t been for the dip in my stomach and the change in view as snow flurried around us, blinding me as we rose, I might not have known we were even in the air. Then, abruptly, he put more will and intention into our flight, and we were moving a lot faster.
I gripped the edges of his coat so that it stayed mostly around me.
Snowflakes pelted wetly against my face, rivulets running down my neck and into my clothes.
I didn’t mind for some reason, and just clutched him tighter, looking down partly to shield my eyes, and partly to see where we were.
Most of my view went totally white, but I glimpsed the darker ground, which was also gradually whitening.
A handful of mages and witches passed below us at first, then I saw nothing but fields and trees, until the river snaked below our feet.
Everything grew so quiet in the snow, even in flight.
Bones’s arms gripped me firmly around the waist and shoulders. His body behind mine felt overly hot and somehow completely tense, like he’d clenched every muscle around me out of fear he might drop me by accident, if he relaxed even enough to breathe.
I glimpsed the castle then, with only a few lit windows at first.
Then the entire length of the second floor on the east wing grew visible, lit by firelight that belonged to the massive stone fireplaces inside Frumpy’s.
We were flying almost directly towards the main building and the highest part of the mansion.
Angling his wings and swooping us back towards the west, Bones sailed us past most of the west wing, and landed on the edge of the ground floor balcony, right by a small door.
I just stood there, shivering, as he removed his wings and magically folded them up so they were the size of a small suitcase. Lifting them by a strap, he held out a hand to guide me and walked us both to the iron and glass door.
It struck me that I was still blonde, my features still not mine.
I don’t know why that struck me right then, but it felt strange to realize no one would look twice at me being with Bones, even this late at night. They would definitely assume he was bringing me to his room, and to his bed, after a date night out.
He jerked open the balcony door.
After a few more steps inside, we were in the dark, narrow corridor just outside the door to his tower. He didn’t wait, but began opening the shields and chimaeras I felt shimmering in the air, pulling me to stand with him.
I remembered the version of him that had confronted me in this exact same place, the cold eyes that had measured me right before he slammed the door.
He turned on me, sharply.
I saw something different in his eyes as they met mine, a scrutiny that lived right on the surface.
With it, those hard walls I normally felt around his magical aura lowered, enough that I could see him looking at me candidly.
That suspicious, angry layer that normally made him so impossible to talk to softened enough that I felt myself relax.
“You really thought you saw me here?” he asked, quiet. “That wasn’t just an excuse for you not showing that night?”
“I know I saw you,” I told him, wrapping my arms around my torso and shivering.
“It wasn’t like I glimpsed you from a distance, shutting the door in my face.
I talked to you, Bones. We had a conversation.
” Clenching my jaw a little, I added, “You sent me away. After saying some really bloody bizarre things to me, frankly. If you’d been willing to listen to me, even once over these past two weeks, you would know that. ”
He shook his head slowly, but for the first time in any of our discussions about that night, he didn’t look angry, or like he didn’t believe me. He continued to look sharp, assessing, like he did when we discussed fight strategy, or when he was critiquing my form.
“It wasn’t me,” he said. “It had to have been someone else.”
“I saw your primal,” I told him. “Your real one.”
He froze. His frown deepened as he turned to stare at me, his hand still on the door.
“That’s not possible,” he stated flatly.
“I’m telling you what I saw,” I said, frustrated. “You were acting so bloody strange, it actually made me wonder if it was you––”
“It wasn’t,” he cut in.
“––So I checked your primal,” I finished. “It was there. Same as ever.”
He continued to frown as he looked away, and a second later, he jerked open the door.
I followed him up the stairs, and it occurred to me again that we hadn’t talked about this, either. Was he just taking me upstairs to change me back? Then what? Was I supposed to sneak back to Valarian afterwards? Wearing one of his school jumpers, maybe?
I realized some part of me had expected something different in him bringing me here.
I pushed the thought out of my mind angrily.
I just stood there, waiting, as he unlocked the door to his residence at the top of the stairs.
Once he’d opened it, I followed him inside without a word.
I waited again, just inside, as he closed and re-locked everything from the inside.
I followed him with my eyes as he shouldered off his topcoat, and hung it on a wall hook near where I stood.
He walked to the fireplace next, and cast another spell to light that.
He stood there, outlined in fire, as he took off his suit jacket, and lay it over the back of a leather armchair.
He wore a brocade vest under it, a dark green that was nearly black, and a black, long-sleeved shirt with a mandarin collar.
I watched him remove the silver cufflinks with skulls on them, and set them on the mantle, his eyes never leaving me.
He kicked off his shoes next.
I started to wonder, again, what I was doing there.
“Come here,” he said, his voice neutral.
I walked over to him as he rolled up his sleeves.
He started unfastening the front of his vest as I reached him, and by the time I’d gotten close enough to the fire to feel a welcome blast of its heat, he flipped that off his shoulders too, and tossed it at the same chair-back as his jacket.
He faced me then, and I saw that ripple of light flicker through his irises, brighter and more gold than the actual fire near me.
“You should take that off,” he said.
He nodded towards the soaked, hooded jacket I still wore.
I hesitated only a second, then did as he said.
Bones stood there, watching, as I unbuttoned the front, trying to ignore the intensity of his stare as I pulled the hood off my wet hair, then peeled the thin jacket off my arms and shoulders.
Once I’d extracted myself from it, I lay the dripping thing on the back of the second chair he had near the fire.
After the slightest hesitation, I unzipped and took off the knee-high boots next, since they were soaked, too.
Smoothing wet, straight, and still-blonde hair out of my face, I cleared my throat.
“How long will they take to dry, do you think?” I asked.
He stepped towards me, and caught hold of my wrist, bringing me nearer to the fire. I was still looking at his face, trying to understand his expression, when he waved a hand past me in a delicate mudra, muttering an incantation under his breath.
The skin of my face immediately grew hot and felt strange, along with the skin along my neck and chest, my scalp, even my teeth and lips.
I sucked in a pale breath as my hair cascaded down over my shoulders, now reaching inches further, the black curls somehow still damp and heavy, despite never having come in contact with the snow.
It was strange to realize how much heavier they were than the blonde hair he’d given me for the party.
When I glanced up at him, my vision clearing as my eyes presumably changed colors back to their regular shade of green, his gaze turned heated, nearly hungry.
“That’s fucking better,” he muttered.