25. Visitors #3
“Well, it’s my understanding that the condition extends both of their lives,” Luc said, glancing at me again and waiting for me to nod.
Once I did, he looked back at Draken. “The partner of a caelum ignis also gets a huge boost to their own magic, and the ability to do what the caelum ignis can do. That’s the anecdotal experience.
“In theory,” he added, glancing at me. “Well, that’s a little harder to pull apart.
To be able to bond with a caelum ignis in the first place, you need to have pretty unusual magic.
The magic of a caelum ignis can actually kill ordinary Magicals.
Accidentally, I mean. Apparently it’s pretty common for that to happen, even when they’re children.
And they don’t come into their full power until they’re roughly our age. ”
Miranda flinched, her expression horrified, and looked at me. “Their magic kills people? How?”
“It doesn’t hurt me at all,” I assured her. “It never has.”
“Never?” Draken asked, skeptical.
“Never,” I said firmly.
Miranda looked slightly mollified, but concern kept her expression taut. “What happened to your primal, Leda?” she asked. “The monocerus. Where has it gone?”
Draken looked at her, then at me, not hiding the interest in his eyes.
Luc looked at me, too.
I nodded, wiping my face with the side of my hand.
“I don’t know,” I said, a little thickly. I let out a frustrated sound, staring down at my clasped hands. “I sent it away… to hide. Over a month ago now.” I glanced up, seeing their confused looks. “It never came back.”
There was a silence after I said it.
For a few seconds, no one seemed to know how to break it.
They stayed for a long time.
I made a few more rounds of tea and chocolate, but we were talking so much after that first awkward attempt, I don’t think much got drunk in the last few hours they were there.
Wraith didn’t leave Miranda’s lap for something like two hours.
When she finally did, she walked directly to Draken and proceeded to meow at him like she’d done to Miranda when they first arrived. Draken spoke to her also, too quietly for me to hear what he said, and stroked her head and massaged her back with his fingers until Wraith seemed satisfied.
After turning around at least four times, she curled up in a tight ball on his lap. She spent the rest of their visit fluffed up to twice her usual size, her nose stuck by her tail as Draken rubbed and petted her gently.
When they finally got up to leave, I almost asked them to stay.
I knew it was ludicrous.
It was well after midnight, and I was exhausted.
Even so, it was difficult to let them go. Some part of me worried I was still asleep and dreaming, that I’d wake up to realize everything was the same as it had been the day before. But then Miranda gave me a tight hug by the door, and whispered in my ear.
“I missed you so much,” she said, tears trembling her voice. “So so much, Leda. I can’t bear it any longer. Come over tomorrow. Promise?”
I nodded without thinking, without even considering the logistics of me going to Valarian. “Absolutely,” I said firmly. “I’ll be there right after breakfast.”
Miranda slumped in my arms and nodded, her magical aura exuding relief.
When she pulled away, she kissed me on the cheek and beamed, her eyes still wet.
“Just so you know,” she said, grinning at me in a way she hadn’t once, the entire year. “I’ll hunt you down with a crossbow if you’re more than an hour late.”
I laughed and hugged her again before letting them both go.
Even so, I felt sad when the door closed behind them.
I also felt emotionally wrung out, and nearly dead on my feet.
I walked back over to the couch, mostly to check on Wraith, only to find her standing in front of the walk-in closet, her tail flicking back and forth, her ears pricked forward.
“What is it, Wray?” I asked.
She let out another of those mournful meows, like she’d done to Miranda and Draken.
“They’ll be back,” I assured her. “I think it’s going to be alright.”
She meowed again, even more mournfully.
Frowning, I was about to walk up to her, and pluck her off the floor, but before I got there, she darted into the darkness of the closet.
“Wraith,” I began with a sigh.
I was walking towards the closet when someone emerged from the dark opening.
I froze, my jaw loosening as I stared.
Bones stood there, his face dyed red with firelight, Wraith clutched up against his chest with one arm.
He managed to stroke her where he cradled her, but his eyes never left mine, and Wraith never stopped meowing at him, lecturing him with much longer, more expressive wails, caterwauls, and growls than anything she’d done to Miranda or Draken.
She clung to his black jacket with her claws, swishing her tail to emphasize every sound she made.
His black uniform was coated in ash and blood.
“I thought they’d never fucking leave,” he spat coldly.
Wraith let out another low growl, but rubbed her face against his chest when he adjusted his hand to rub the back of her neck. I couldn’t help staring at his long fingers and knuckles, watching as they dug into the muscle behind her ears.
Wraith made a purring sound, still interspersed with annoyed grumbles.
He tossed something to the rug by the fire, something I hadn’t noticed he held in his free hand until it left his fingers.
It was a gold mask.