38. Chapter 38
Chapter thirty-eight
Audrie’s cat, Turnip, looked quite at home on her lap.
She’d snuck him to the library in her satchel and had told him to be quiet, as though he understood.
My head was heavy as I read another book on potential faebane locations; this one was delving into the world of local flora, and my eyes were drifting.
We were both buried now in every botany and botanical book we could lay our hands on. I wondered what sections of the library we would raid next week when these turned up nothing.
A small fortress had sprung up around us in the library booth. Leather-bound tomes of burnt butter, dusty terracotta and delicate fawn stood as towers around us.
Gavrin was somewhere deep in the library.
While I knew finding faebane was important and a bargain I’d made, I couldn’t focus.
“Do you think he’s ever coming back to the house?” I shoved the book in front of me across the table.
“Hmmm?” Audrie lifted her head from the book, and Turnip shifted on her lap. “Who is coming back?”
“Kaed. He’s been gone for days now.”
Audrie flicked a page over, chagrin barely at bay as she found nothing again. “He’s not gone. I’ve seen him. He leaves early in the morning for meetings with the council, or training with Gavrin and Dee.” She didn’t even look up, as though this wasn’t important at all.
“And?” I hedged. “What about after that?”
“I’ve seen him leave for the outer hills.”
I blanched a little at that.
“Don’t worry. They’re within the confines of the city.” She finally looked up from her book, and she must have read the concern in my eyes because she put her hand on mine. “He’s not going to be taken again.”
I slid my hand out from under hers. “Why is he going up there?”
Audrie shrugged and flipped another page over. “There’s nothing in this one.” She stood, clearly forgetting Turnip was there because he let out a disgruntled yowl as he was displaced. “I’ll be back. I’m not sure we’re looking in the right places.”
Left alone, I closed my eyes briefly. Just to shut out the work, the research, the thoughts of my fingers on Kaed from that night.
My eyes snapped open as I felt the presence of someone standing over me.
“For you.” A thorned rose had been forced into my face. Huxley loomed over me, his russet curls combed back in snaking waves.
In a rush, I tried to stand, but he pushed the rose farther, almost to my chin.
“Huxley.” I tried to bat the rose away as gently as I could. “You shouldn’t have, thank you. But I—” I fumbled my words as I stood.
Get out of here. I wanted to get out of here.
I came around the back of my chair to put something between us as I gathered myself. What was he doing here? Again.
Was he that eager for a beating? To him, Kaed and I were an item.
“Must you go? Or do you just not like my company?” His question was quick. Sharp. Frustration dripped from his tongue.
“No … I …” What did I even say to that? “Kaed, Prince Kaedian …” Why was this so difficult to get out?
Huxley took a step towards me, now just a wooden bench keeping him from taking up the last space between us.
“He’ll be looking for me.” I tried to skirt past Huxley, but his hand shot out to block off my route.
A layer of cool ice settled across my skin. “Let me pass,” I said, as politely as possible.
“I just want to get to know you a little better.” His smile was more of a sneer as he inclined his head towards me.
Where was Audrie? Gavrin? I looked past Huxley, avoiding any connection I could with him, and searched for anyone who might notice us here.
I smiled up at the male before me but the expression was drawn. Then I noticed the watery look in his eyes, the wide pupils and the slackness in his joints.
He had a burn of spirits on his breath, and there were stains on his lapels and sleeves as though he’d been out all day and all night in the taverns.
I felt like a cornered animal in the small alcove of the dark booth with a rabid predator circling the den.
“How … how have you been? Do you work in the city nearby?” I tried to make polite conversation while looking for a way past him.
The questions were stupid, weak.
“No.” His one word was slurred as he widened his lips until they were garish across his face.
“Oh, so you … you came here specially to see me?”
His eyes grew feverish.
The rose still in his hand, he held it up again, still barring me from leaving with the other.
He pushed the wilting petals into my chin, and I recoiled.
“What are you—” No. He would not make me feel this way.
I steadied my voice. Gripping the stem, my hand snagged on a thorn. “I am with Kaedian. Let me pass. Now.”
His demeanour shifted like a tide around me. His eyes glowered, and he yanked the rose back, tearing through my palm as he did.
A gasp ripped from me and he stumbled back at the noise, as though it had cleared his head.
“Huxley.” A clear, resonant voice filled the space. “It’s time for you to leave.” Eryk bit out each word as his hand clamped down on Huxley’s shoulder, squeezing too much for the gesture. He grabbed him and flung him towards the hall, Huxley only barely catching his footing before scuttling away.
I winced as blood poured from the wound.
“Your hand.” Eryk moved closer.
“I’m fine. It’s nothing,” I said, fisting my hand to shield the cut that wasn’t healing like it would for any normal fae.
But Eryk caught my hand in his, gently turning it over as though it were as fragile as a duck egg.
My heart slammed into my chest, and I worried he could hear it.
“I can manage,” I lied, my fingers still clenched.
Eryk’s eyes smiled at me. “I’d like to. If you’ll let me?”
His fingers unfurled mine, and I softened under his touch. I wasn’t entirely sure why I let him see the ragged wound on me, the magic that wasn’t rushing to heal the cut.
But he said nothing and instead offered his magic to heal me. Much like Celeste had, only his hummed with a power that vibrated as it looked for its mark.
As his magic worked, Eryk’s eyes watched mine.
And finally, my muscles relaxed. What would it matter if he knew I didn’t have magic? What was one more person knowing that about me?
If Eryk noticed, he said nothing about my lack of self-healing.
But when my skin had knitted back together, instead of releasing me, he held my hand in his for a moment.
“I have a proposition for you.”
Was that flicker in my heart worry for Eryk and what Kaed would do to him if he saw the nearness? Or was it worry for myself? I felt like whatever was happening between us was more than it should be in such a space.
And where was Audrie?
“Come with me? Into the city proper. I have something I’d like to show you.”
Flutters rose through me. Excitement or trepidation? But they died a little as I thought of the reality of his request.
“Kaed. Kaedian … He will be expecting me back.” I glanced around the halls.
“A few hours. I promise to have you back in one piece. The show will be wonderful.”
“Show?” My face beamed.
Eryk noted my enthusiasm and extended his hand for us to make our way out.
I didn’t bother fighting the smile that stretched across my face.
The books, the intrusion to my day, the cut on my hand, all forgotten with Eryk’s help. I scrawled a note on a piece of parchment for Audrie and followed Eryk out of the library.