Chapter 4
By the time Rylan and I delivered Manson and made our way down to Comenius’s shop, it was close to four o’clock. Witches End was bustling with activity, so I was surprised to see the Closed sign up in the glass storefront.
“Does he usually close up this early?” Rylan asked as I peered through the window.
“No.” Frowning, I trotted around to the side of the building, then up the steps that led to Comenius’s second-floor apartment.
Comenius and Elania’s voices drifted through the door.
Though they were talking too quietly for me to pick out what they were saying, it sounded like they were having an argument.
I knocked loudly on the door, and the voices ceased. A moment later, Com opened the door. The lines in his face were taut with strain, and I was alarmed to see circles beneath his cornflower-blue eyes.
“Finally,” he said, holding the door open so Rylan and I could come inside. “I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t be coming.”
My eyes went straight to Elania, who sat on the couch with her hands folded in her lap. She gave me a strained smile, and an uneasy feeling settled in my gut as I noticed her ramrod posture and the lack of warmth in her eyes. She usually exhibited an easy grace and had never once seemed ruffled.
“Sorry,” I said as Com closed the door behind us. “We were attacked by some kind of religious fanatic on the way here.”
“Are you all right?” Elania asked, rising from the couch. Concern softened the look in her dark eyes as she approached us. “You’re not hurt, either of you?”
“I’m fine.” I waved her hands away as tactfully as I could, then skirted Comenius and took a seat before he, too, could flutter over me like a concerned mother hen.
Rylan joined me on the couch opposite Elania.
“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on between the two of you?
It’s clear something’s got you both upset. ”
“Very well.” Comenius and Elania both sat down, and my eyebrows winged up as I noticed how far apart they sat from each other. That, plus the fact that Elania hadn’t offered tea or snacks like she usually did, told me something was very, very wrong.
“As you know, Elania and I have been busy with wedding preparations. Well, mostly Elania,” Comenius clarified when Elania gave him a pointed look. “She wants a big wedding in early autumn, and there is much to do.”
“I have many relatives all over the Federation, and autumn is the best time for them to travel,” Elania said, as though she felt the need to explain.
“Okay,” I said cautiously. “Is there anything you guys need help with, regarding the wedding? I’m not really good at planning stuff like that, but….”
“No, it isn’t that.” Comenius let out a hefty sigh. “I just received news from Pernia that my Rusalia’s mother has died.”
“Your daughter?” I exclaimed, sitting up.
Comenius had told me, back when we had first started dating, that he had a young daughter living in Pernia who he helped support.
It had been after a couple of drinks, when he was in a melancholy mood, and he had never spoken of her again after that.
I had a feeling his daughter was a very sore subject for him, so I’d made a point to avoid bringing her up. “Isn’t she still a child?”
“Only eleven years old,” Comenius said, nodding.
“Her mother died in a magical accident, and unless I come to get her immediately, the officials will have her placed at an orphanage or in a foster home. I must bring her back with me to Solantha,” he declared, and though his voice rang with conviction, I could scent that he was conflicted about the decision.
But why? Surely his daughter would be better off with him than overseas with strangers.
“I would like to come as well, but I must look after my shop, as well as Comenius’s since he will be gone for some time,” Elania said.
Her full lips curved into another tight smile.
“I wasn’t expecting to end up with a family so soon, but Rusalia is most welcome.
I hope she’ll agree to be the flower girl in our wedding party. ”
I didn’t need my shifter senses to tell that Elania wasn’t being entirely truthful.
But then again, I could hardly blame her.
If Iannis had sprung something like this on me, I’d be pissed too.
Now that I thought about it, did he have any children?
He was several hundred years old, after all.
A strange feeling went through me at the idea that he might have progeny older than I was.
How could I possibly be a stepmother to someone who might be old enough to be my grandmother?
I would have to ask him about it at some point.
I’d be shocked if Iannis hadn’t mentioned to me by now if he was a father, but he was so long lived that it seemed strange that he didn’t have any children.
“Does your daughter know you very well, Comenius?” Rylan asked, speaking up for the first time.
“No,” Comenius said. His voice darkened with anger and sadness. “Her mother would never let me see her.”
“Why?” I scowled, outraged on his behalf. No wonder his daughter was such a sore subject for him! “Don’t you have just as much right to her?”
“You would think so, but Hiltraud didn’t see it that way,” Comenius said.
“She and I engaged in a foolish affair when I was young, and Rusalia was the result. I offered to marry her, of course, but she would hear none of it. She claimed that she was too free spirited to tie herself down to the likes of me, that it would ruin her life. But, of course, she was happy to accept my financial support.” His fingers dug into his thighs.
“How absurd.” Elania took one of his hands before he gouged a hole through his tunic pants. Her eyes sparked with the same outrage I felt. “You are a wonderful man, Comenius Genhard, and that silly strumpet did not deserve you.”
Comenius smiled, some of the tension easing from his strong-boned features.
“Thank you.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against her temple before turning back to Rylan and me.
“I have not seen Rusalia since I moved to the Northia Federation. Hiltraud’s refusal to co-parent with me, and her efforts to turn our daughter against me at every turn, ultimately drove me to emigrate—I could not take the constant struggle any more, and I wanted a clean break.
Now that this has happened, I only hope I’ll be able to undo the years of damage I let her mother inflict upon our relationship. ”
“Man, that’s tough.” I wanted to get up and give Comenius a hug, but I was reluctant to come between him and Elania now that the two of them seemed to be cozying up to each other again. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I’d like you to help Elania out if she gets into any trouble while I’m away,” Comenius said. “It would put me at ease if I knew she had someone to turn to, especially since she is running my shop on top of her own.”
Elania huffed a little at that. “I did get on quite well before I met you, you know,” she said, though her dark eyes sparkled with amusement rather than annoyance.
“Even so, please let us know if you do need anything,” I told her. “Rylan and I are happy to come and help out with whatever you need.”
“Thank you.” Elania smiled warmly at me, looking much more like her usual self.
“I’ve hired a new employee to help me run Comenius’s shop, so I shouldn’t need assistance.
And you ought not to trouble yourself further, Comenius,” she added, turning back to him.
“You’d be better served focusing on yourself, and your daughter. ”
“Have you heard any news from Noria?” I asked, mostly to distract Comenius from his worries.
“No.” His eyes turned dull. “I assume she’ll be in the mines by now. I sent a letter there, but I haven’t received a response. I’m not sure if she is ignoring me, or if she hasn’t received it.”
There was a long moment of depressed silence, and I bit my lip. Maybe Noria wasn’t the best choice of subject… but I felt like it was wrong to go on as if she’d ceased to exist. At least not so soon after she’d been sentenced.
“I have not heard or seen anything of Annia, either,” Com finally said. “I was going to check on her, but now, with this new problem, there is no time.”
“I can do that,” I said. Guilt squeezed my chest—I shouldn’t have needed Comenius to prompt me to look in on my best friend.
“I’ll go right now.” If it had been tough for me to watch Noria be sent off to the mines, it had to be ten times worse for Annia.
If anyone needed a shoulder right now, it was she.
“Your friend Annia seems to be pretty well-off,” Rylan commented as I parked my bike on the curb outside a large, two-story granite brick home.
The manicured front lawn boasted an impressive flower garden, and the scents of marigolds and dahlias leant a pleasant fragrance to the warm summer evening.
The property was situated on the side of one of the many hills in Solantha, and it offered a great view of the sun setting over the western sea.
“The house belongs to her mother,” I told him as we disembarked. “Annia lives in the guest suite out back.”
I intended to head around to the back of the house, when the sound of Annia and her mother shouting gave me pause.
I stood on the front path, debating whether or not to risk interrupting the argument by knocking on the front door.
But the decision was made for me when the birch door flew open, and Annia stormed out.
“Fine, blame me if you think that will help anything!” she snapped over her shoulder, auburn hair flying out behind her.
She wore a pair of jeans, brown leather boots, and a button-down green shirt instead of her usual mercenary leathers, which was strange because she should have just recently gotten off her shift.
“But don’t expect me to stick around if this is how you’re going to be all the time! ”