Chapter 4 #2
She froze on the top step of the porch at the sight of us, her hand on the railing. “Naya? What are you doing here?”
“I certainly don’t expect you to stick around!
” Mrs. Melcott declared, striding out onto the porch before I could reply.
She was a striking woman in her forties, with fine-boned features and a willowy figure.
Her chestnut-colored hair was done up in an elegant braid that wrapped around her head, and she wore a black and white knee-length dress and matching shoes.
Her dark eyes, identical to her daughter’s, narrowed as she caught sight of me, and her pale cheeks colored.
“How dare you show up on my property,” she railed, pointing an accusing finger at me. “After all you’ve done!”
“Mother,” Annia said tightly, turning back to face Mrs. Melcott. “Sunaya has nothing to do with this.”
“She has everything to do with it,” Mrs. Melcott insisted, her voice trembling.
Her eyes filled with angry tears as they focused in on me.
“My Noria looked up to you and Annia, and it was you who filled her head with foolish, rebellious thoughts! She should be at the academy now, taking her engineering classes and inventing things, not toiling away in the salt mines where you sent her!”
A pang of guilt hit me hard in the gut. “Mrs. Melcott, I didn’t—”
“Don’t bother,” Annia snarled, striding toward me.
She grabbed me by the arm, a little harder than necessary.
“My mother isn’t interested in listening to reason.
She just wants someone to blame, and she’s become very good at finding targets.
” Annia’s voice rose as she shot a furious glare at her mother and pulled me along. “I’ll be out of your hair soon enough.”
“Annia—” Mrs. Melcott called, a desperate edge in her voice now, but Annia ignored her.
I had to lengthen my stride to keep up with her as she dragged me to the back of the house—Annia was a little taller than me, and her legs were longer.
I kept my mouth shut until she’d ushered us into the one-bedroom guesthouse she’d used as an apartment for as long as I’d known her, then wisely decided to hold my tongue when she slammed the door shut, snatched a vase off a side table next to the leather couch, and smashed it into the wall.
“The Ur-God take it!” she snarled, then seemed to remember she was not alone.
Her shoulders slumped a little, and she leaned her arm against the low wall separating the living room from the entry way and looked at us.
“I’m sorry you had to see all that, but I wasn’t really expecting you. Who is this?” She gestured to Rylan.
“You don’t have to apologize. And this is Rylan.” I glanced toward him, and he tapped the pin on his chest, undoing the illusion spell. “Iannis and I thought it would be best to keep him disguised until things have calmed down.”
“It’s harder to impress the ladies smelling like a tiger, but I have to make do in these troubled times,” Rylan said, giving Annia a lopsided grin. “I’m posing as Sunaya’s bodyguard, Lanyr.”
Annia’s lips twitched, but the bleak look in her eyes didn’t change.
“That’s smart,” she said, heading into the kitchen so she could grab a bottle of wine from a cupboard.
There was a loud pop as she opened it using a corkscrew, and I arched a brow as she took a swig directly from the bottle.
“Considering that people tend to play the blame game whenever shit doesn’t go their way, I had a feeling you’d be a target.
” I knew she wasn’t just talking about me with that statement.
“Pretty much.” I decided not to mention that we’d been attacked earlier today—there was no point in distressing her further. “So what was that all about? Are you really moving out?”
“I don’t see that I have a choice.” Annia brought her bottle of wine into the living room, and we made ourselves comfortable on the couches.
Black, cream, and burgundy were the dominating colors in her décor scheme, and her family wealth showed in the expensive furnishings.
The sword hanging over the mantle, and the sheathed, ornate-looking knives adorning the walls, leant an edge to the elegance that I’d always admired.
“Your mother isn’t kicking you out, is she?” I asked. Another stab of guilt pierced my gut at the idea that I had contributed to this. “I know how much you like living here.”
“Those days are over,” Annia said, her eyes softening as they filled with sadness.
“Noria was Mother’s pride and joy, and she’s inconsolable now that she’s gone.
It’ll be a long time before Mother can accept that what happened to my sister was no one’s fault but her own.
It doesn’t help that the so-called friends she played cards with four times a week have snubbed her since they found out Noria was sentenced to hard labor in the mines.
She has no one to take her frustrations out on but me now, and I can’t put up with it anymore. ”
“I know how that is,” I said softly. I’d often felt Mafiela had been taking out her grief and anger over my mother’s death on me. Once I’d found shelter with Roanas, it had been a relief to escape all that. “Do you want to come and stay at the Palace while you find a new place?”
“It would be nice to have another friendly face around,” Rylan added. “It’s hard to make friends when no one is allowed to know who you really are.”
Annia shook her head. “That would only anger Mother more. Besides, I need to bury myself in work, or I’ll get depressed. Mother doesn’t realize it, but she’s not the only one grieving over Noria right now.” Her voice broke a little, and she took another swig from the bottle.
“Oh, Annia.” I shifted over to the other couch and wrapped an arm around her. “I feel like such a horrible friend for leaving you alone at a time like this.”
“Don’t,” Annia said, leaning into me. “You have your own troubles, and I’ve been busy at the Guild anyway.
We all have, what with the city trying to adjust. It’s just that Noria, Mother, and I used to have breakfast up in the main house every morning, and we used to hang out in the back garden for an hour before bed most nights.
We spent less time together as she got busy with her academy classes, but we were still close up until a few months ago.
I didn’t realize just how important those little rituals we had were, and how much our family needed them, until she was gone. ”
Her voice choked with tears then, and the room fell silent. Rylan averted his gaze, and I said nothing, just holding her tight as Annia struggled for composure. Eventually, she let out a breath, then eased herself from my arms.
“How rude of me,” she said as her fingers curled around the neck of the wine bottle. “I’ve been sitting here guzzling wine like a lush, and I haven’t offered you anything. Are you two hungry? I can probably throw something together.”
“No, that’s fine,” I said, standing up. Rylan and Annia got to their feet as well. “I have to meet Iannis for dinner. Do you want to come back to the Palace with us for tonight at least?”
“No, I need to pack. I’m leaving the day after tomorrow.”
“You’re what?”
“Not permanently,” Annia said hastily as she noticed my eyes nearly pop out of my head.
“Just for a few months. I’ve accepted a guard position for some sensitive equipment being transported to Southia, and once I’m there, I plan to take on some local gigs.
Like I said, I need to bury myself in work.
A change of environment and routine is for the best, at least right now. ”
“Well, I’ll miss the hell out of you.” My throat tightened, and I threw my arms around Annia and squeezed her tight. “Don’t be gone too long, okay? I am getting married at some point, you know.”
Annia laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve spent way too much time saving both yours and Lord Iannis’s asses to miss the wedding. I’ll make sure to send you my address down there, so you can contact me if you need anything.”
It was clear from the look in Annia’s eyes, and the set of her shoulders, that there was no use in convincing her to stay.
So Rylan and I said our goodbyes, then went back to the front of the house, where my bike was parked.
My shoulders tightened as I felt Mrs. Melcott’s accusing gaze from the window, but I didn’t turn to look.
There was no point in getting into another confrontation with her. Best to just let her be.
“I understand how Annia feels,” Rylan commented as we sped back to the Palace. “I remember how relieved I felt when I moved further north with the Resistance, away from Mother and the clan.”
“Yeah, I just hope she doesn’t end up staying down there permanently. I’ve heard that Southia’s laws are a lot looser, and there’s more crime.” Then again, that meant plenty of work for an enforcer. Maybe she would be down there for a while.
“True, but Annia’s a rolling stone. She’ll bulldoze through any opposition in her way, and she seems smart enough not to land herself into anything she can’t get out of.
The Resistance compound notwithstanding,” he added hastily.
“But I think that was because Noria clouded her judgment. She’s strong, and she’ll eventually get past this and want to come home.
” The admiration in Rylan’s voice was clear, and I wondered if he had a crush on Annia.
“I really hope so,” I said, trying my best to share his enthusiasm.
But it was hard—there were too many changes happening, too fast, and it seemed like for every new friend I gained, I lost another.
Hopefully this wouldn’t become a regular pattern, because at the rate I was going, my life would be completely unrecognizable before long.
And even though I was becoming a mage, I was determined to remain Sunaya Baine, no matter what.