Chapter 43 Ares
ARES
As I carried a deeply slumbering Ember into Hemlock House, I was mesmerized by the transformation. The mansion, which had fallen into deep disrepair over the years, practically glowed. The last time I’d been here it had looked like it might sink into the ground and simply cease to exist.
Now the herringbone pattern in the wood floors gleamed. New furniture, in deep jewel tones, graced the rooms I could see as we entered. Just off the entryway were a library and a small parlor, from what I could tell.
Plush rugs spread out over the floors—antiques, the quality of which were rarely seen in Orphium. The Orphium Maere could certainly afford this, but where had they gotten it all in such a short time? Everywhere I looked, there was precious art, glowing lamps, comfortable furniture, and plants?
Hemlock House looked as though it had been pulled from the pages of City & County Magazine. Many of the antiques I spotted on the shelves were occult in nature. Objects associated with each branch of the Trinity.
Briony came running down the sweeping staircase that filled the foyer, grinning.
“It’s great, isn’t it?” she asked as I nearly maneuvered Ember’s foot right into an enormous vase of expensive cut flowers.
They stood on a gorgeous primitive table, carved from a dark marble at the center of the foyer.
Each flower told a story on its own, but together…
Together, they told a story of comfort, of loyalty. The flowers named this place home.
Briony had reached the bottom of the stairs. “Eli and Lux had people here all day. You should see my room…. Is Ember okay?”
It occurred to me that Briony’s babbling was probably who she really was, not a scared, silent teenager, but one who talked.
A lot. Something about that idea, combined with the story the flowers told, touched me deeper than I imagined possible.
Perhaps it had been the stress of the day, in contrast with this place…
I was overwhelmed by my emotions, unable to sort them out, tired as I was.
“She’s all right,” I explained as the rest of the Maere, Eryx, and Av streamed in behind me. “She just used a lot of power destroying the thrysos. Can you tell me where her room is?”
Briony grinned. “Sure can. Right this way.”
I followed her through the house, which was decorated with such tasteful depth, it made sense that Lux was involved.
Sure enough, as I followed Briony through a set of double doors, Lux Medios, dressed in a poppy-red three piece suit, stared out the floor-length windows that looked out onto the pool and the skeletons of a late autumn garden.
In summer, it would bloom with a riot of hydrangea, dahlias, and probably peonies, from what I could tell.
But there was also foxglove amongst the flowers.
Foxglove, datura, hellebore, and of course, plenty of hemlock.
This was a Necroline house, originally, after all.
Gray light filtered through the wavy glass in the double doors. The sun would be up soon.
Lux stepped forward as Ember woke up in my arms. “Hi there, baby girl.”
“Hey Lux, this looks so pretty,” Ember said in a somewhat uncharacteristically sweet, sleepy voice.
“You know I like a project without a budget,” Lux purred. The Seer glanced up at me. “Leave us for a bit, so I can get your girl cleaned up, all right? There’s a shower through those doors and another bedroom just beyond.”
I frowned, was Ember going to be all right with Lux?
“I’ll be all right. Go see the bedroom.” Ember smiled at me as I set her down. “I hope you like it,” she said through a yawn.
I was reluctant to leave her, but she and Lux were friends, and if she needed a few moments to herself, I could give them.
The bathroom was on the smaller side, not as big as the one I’d seen through the doors in the primary bedroom, but luxuriously appointed.
I closed the door to Ember’s room to give her and Lux a little time.
Their soft voices drifted over me. Ember was telling her an abbreviated version of what had happened, from what I could tell, and Lux was running water in the shower.
My girl would be all right. I pushed open the double doors that sat opposite the one I just closed.
There was a smaller bedroom on the other side of the doors, and yet another set of doors opened up onto a small office.
On the desk that faced the window that looked out onto the garden and the pool, sat a note, written in Ember’s hand.
I frowned at it, wishing she was here beside me to explain.
But when I opened the envelope, I understood.
Her words were simply an invitation, one she wanted me to consider before saying yes.
There is room for all of us—stay if you like.
—E
I sank down into the comfortable desk chair and stared out at the rain, dropping into the crystalline emerald water of the pool.
Stay, she said. She bought this enormous house that had once belonged to my Dynasty, renovated it with the treasure trove of money the Consulate had paid her with over the years, and invited all of us to stay.
I had no doubt that my brother and Av were being shown to their own rooms as I sat here in my office. My office, which abutted a bedroom that was clearly for me. But it was not hers.
There was a line I’d missed in her note, a smaller one at the bottom of the card: I sleep fitfully, but we can have sleepovers as much as you want.
My heart swelled. She’d made room for me in her life in a way that finally accommodated her needs—that took how she wanted to live into account.
And she did sleep fitfully. I knew that from the short time we’d spent sleeping in the same bed.
If I had known she’d sleep better on her own, I would have left her to it.
But I was proud of her for speaking up for what she needed, the sting over having been given my own room fading as each moment passed, marked by another thump of my heart.
I set the card down and wandered back into the bathroom, showering and then dressing in a daze, choosing a pair of gray sweatpants and a black cashmere sweater—all in my size—before peeking through the door to Ember’s room.
She was tucked into her bed, her hair damp and cheeks rosy.
She was fast asleep. Lux was curled up in an oversized velvet chair in the corner, reading her tablet.
She’s fine, she mouthed to me. Let her sleep.
I nodded, then closed the door and wandered back through my bedroom and office.
I stood staring at all the little details: a watercolor painting of a flower shop, a portrait of the breed of dog I’d had as a child.
Countless pieces of me that Ember had collected in her mind over the years were evident here.
I didn’t understand how she’d done it, but she had.
Her nimble mind had pulled all these disparate memories of me together and made them mean something.
The flowers in the foyer. When I’d mentioned the language of flowers to her, she’d acted as though she didn’t know what it was.
But she knew now. She knew that I would know what that combination of flowers meant, and she’d made sure it was right there, the first thing I’d see when I came through the door.
Had anyone ever considered me thus? I couldn’t remember a single time in my life that anyone had ever paid such close attention to me. Ember Verona was chaos embodied, in so many ways, but I had underestimated her. I wouldn’t do it again. My woman had range.
A goofy grin made its way across my face, unfamiliar to me as the feeling of being so seen. In the hallway, there was a bit of movement. I went to the door to find Briony coming out of the room across the hall.
She rolled her eyes at me. “Guess you’re mom and dad now. Ember says my room has to be across from yours.”
I snorted a laugh. Ember had thought of everything. “Show me,” I said.
She opened the door wide, her smile brightening.
Stanley, in his favorite tomcat form, wound around her feet, purring happily.
The room was lovely, a richly patterned wallpaper that resembled an old tapestry of a unicorn hunt covering the walls.
Briony’s bed was canopied with midnight blue velvet curtains, and an enormous, sparkling chandelier cast a golden light throughout the room.
“It’s more like a lamp than a big light,” Briony explained. “Look, it’s dimmable.” She slid a switch up and down until she had it back at a cozy level. “Ember said I could have whatever I wanted. I’m getting tutors to help me get up to speed before I go back to school next spring.”
I nodded as she showed me the little room that connected her bathroom and closet, where there was a neat little desk with a giant cork board behind it and a state of the art computer with several screens.
“She wants us all to stay,” Briony said, sighing at the primo desk setup. “Are you going to?”
Briony’s eyes were big, wide with worry that I was going to leave her hero. I touched her arm. “I am not certain yet, but know this, I will always be here if you need me.”
“Don’t you love her?” Briony asked. There was an edge of a whine in her voice that I understood. In a short time, we had become the adults in her life.
“Yes,” I answered honestly. I was deeply touched by all of this, but I wouldn’t lie to the child.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to stay. I needed time to process.
Time to be sure before I made promises I might break to people I cared for.
“I just need to be sure that staying is the right thing for both of us.”
Briony shook her head. “If you love her, I don’t see what else there is to be sure of.”
Briony might be a teenager, but wiser words were probably never spoken.
Iwandered through the house, listening to Av talking with Eli, Lara, and Calypso in the hearth room off the kitchen.
They were getting to know each other, telling the story of tonight, but also telling one another about themselves.
As I made my way into the kitchen I noticed how carefully Eli watched Sera as she piled slices of pizza onto her plate.
And the way Max watched Eli, giving him the stink-eye.
I was staying miles away from that. It was a mess waiting to happen. Rhiannon sat with my brother in a little alcove that looked out over the greater garden. The two of them stared wide-eyed at Oleander Cottage. Both seemed practically transfixed by the place.
“Hey,” I said as I sat down with them. Neither had touched their food, though they both had full plates.
Eryx startled at my voice, as though he hadn’t heard me sit down or seen me coming. It was utterly unlike him to be unaware of his surroundings. “Hey, big brother.”
I frowned at Eryx, then felt for spirits.
There were a few Shades wandering around the house, but their energy was curious, happy that there were inhabitants in Hemlock House once more.
Nothing malicious. But under that, I felt Oleander Cottage.
It was as I remembered it, a whispering mess of malefic energy.
The sooner we warded it off, the better.
Slowly, Rhiannon turned away from the bank of leaded glass windows in the alcove. “Is Ember all right?”
I nodded. “She’s resting.”
Rhiannon took a deep breath, expelling air from her lungs like she was banishing something else. Was there something she sensed about Oleander Cottage that I didn’t? Before I could ask, she spoke. “This all turned out well, didn’t it?”
I hummed my agreement.
“Well,” Eryx said, drawing the word out slowly. “Are we staying?”
I listened as Av talked in the hearth room, her voice bright and animated.
A fire crackled merrily in the background, mixing with the sound of my friend talking.
She was deep in conversation with the others, and she sounded happy.
I watched as Briony snuggled in next to her, the necromancer’s arm hugging the teenager close before pressing a light kiss to the top of the girl’s head.
“I am,” I said, feeling as though this was a conversation I should be having with Ember first. Still, I knew it in my bones now that I’d had a bit of time to sort through the events of the evening, of the past weeks. “But whatever you want is fine.”
Eryx nodded. “I am not sure just yet. But I’m staying for a few days, no matter what.”
I nodded absently, as Lux wandered down the hall, on her way back from Ember’s bedroom. “Excuse me, please,” I said, getting up. “I am tired. I think I’ll go lay down for a while.”
A small smile played on Rhiannon’s lips as I walked away. My brother would stay. I knew it in my guts, the way I knew I’d never leave Ember or the family we’d build here—bit by bit, in a new world.