11. Chapter 11
Milo
Milo had damn near swooned earlier when Rowan had appeared like his avenger and punched Andrew dead in the face.
He’d known Rowan hated what Andrew had done to him.
The man had a very strong moral compass and didn’t believe for a second that cheating was ever the answer.
He would have punched Andrew just on principle, but Rowan hadn’t moved for that reason—he’d avenged Milo.
When they’d joked on the way up here about feeding Andrew to the Drachifel, Milo had thought it a joke.
Rowan’s actions had felt like a kiss to the bruise on Milo’s heart.
A get-better sort of kiss. Hard to explain, but he felt a little better after seeing how enraged Rowan was on his behalf.
Also, he was not-so-secretly falling even harder for the man.
The way Rowan unapologetically put Milo as the priority was downright sexy.
More than that, though, was Rowan’s speech.
His usually quiet lover had picked up on some of Milo’s insecurities.
Said insecurities being so obvious wasn’t an entirely comfortable realization.
Milo didn’t quite like that his nervous tics gave him away, but on the other hand, he felt so seen.
Rowan saw him, flaws and all, and still chose him.
Adamantly chose him, even, defending him not only from physical harm, but emotional.
Never in his life had a man stood beside him with such stalwart conviction.
Honestly, he fell a little more for Rowan because of it.
Milo had always been scared to share everything about himself because even his surface-level features, like his high energy and chattiness, weren’t always welcome.
Some part of him had kept his heart guarded—a defense mechanism developed over time.
Apparently, he didn’t need to keep his guard up with Rowan.
The man saw him and embraced him wholly.
Damn, what a heady feeling, to know he was wanted precisely as he was. It gave Milo a euphoria he hoped he never came down from. He’d do his best to return that devotion, too.
He managed to finish the task he’d set himself for the day, despite all the distractions, and was happy to go to dinner, even with Andrew being in the vicinity.
That emotionally stunted slug was no longer any threat to him.
If he approached Milo again, Milo would blast him silly without compunction.
Based on his empty spot at the table, it appeared Andrew had some modicum of self-preservation. Either that or he couldn’t eat comfortably with his nose broken. Likely wouldn’t for another day while the healing potions did their job. At any rate, he didn’t show up in the dining hall for dinner.
Milo was just as glad. The man would have spoiled his appetite.
Bennet had also declined dining with the family tonight, but it seemed he was worn out from his travels, which was understandable.
Riley sat across from Milo, blue eyes speculative. Then she asked Rowan, “Need an alibi?”
“Don’t tempt me,” Rowan said with a groan.
Milo had no problem with Andrew dying a short, tragic death, but… “Unfortunately, Bennet knows how mad he is at Andrew. He’ll be the first suspect regardless.”
Ruben’s eyes danced with amusement. “That the only reason?”
“Otherwise I’d have dropped Andrew to the Drachifel myself,” Milo promised him dryly. “I do not have any lingering feelings for the man. Well, except regret. But his sins are his own to carry. I refuse to take part.”
Rowan nodded approvingly, eyes crinkling as he smiled. He’d liked Milo’s statement a lot.
Milo refused to keep thinking about the man. “Change of subject—Reagan, Roana, our jewelry making supplies are here. Can I teach you what you need to know after dinner so you can start making the necklaces? You can get a head start while I’m finishing the ward.”
“Sure!” Reagan looked delighted. “Uh, we can start without you, though?”
“Absolutely you can. The jewelry itself isn’t anything more than a way to anchor the spell. There is a specific design to it—mostly so the magic has direction—but you don’t need me for that part.”
Some would argue they were in spring season now, so this project might be a touch early to start on, but Milo didn’t think so.
For one, winters came early up here. Rowan had told him they’d had snows as early as Ninth Month before.
Generally it started in Tenth Month, though.
Still, they had about five or six months to make two thousand necklaces.
Having made stuff like this before, Milo knew for a fact that crafting of any sort took time.
There was no way to speed up the process, either.
Even with help, it would behoove them to get this done early. Or at least start early.
Troy sat at the head of the table and waved to catch Milo’s attention. “If you do the spellwork on the necklaces now, though, won’t the magic fail before they can even be used?”
“Huh? Ohhhh, right, I told you the spell would only last about six months. No, no, I meant six months of use. Unless the necklace is touching skin, the spell isn’t active. I actually saw one necklace last a full year because it was a mild winter.”
“Oh, you meant six months of active everyday use.”
“Correct-o.”
“That does make more sense.”
Dinner wrapped up there. Rowan took himself off—he normally did a last patrol around the fortress to make sure everyone was set on night watch at this hour—and people dispersed.
Roana followed Milo to his workroom, while Reagan said she needed to stop by her room first. The workroom still needed to be properly unpacked and organized, but he didn’t have the right shelf space yet.
Rowan had found a good worktable and chairs to put in here, which at least gave them space to work.
Luckily, he had plenty of oil lamps, but he’d cast a few mage lights if needed.
Milo dug through crates that had been brought in earlier, finding the base materials. Platinum wire, rectangular platinum bases, plus spools of leather cord with small hooks to attach. Good, everything he’d ordered.
Setting some of it on the table, he then fetched the basic tools, including wire cutters and pliers. Reagan entered the room and started setting out her own tools, and within a minute she was already set up in her chair and ready to go.
Roana was messing with her twin by carefully pushing the plier handle juuuuust so it wasn’t perfectly aligned with everything else. Reagan glared at her and moved it back.
Roana slowly reached over to do it again, got a smack on the hand for it, and snickered, delighted at the reaction.
With the way she was acting, it was like having Ruben in the room.
Handing tools to Roana, Milo started explaining. “I’ll do one so you’ve got an example to look at, but it’s really not very hard. Most of it is assembly, which I think you can do blind, Reagan. The one part that needs to be accurate is the sigil itself. We’re making a stylized fire emblem.”
“Uh…how?” Reagan looked around in askance. “With paint, or…?”
“No, with the platinum wire. It has to be all platinum because the warming spell won’t react well to ink or paint.
It has to be metal.” Milo had made charms like this so many times, he could eyeball everything.
He cut himself a nice length of wire and then started bending it.
“Have you not seen heating charms before?”
“Well, we’ve heard of them, but the previous mages didn’t do stuff like this. Uncle Harold was old.” Roana shrugged like what else was there to say?
Granted, if the man had been old and near retirement age, he’d likely had to cut back on how much work he’d done. It made sense he’d focus more on maintaining spells for safety.
Both girls watched carefully as Milo bent the wire into a stylized flame shape. Hardly bigger than his fingernail, it wasn’t super fancy, just three small triangular-ish shapes, like a small fire reaching upward.
“There, done. It doesn’t have to be this exact shape, but something fire looking. Also the right width to fit on the platinum base. Now, once this wire is done, I’ll fix it to the base like so…” Milo grabbed a small base and enacted a very simple spell. “Fuse.”
The emblem welded itself onto the platinum base obediently, acting like he’d taken it to flame to manage just that.
“I won’t place the heating spell on it yet. You’re going to need to touch it a lot in order to finish the necklace, after all. But that’s the gist.”
“We won’t be able to fuse, though, right?”
“You won’t, so just set the emblems aside after making them. I’ll come through at night before bed and fuse them all together, then do batches of the charm later once it’s completely assembled.”
“Lots of steps to this,” Roana observed.
“True, but it’ll go so much faster with you two helping me.” Which was absolutely the truth.
Roana eyed the wire, then decisively reached for it and cut off a strip, much like Milo had done. She carefully used the pliers to bend it, and the shape was decent; nothing Milo deemed worthy of correcting.
“Like this?”
“Yup, that’s just fine.”
Roana was pleased by the praise. Of the two, she wasn’t crafty by nature, more the outdoorsy sort. Both twins had told him that earlier but were also adamant about helping. Reagan tapped her on the shoulder, pointing to Roana first. “Wire?” Then pointed to herself. “Assembly?”
“Done,” Roana agreed.
Well, they had a nice division of labor. Reagan would be more comfortable with the actual assembly of the necklaces, and the wire bending was something Roana seemed comfortable doing.
“For tonight, I’ll join you, but the ward is my priority.” Milo cut some cord to help speed Reagan’s assembly along.
For some reason, both girls shared an arch look, then turned back to him.
“The ward is your only priority?” Roana teased. “Not my uncle?”
“Now, why are you asking silly questions?”
She snickered, enjoying herself immensely over there. “Are you going to marry him?”