Fourteen
The next morning, the sun came up in all its glory, pinks and oranges painting the clouds in a lavender sky. Elaine watched it from their back deck, a mug of coffee cradled in both hands, an oversized sweater drawn tight around her against the chill. Joslyn was awake, too, despite the early hour, neither of them able to sleep very well though they likely should have. Elaine had been up at her usual time of morning for a weekday, not necessarily odd for a Saturday but not that common, either. There was a bite to the October air, a promise of things to come, perhaps sooner than anyone would have liked. But it was Michigan, and that was to be expected. She could just smell the faintest scent of woodsmoke on the morning wind, a sign that either someone had held a bonfire the night before or perhaps someone had fired up their wood-burning stove or fireplace that morning. It didn’t matter what it was from. In the end, it was a comforting, familiar scent that fall brought every year, one she reveled in the same way she reveled in the changing leaves and the taste of cider and doughnuts. It had always been her favorite season and she suspected it always would be. Affections like that, she’d noticed, seemed to run deep in her family—at least it always had.
It was hard being the only one left.
“You okay?”
She glanced back at Joslyn as her friend leaned out the slider to watch her. They were both still in their pajamas—flannel pants and a tank top for Elaine, an oversized tee and boxer shorts for Joslyn—and seemed poised to stay that way for the better part of the day unless something intervened.
Elaine nodded. “Yeah. Just watching the sunrise. Pretty this morning.”
Joslyn looked past her, gaze lingering on the sky for a few seconds before she nodded. “Yeah,” she said softly, padding in her slippers out onto the deck, hugging herself against the morning air. “But chilly. Was it this cold last night?”
“Pretty close to,” Elaine said. “We just didn’t notice. I think we were better dressed for it.”
Joslyn laughed and shook her head. “Probably right. At least it doesn’t look like rain again.” The previous weekend it had rained from Friday night straight through to Monday morning, soggy and dreary though not necessarily all that cold, surprisingly enough. If it rained today, though, the dampness would certainly set in, likely in the most unpleasant ways.
They leaned against the rail together for a few minutes, both staring up at the sky. Joslyn chewed her lip and Elaine glanced at her sidelong.
“Are you okay?”
Joslyn nodded. “Yeah. Just…just a little nervous, I guess. I don’t even know when he’s going to be here, just that he’s coming, you know?”
“I know,” Elaine said, taking a sip of coffee. “He didn’t tell you anything about where he’d be coming from?”
She shook her head. “No. He just said he’d come and that was that. I gave him the address. I don’t even know if he’s driving. He could be flying or taking a train or who knows what.”
“I’m sure he’ll get here safe,” Elaine said, reaching over to squeeze her arm. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
“There is a hell of a lot to worry about,” Joslyn said, then laughed. “I should get dressed. God only knows when he’s going to show up.”
“And you’re not intending for him to see you in your pajamas?” Elaine grinned at her sidelong and Joslyn laughed.
“It would be quite the impression.”
“It’s not like he doesn’t already know you, Joss.” Elaine squeezed her arm again and straightened. “I mean, he’s been talking to you for months.”
“Almost since launch,” Joslyn murmured. “Feels like forever.”
Elaine smiled. “Then what are you worried about?”
“I guess I’m not,” she said, then smiled. “Maybe a little.”
“Well, miss ‘maybe a little,’ let’s go inside and have some breakfast because I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not do this on an empty stomach—if it happens sometime this morning at all. You said yourself, you don’t know how he’s getting here or where he’s coming from.” Elaine threw her arm around Joslyn’s shoulders and tugged her friend back toward their townhouse. Joslyn sighed with a crooked smile and leaned into her for a second, wrapping her arm around Elaine’s waist in a quick hug.
“You’re the best, you know that, right?”
“So are you,” Elaine said, grinning and gulping down the last of what was in her coffee mug as they stepped inside. “I think I want oatmeal.”
“I’m going to make some toast,” Joslyn said, and together they descended on the kitchen.
It was only a few minutes before they were both settled at their little kitchen table, each with the breakfast of their choice and each with a fresh mug of hot coffee. For a few minutes more, there was only the sound of Elaine’s spoon against her bowl and the scrape of a butter knife across toast as Joslyn spread her half-melted butter around.
It was Joslyn who finally broke the silence. “So what’s on your agenda today?”
Elaine shrugged slightly. “Probably going to work on organizing some research I’ve got here and do some reading for Monday afternoon. Maybe I’ll log in for a little while. We’ll see.”
Joslyn smiled wryly. “So how did it go last night with Lord Caius before shit hit the fan all over the place?”
A blush stole across Elaine’s cheeks and she shook her head quickly. Joslyn smirked, leaning back.
“Well?”
“We danced,” Elaine said simply. “That’s all.”
“The entire time?”
“Until he got stabbed,” Elaine said, glancing down into her bowl. “Then shit got a little unpleasant.”
“As one would expect,” Joslyn said, taking a sip of her coffee. “Considering he got stabbed in the back by god knows who.”
“Yeah,” Elaine said, scraping another spoonful of oatmeal from her bowl. “Everything got a little surreal there—ironic, considering it’s a freaking game, but still. It was like things slowed down and sped up at the same time. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced something like that before.”
Joslyn shivered. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m glad it was you and not me. I don’t know if I’d have been able to keep my head.”
“How do you know that I did?”
“Because the person you sent to come get us told us you did,” Joslyn said, shaking her head. “Besides, you’ve always had a more level head than me. It’s just a thing, I think.”
Elaine snorted. “If you say so.”
“I do.”
Elaine just grinned and got up, shoveling the last spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth and heading for the sink. “Well, I think you’re flattering me just a little in that scenario,” she said as she put her bowl and spoon into the sink and ran hot water into it. “But thank you nonetheless.”
Now it was Joslyn’s turn to snort.
There was a knock at the front door. Both women froze, staring at it for a moment, then meeting each other’s gaze.
“Do you think…?”
Joslyn nodded, swallowing hard. She started to stand up but Elaine waved her back into her chair.
“I got it,” she said, turning off the water, drying her hands on a striped towel on her way to the front door. She fought down a strange queasy, excited feeling in her stomach on her way there, leaving the towel on the edge of the counter as she headed from the kitchen to their small foyer, where light jackets hung on pegs next to their front door, shoes lined up in a neat row beneath them, toes not quite resting against the wall. Elaine twisted the deadbolt and opened the door just a crack, peering out to see who’d come knocking at just past eight in the morning.
He was slender, dark-haired, a few inches taller than she was, perhaps an inch or less taller than Joslyn. His eyes were green, copper around the irises, and seemed much too old for his face. He was dressed in jeans and a wrinkled tee beneath a half-zipped hoodie, its sleeves rolled to his elbows, feet shoved into a pair of old low-rise Converse. He peered through the crack, meeting her gaze with a hopeful one of his own. He swallowed once, then asked quietly, “Is Joslyn here?”
Elaine stared at him a moment longer, then nodded. “Are you—?
“Jason,” he said quietly. “Ascalon, if you know that name, too.”
“I do,” Elaine said as she slowly swung the door open a little wider. “Come on in. I’m Elaine—Joss is my roommate.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Jason murmured as he stepped into the foyer. By now, Joslyn had come to the doorway that led from the foyer back into their kitchen and living room, leaning in its archway and staring directly at him.
“Hi,’ she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“Hi,” he echoed, his own voice not much more than that.
Elaine quietly closed the door behind him and locked it again, watching them stare at each other for an awkwardly long time. She cleared her throat. “I’m sure you’re hungry and could use some coffee,” she said, slipping past him on her way back to the kitchen. “I’ll go put on a fresh pot.”
They’d gone through most of the one she’d made when she’d gotten up anyway.
That jarred the pair out of their awkward silence and unfroze each of them, Jason by the front door and Joslyn six feet away. Elaine glanced back to see Joslyn taking a step forward, toward Jason, and smiled slightly to herself, continuing across the kitchen to the coffeemaker.
“How was the drive?” she heard Joslyn ask, her voice quiet, almost tentative.
“Long,” Jason said. “I had to stop for about an hour once I crossed the state line so I could sleep for an hour. Was going cross-eyed when I was on the tristate and that wasn’t going to be a good way to make the rest of the drive.”
“The tristate,” Joslyn echoed. “Where did you drive from?”
“Wisconsin,” he said. “I know I could’ve taken the ferry but I—I don’t know. I guess I wanted to stay in control. I know I didn’t want to be on anyone else’s schedule.”
“I’m just glad you got here safely,” Joslyn said.
Elaine leaned back from the coffee pot, peering back through the doorway. The angle wasn’t right; she couldn’t see anything.
Not that I should be spying on them anyway.
She shook her head at herself.
In the pocket of her sweater, her phone buzzed. She dug it out on her way to the sink to rinse the coffee carafe and fill it so she could start the promised fresh pot. An alert glowed on the blue background, one from the Universe companion app she’d finally gotten around to installing on her new phone after replacing her old one months ago.
New letter. Huh.
Elaine tucked her phone back into her pocket, though her heart had started to beat a little faster. There was something exciting about getting a message that morning, as silly as it seemed. She forced herself to wait until she got the coffee going before she dug her phone back out again, setting it on the countertop as she reached up to get a mug down from the cabinet for Jason. She left it there as she went back to the kitchen table to retrieve her own mug, sipping from it as she returned to the counter and swiped a finger across the notification, unlocking her phone and opening the message in the same motion.
The message was from Caius.
Lady Arenvale,
You have my heartfelt thanks for your assistance last night. I hope that the excitement will not prevent you from being my guest again in the future. I would like to see you again soon, though I suspect that as a healer, you will likely appear at Weatherstone soon enough to check on my progress. I assure you that I remain abed, as I suspect you instructed my staff to keep me while I was unconscious. I have instructed them that you are to be admitted into my presence as you see fit. I confess that I hope that you will see fit soon.
Faithfully,
Caius.
Her heart rose into her throat, still beating too fast, and for a second it was hard to breath, a burst of nervous butterflies erupting in her stomach.
He’d signed it simply ‘Caius.’
What did that mean? Did it mean anything, or was she reading too much into all of it?
Taking a deep breath, she closed the app and stuffed her phone back into her pocket, leaning against the countertop. The coffeemaker made its familiar noises as a fresh pot brewed, and she stared at it perhaps a little too intensely, trying not to eavesdrop on what was going on out in the foyer. Joslyn and Jason weren’t making eavesdropping easy, in any case, their voices low enough that she really couldn’t make out whatever they were saying over the sound of the coffeemaker.
They probably wouldn’t miss me if I went upstairs, would they? Would Joss be okay with that? Of course. Of course she would be. She’s known Ascalon for a long time now—even if this is the first time they’ve seen each other face to face. Elaine glanced toward the foyer again, then sighed and shook her head. She took another gulp of coffee, resolving to wait at least until the fresh pot was done.
The brewing had just finished when Joslyn appeared in the doorway again, drawing Jason behind her by the hand, a faint blush creeping across her cheeks. Still leaning against the counter, Elaine arched a brow at her friend, studying the pair as she gulped down the last of the coffee in her mug.
“What?”
Joslyn shook her head, leading Jason over to the kitchen table. Elaine’s brow climbed higher, but she turned away, reaching for the carafe.
“How do you like your coffee, Jason?”
He seemed startled by the question as he dropped into a chair at the kitchen table. “Uhm, black is fine.”
Elaine nodded, her back still to them as she filled the mug. She filled hers, too, before she put the carafe back, then collected Jason’s cup and brought it to the table, handing it over with a crooked smile. “I hope it’s not too strong.”
“I honestly doubt that it would be,” he said, smiling warmly as he took the mug from her. “Thank you.”
Elaine nodded, then headed to the fridge for cream for her own coffee. “Was it a bad drive?”
“No,” he said. “Not too bad. Just long and it was dark and last night was a little exciting before I did that. I probably should’ve slept a couple hours before I left but I—” he broke off, looking at Joslyn for a few seconds as she reclaimed her seat at the table. “—I just wanted to get here,” he finished, his voice quieter. “I needed to get here, I guess.”
“Well, we’re both glad that you made it safely,” Elaine said, smiling. “I’ll let you two…uhm. I’ll let you two talk. I’ve got some work to do upstairs anyway.” She wrapped both hands around her mug. “It’s nice to meet you, Jason.”
“Likewise,” he said quietly, watching her for a few seconds.
Elaine smiled again, nodded, then retreated up the stairs, leaving the pair alone in the kitchen.
