"Good morning! Give me a sec to get these wrapped up for you guys, and then we can…"
I trail off when I notice his body language.
Since Everett made it a rule for everyone to wear a mytherun charm while I'm guiding excavations, one sits on Silas's wrist. I'm not super savvy with magic substances, but mytherun is one I know and love just as much as the next empath. Charmed mytherun keeps me from having to feel every major and minor emotion of the people who wear it.
Still, I don't have to sense this fae's emotions to know something is going on with him. He seems like he's distracted. Or…unsettled. Maybe tired, too.
"Silas? What is it?"
His red gaze moves to my living room, lit by several cozy lamps since dawn is over an hour away. "May I come in? There are things we should discuss before we transport."
What's going on? Did something happen to Everett? Oh, gods—is one of them hurt? I invite Silas inside and sit on the couch across from him, fidgeting anxiously as the possibilities run wild in my head.
"Nice to see you again, Thirst Trap," Jessica says, waving her hand in front of his face.
Silas glances at her, but says nothing. As a necromancer, he can see ghosts, but not hear them. I've been careful not to let anyone know I'm still hanging out with my dead best friend, so I pretend not to even see Jessica.
"Your driver's side window is shattered," he notes absentmindedly.
"Oh—I was trying to pass a semi truck on the highway yesterday, and it kicked up a rock at the worst possible time," I lie without blinking, noting the dark circles under his eyes.
Silas usually cuts to the chase. If something has happened to my brother, he would've said so by now. Right?
He's still distracted. "Maven, Crypt, and Baelfire won't be at today's dig. Nor will Felix be."
"Why not?" I ask, worry growing. "Are they okay? Gods, did something happen? Are they?—"
"They're all in Halfton," the blood fae amends quickly. "Kenzie Baird went into labor with twins early this morning and asked my keeper to be there for the delivery. Maven agreed, obviously."
My worry transforms into relief. During the excavations, sometimes there's not a lot to do besides chat with the others, so even though I've only met Kenzie a couple of times, I've heard so much about her and the pregnancy from Felix. I know he and his quintet have been dying of excitement to meet their babies.
Gods, I'm so happy for the Baird quintet. Their twins will besocute.
But Silas looks like the exact opposite of someone bringing good news. One thing I've learned from being around Maven's quintet is that they absolutely hate being apart from her, even for a few hours.
This seems like more than that, though. Even though I can't read Silas's emotions, the general gloom around him is painfully familiar to me.
Almost like…
I clear my throat. "You can tell me to just shut up if I'm overstepping, but it seems like you're…grieving. Are you okay?"
Silas meets my eye finally. Reaching his blackened fingers into some kind of magical nothingness, he pulls out a letter and holds it up.
"Recognize this?"
I blink when I read my own handwriting on it. "Wait, that's…I sent that to the Garnet Wizard months ago. How did you get?—"
Oh. If he has that, it can only mean one thing.
No wonder he's mourning.
"I'm lost. Why does Thirst Trap have your letter offering tons of money for another magical emotion-blocking thingamabob?" Jessica asks, lounging on the couch beside him.
Silas sees that I've put the pieces together. "When the wizard's curse broke eight months ago, he was at a very advanced age and had already lived an inordinate amount of years for a mortal. Maven's mother reaped him two days ago. I'm one of the very few privy to that information. As it turns out, my eccentric mentor left everything to me in his very ironclad, very spell-bound will. Including all his unfinished business and unanswered correspondence from around the world."
He sets my letter on the coffee table. "I didn't expect to find yours in that pile."
"Oh, that old thing? You can just ignore it," I say quickly, waving it off.
