Esalia’s sharp eyes seemed to note my reaction. “Gideon likely wanted to wait for a regular meeting for your first time,” she explained. “Otherwise, I’m sure he would’ve invited you.” She smiled wider. “He says you’ll be our resident expert on the Priest. He’s told us how you and the youngest Greythorne tracked him for months. Didn’t you find a way to get advance notice of at least a few missives over this past summer…?”
She trailed at something she must have seen in my face.
I struggled to speak, to get past the shock caught in my throat.
“H-how… how could you possibly know about that?” I asked finally.
Valor frowned. He exchanged looks with his wife, then glanced back at me. His mouth opened after he took a breath, as though he were about to answer, but before he could, a door opened on the opposite side of the room, and we all turned.
This new door was much smaller than the one I’d used to enter, and blended in exactly with the stone wall. For the same reason, the opening seemed to appear out of nowhere, just to the left of a table covered in small cakes on multi-tiered trays. Forsooth walked in, hunched down to clear the opening, and smiled around at all of us as he bowed and nodded greetings to everyone with whom he made eye-contact. He aimed his last smile at me, eyes twinkling, before he turned and wandered to the table covered in cakes.
My eyes followed his progression and saw other sweets there: frothy cream and fruit concoctions, plates of biscuits, an assortment of small pies, and Magique’s answer to eclairs, chocolate cream puffs, and chocolate truffles.
My eyes also caught on several rows of steaming mugs sitting out on a smaller table, likely charmed to keep them from growing cold. While Forsooth bent over the assortment of sweets, I gave a glance around at the rest of the tower room, really seeing it for the first time. A stone fireplace stood to my left, large enough to fit two full-grown men, and filled with heavy logs that burned hotly. A number of squashy, comfortable-looking chairs stood in a ring with the fireplace at one end, taking up most of the standing area of the round, high-ceilinged room.
One chair stood somewhat apart from the others, its back to the high flames.
Forsooth walked up to that chair now, and sat himself in it, his bear primal ambling along behind. While Forsooth arranged his things, the bear plunked itself down on its fuzzy arse by one of the armchair’s wooden legs. It looked around at the rest of us, saw me, and raised a paw in a wave. I waved back like I always did, unthinking.
The bear growled an incoherent greeting.
Next to me, Valor burst out in a laugh, obviously noticing.
Forsooth himself balanced a teacup and saucer on one of the chair’s arms, and lined up three plates on the other: one holding several biscuits with chocolate swirls, one a fat, round cake with pink and black fondant frosting, and one with a fist-sized pie bleeding dark red sauce and fruit. They stood perfectly along the arm, like little soldiers.
“Do make yourselves comfortable,” Forsooth said cheerfully. “Grab something warm to drink. It gets drafty in here, even with the fire.” He arranged himself in the burgundy-colored seat and his face grew serious. “We should not waste any time. We have a new member, which is always good news, but in this case, I believeverygood news.”
I glanced at Valor, who quirked an eyebrow at me.
I considered pressing my questions from before, but it was too late for that now. Anyway, Forsooth warned me, hadn’t he? The night of the party? He’d strongly hinted that he knew something about me and Alaric. He definitely knew I was aware of Dark Cathedral, and that I had some sort of connection with Bones.
It felt different when it wasn’t just my eccentric, brilliant professor, but cousin Valor La Fey, high-ranking member of the Praecuri, and his also-praecurus wife, not to mention Professors Quicksilver, Blackstone, Underwood, and the rest. Had Bones and I been idiots, thinking we could hide anything from these people?
I told myself to relax.
As far as tonight was concerned, I had no way of knowing if I had reason to worry. Bones might’ve been cut off at the door. He’d said that was a very real possibility, given it would be Forsooth who cast most of the security spells.
Clearing my mind of any thought of Alaric or chimaeras or highly sketchy deals I’d made with the blond prince of Malcroix Bones, I walked over to the dessert-laden table and looked atthe selection of plates. Truthfully, I was still hungry. I seemed to be hungry all the time now that Bones had taken over all of my exercise routines.
I’d also left the dining hall before dessert, mostly because I’d been desperate for a shower, and wanted to finish my reading for History of Magical Warfare before the meeting. I could’ve waited until later to do that, but I’d likely need to practice some of Bones’s spells, or else get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to work on them before breakfast.
Just thinking about all the sit-ups and pull-ups and stretches I’d done already that day made me want chocolate even more.
I decided on a fruit pie that looked a lot like the one Forsooth took, three biscuits I managed to fit on the same plate, a truffle-like lump of chocolate, and a mug of what looked and smelled like hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows. Once I’d got it all awkwardly in my hands, I turned around to find everyone in the circle waiting for me.
They’d all taken their seats, and no one else had a dessert apart from Forsooth and Esalia, who had two cream puffs and a cup of tea.
Professor Quicksilver looked from the pie to my face and quirked an eyebrow. He still gripped a rocks glass in one hand, filled with something I guessed wasn’t apple juice.
I took the last remaining armchair, which was dark gold and heavenly soft.
Setting my plates down carefully on one of the chair’s arms, I cleared my throat, and waited, taking a sip of the absolutely delicious hot chocolate, which I held in both hands. I was definitely feeling the draft Forsooth mentioned.
Forsooth smiled at me and winked.
He turned to face the rest of the circle.
“As all of you know, I invited Leda Shadow-La Fey to join us.” He turned to face me, and smiled wider. “I wasn’t able toexplain my reasoning in detail to Ms. Shadow herself, given our location when I extended the invite, but I believe she’s got some understanding of our purpose already.”
