I gripped the edges of his coat so that it stayed mostly around me.
Snowflakes pelted wetly against my face, rivulets running down my neck and into my clothes. I didn’t mind for some reason, and just clutched him tighter, looking down partly to shield my eyes, and partly to see where we were. Most of my view went totally white, but I glimpsed the darker ground, which was also gradually whitening.
A handful of mages and witches passed below us at first, then I saw nothing but fields and trees, until the river snaked below our feet.
Everything grew so quiet in the snow, even in flight.
Bones’s arms gripped me firmly around the waist and shoulders. His body behind mine felt overly hot and somehow completely tense, like he’d clenched every muscle around me out of fear he might drop me by accident, if he relaxed even enough to breathe.
I glimpsed the castle then, with only a few lit windows at first.
Then the entire length of the second floor on the east wing grew visible, lit by firelight that belonged to the massive stone fireplaces inside Frumpy’s. We were flying almost directly towards the main building and the highest part of the mansion. Angling his wings and swooping us back towards the west, Bones sailed us past most of the west wing, and landed on the edge of the ground floor balcony, right by a small door.
I just stood there, shivering, as he removed his wings and magically folded them up so they were the size of a small suitcase. Lifting them by a strap, he held out a hand to guide me and walked us both to the iron and glass door.
It struck me that I was still blonde, my features still not mine.
I don’t know why that struck me right then, but it felt strange to realize no one would look twice at me being with Bones, even this late at night. They would definitely assume he was bringing me to his room, and to his bed, after a date night out.
He jerked open the balcony door.
After a few more steps inside, we were in the dark, narrow corridor just outside the door to his tower. He didn’t wait, but began opening the shields and chimaeras I felt shimmering in the air, pulling me to stand with him.
I remembered the version of him that had confronted me in this exact same place, the cold eyes that had measured me right before he slammed the door.
He turned on me, sharply.
I saw something different in his eyes as they met mine, a scrutiny that lived right on the surface. With it, those hard walls I normally felt around his magical aura lowered, enough that I could see him looking at me candidly. That suspicious, angry layer that normally made him so impossible to talk to softened enough that I felt myself relax.
“You really thought you saw me here?” he asked, quiet. “That wasn’t just an excuse for you not showing that night?”
“IknowI saw you,” I told him, wrapping my arms around my torso and shivering. “It wasn’t like I glimpsed you from a distance, shutting the door in my face. I talked to you, Bones. We had a conversation.” Clenching my jaw a little, I added, “You sent me away. After saying some really bloody bizarre things to me, frankly. If you’d been willing to listen to me, even once over these past two weeks, you would know that.”
He shook his head slowly, but for the first time in any of our discussions about that night, he didn’t look angry, or like he didn’t believe me. He continued to look sharp, assessing, like he did when we discussed fight strategy, or when he was critiquing my form.
“It wasn’t me,” he said. “It had to have been someone else.”
“I saw your primal,” I told him. “Your real one.”
He froze. His frown deepened as he turned to stare at me, his hand still on the door.
“That’s not possible,” he stated flatly.
“I’m telling you what I saw,” I said, frustrated. “You were acting so bloody strange, it actually made me wonder if itwasyou––”
“It wasn’t,” he cut in.
“––So I checked your primal,” I finished. “It was there. Same as ever.”
He continued to frown as he looked away, and a second later, he jerked open the door.
I followed him up the stairs, and it occurred to me again that we hadn’t talked about this, either. Was he just taking me upstairs to change me back? Then what? Was I supposed to sneak back to Valarian afterwards? Wearing one of his school jumpers, maybe?
I realized some part of me had expected something different in him bringing me here.
I pushed the thought out of my mind angrily.
I just stood there, waiting, as he unlocked the door to his residence at the top of the stairs. Once he’d opened it, I followed him inside without a word. I waited again, just inside, as he closed and re-locked everything from the inside. I followed him with my eyes as he shouldered off his topcoat, and hung it on a wall hook near where I stood.
