Rontu seemed to understand at once what had occurred, despite his lack of reaction as the act took place. His eyes fell to the bloody knife gripped tightly in Malefic’s hand, now hung close to his right thigh.
A flash of disbelief, fear, and horror shone on that narrow face.
The thin lips opened in a gaspingoh.
Then, Rontu Barnaby Excelsus Obeah, Representative to the United Kingdom by order of the Obeah Regis, highest adept of his caste known to be living in England, and third in line to the Sanctum Occulus itself, crumpled in a boneless mass.
His ermine-lined cloak, expensive Italian suit, calf-skin boots, ghost-white skin, and iron gray hair soon meant little more to Malefic than a burdensome mess that temporarily marred the delicate pattern of a very expensive Persian carpet.
“Malefic?”She awoke slowly, blinking into the parted curtains and swath of dusty sunlight. She stretched her arms carefully, her small-lipped mouth pursed as she stared up at the silhouette of her husband. “Where is Gretarch?” she asked, looking around for her mephysician and her team. “Did the Apothecary call them back?”
Her husband stood in the sun-washed window, a wrapped bundle in his arms.
The Bones crest stood out on the dark red blanket, a bone-white skull with a dragon wrapped around it, done in gold and black silk that shimmered iridescent green where it caught thelight. Malefic’s hooded eyes stared greedily down at the child within the bundle. His mouth curled in a covetous smile that somehow didn’t look like a smile.
Or maybe it just didn’t feel like one.
Vaevarya Anastasia Bones, née Parshukova, glanced around the unfamiliar room.
Perhaps four hundred years ago, some distant Bones mage had chosen this space for the Bones women to use when they underwent birthing labors. Vaevarya, or Varya, as her husband called her, had never even entered the room until a week ago. Malefic had never seen fit to show it to her. Yet somehow, the servants managed to prepare it all without her noticing, fitting every corner with all new everything, from the curtains down to every pillowcase, sheet, towel, and washcloth. They’d even filled the closet with fresh clothing for her.
The only old things left were the walls, the fireplace, the bed frame, and antique details like the water pitcher and bed-warming pans.
They were definitely alone.
Varya saw the crib nearby, but everything else she remembered from the room was gone.
The rows of empty bottles filled with medicines, spelled and not, to help her through the birth. The basins of blood-tinged water. The instruments they’d brought and used on different parts of her. She shuddered at the memory, then looked back to her husband.
“Did you send them away?” she asked cautiously.
He turned to look at her for the first time, his stare a near-warning.
“Yes, Vayra,” he said. “I sent them away. And you aren’t to ask anyone about them again, dearest, particularly by name. If anyone were to come toyou,and to inquire about a single one of them, you have never heard the names before in your life.We handled the birth here, with our trained staff. Alone. For the privacy of the family.”
Her fingers clenched in the furred skin that lay over her body.
She knew her husband, even if he remained an enigma to her in many ways.
She could read at least pieces of his meaning through the heaviness of the silence from what he had not said.
“Did Rontu come?” she asked, even more cautiously. “Did he do the reading on our son?”
“He did not,” Malefic clipped.
“Why not?” Her eyes and voice remained wary, careful.
“I do not know.” Malefic lifted an eyebrow in her direction, his voice light, easy, almost indifferent, but a cold light lived in those silver eyes. “He never answered my summons, my love. I have sent two more letters this morning, and nothing.”
“But our son must be read,” Varya said, her eyes wider. “It is tradition. It must be written into his birth book, when we make his name official––”
“I will take care of it all, my darling.” Malefic’s warning rose to the surface. He gave her a slightly harder stare. “Do I not always take care of this family?”
She hesitated, then nodded slowly, carefully.
Her eyes fell to the bundle in his arms.
The way he held him…
