Cal rolled his eyes. “Fine. We’ll find my brother. The all-knowing Icarus will love my coming to him for help.”
“Icarus?” Elias appeared to have come back to reality. “Where is Icarus?”
Cal waved his hand, and his dark green portal appeared.
“You learned the Darkmore portal,” Elias whispered, his voice proud. He took the hand Ara offered him and stepped through it without hesitation.
Juniper merely turned his face up from his spot on Ara’s pillow and yawned as they appeared on the other side.
“Georgie?” Elias asked, his eyes on the fox.
A memory of teasing a small orange cat with a ball of string as his mother laughed in the background overtook him and Cal felt a pang in his chest as he realized his father thought Juniper was his mother’s familiar. The thought turned to guilt as he realized he had forgotten his mother’s familiar. He had accused Icarus of being heartless and not visiting their mother and yet he hadn’t remembered the cat that never left her side.
He leaned against the dresser and watched as Ara led his father to her bed. Elias sank into the feather-down comforter and Juniper gave a lazy stretch before making himself comfortable in Elias’ lap.
“Your fox seems to have a fondness for Darkmore men.”
“We have that in common,” Ara said, shrugging off his jacket and walking to the basin on her dressing table. She poured a pitcher of water into it and dipped a pristine white handkerchief into it and rang it out.
Cal took his jacket, feeling the grimoire in the inner pocket. “What are you doing?”
“Your father hasn’t been clean in a very long time. I think he might appreciate a quick wash up and we can’t risk taking him to the baths.”
Cal took a step towards her and then reconsidered. “I can get him some clothes and do a quick cleaning spell. You don’t have to do that.”
Ara nodded. “You should do all of those things but if you had been locked away for a decade do you think you would crave a kind touch?” Her eyes sad. “I know I would.”
Cal was growing tired of feeling ashamed. It wasn’t an emotion he was familiar with and irritation washed through him.
Ara’s wet hand stroked his cheek. “You didn’t grow up with a kind touch either.”
Cal raised his hand and held hers to him, kissing her palm before releasing her. The simple goodness of her was astounding.
Elias sat like a child and let Ara clean his face of the years of grime that covered him while Cal made a quick portal to retrieve clothes. Her words echoed in his head. He had grown up with kindness as a young child but his years with Cyrus had changed him.
He brought the clothes to the bedside and stood there, feeling useless. “Do you . . . do you need help changing into them?”
Ara had spelled the filth from his body, although nothing could match the feeling of cleanliness from a warm bath it would do for now.
“I think I can manage a task as simple as this,” Elias said, but he struggled to lift his arms to take them from Cal.
Ara turned back to the dressing table and Cal was again grateful for her as he helped his father with the simple task. He likely would still be on his knees in the dungeon staring at the ghost of his past if Ara had not been with him.
“Can I—Can I sleep?” Elias asked, his eyes on the overstuffed pillows with longing.
Cal glanced back at Ara before nodding. “Of course you can.”
Elias sighed and put his head on the pillow, his eyes closing instantly. Juniper tucked himself under Elias’s chin and purred.
Cal clapped his hands, his mask returning. “Okay, where is my perfect brother? I can’t wait to see his face when I tell him Father’s alive.”
He turned around when she didn’t answer him, “Ara?”
Ara held up a hand to him and tilted her head as if listening to something. She narrowed her eyes in confusion and then, if Cal wasn’t mistaken, rage. He had never seen her as furious as she was now. She stomped over to him and grabbed his hand.
He felt dizzy as her power ran through his hand and into his head but the sensation cleared and it was as if they stood in the conservatory.
“Miss Marudas, if you would be so kind as to give me the stone.”
