‘No insult was intended,’ Bastion said placatingly as he paced. ‘I am anxious for Amber.’
Robbie’s glare faded. He understood that. I’d heard him murmuring with Ivan and Maktel about setting guards over my flat. He was anxious over me too.
I didn’t argue with him about the guards. With the Domini gunning for me, an ogre presence overnight, while I was sleeping, sounded like a good idea.
There was a sharp rap at the door not too long later, and I opened it to Amber and a man I didn’t know. Amber had her black tote bag slung on her shoulder, and as promised, she wasn’t dressed in her PJs. Instead she wore a blue flowing skirt and a white peasant shirt that suited her well. Her usually loose red hair was tied into a severe braid. I couldn’t help but notice it was the same shade as her father’s hair.
The man standing next to her looked like he was on a job, his body language tense.
‘My driver and guard,’ Amber said when my eyes roved over him. ‘Oscar.’
I stepped back to let them both gain entrance.
Oscar moved like ex-military, movements sharp and precise. He was in his sixties, I’d guess, with salt-and-pepper hair, a strong frame and zero sign of a beer belly. His eyes scanned the flat, cataloguing entrances and exits. Definitely ex-military.
‘Bastion wouldn’t leave me alone without a guard,’ Amber explained. ‘As if I can’t protect myself.’ She huffed.
‘You’re formidable, Bambi,’ Bastion said to his fiancé, ‘but you’re not a warrior.’
She set down her black tote bag and flew to him. He caught her and folded her into his arms, something I’d never seen him do in front of others. He gathered her close, and he pressed a chaste kiss to her temples.
‘Uh-oh,’ she said, tensing. ‘What happened? What did my father say? What did he do?’
‘I’m sorry,’ I began. ‘Your father died this evening.’
‘An oath death,’ Bastion added. ‘I’m so sorry, Amber.’
She recoiled, her green eyes flaring wide with shock. ‘An oath death?’ she whispered. ‘Oh, Great Goddess.’ She clung to Bastion, and her shoulders shook as she began to cry.
It was hard to see the usually indomitable woman falling apart. On an average day she held her cards close to her chest; you barely knew what she thought, let alone felt. That she felt she could show her emotions here touched me. She trusted me enough to let her guard down around me.
‘I should have visited him,’ she said brokenly between sobs. ‘I don’t know why I’m crying. He left. He abandoned me.’
‘Your mother sent him away,’ Bastion corrected softly. ‘To protect you from the evil magic he was practising. And he loved you … in his own way. He protected you.’
‘Yes.’ She nodded against his shoulder. ‘He did.’
She cried quietly in her lover’s arms, and we all stood silently and awkwardly as she grieved. My gut twisted in sympathy. I knew well what it was to lose a father.
Eventually, unable to stand it any longer, Oscar came over and offered his arms to Amber as well. She relinquished her hold on Bastion and fell into Oscar’s arms with a wailed, ‘Dad.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss, Am,’ Oscar murmured.
‘It’s no loss!’ she objected, her voice quavering. ‘I don’t know why I’m crying.’
‘Because it is a loss, love. And that’s okay.’
‘It doesn’t make sense.’
‘Love often doesn’t,’ Oscar said with a shrug. He gathered her close. ‘Let go, Am.’
She did, collapsing once more into her guard’s arms. Eventually she stopped crying and wiped her tears away fiercely. She stood, pushing away from her protectors.
‘I apologise for my conduct,’ she said stiffly to me.
‘Amber,’ I said, ‘when my dad died, I cried for weeks. Months even.’
The kettle flicked on and off once.
