“I am not a monster,” he sobbed.
He curled against the sheets.
“I am not my maker.”
“You cannot remain here,”Eleanor said, weighing down his mattress as she sat on the end. “You need to feed eventually.”
“And I suppose you will offer your blood?” he mocked, refusing to turn away from the wall, hiding from his own humiliation.
“Well, no,” she said, exhaling a laugh that was equal parts exasperation and amusement. “But the rats and other creatures are starting to pile up. It is gross, Elias. Your fox has even started leaving them onourdoorstep.”
Elias turned slowly. He held her gaze for a moment and then, despite the hurt, a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth despite the ache in his chest. “You are enjoying this,” he said, voice raw yet not without affection.
“I did tell you to leave her well enough alone,” Eleanor scolded, unapologetic. “But I am also your friend, Elias. Just as I am hers. If you think I am going to watch you rot, you are sorely mistaken. And if I must clean up after you, I expect some cooperation. At least pretend you value yourself beyond mere misery.”
“You make it sound so… pedestrian.”
“Pedestrian? Elias, you are curled in despair like a child. It is tragic—and frankly, ridiculous. I will not watch you squander yourself. Besides, you have not even tried to work things out with her. You just left.”
“She was ashamed of me!”
“She wasscared!” Eleanor shot back before stopping herself with a forced breath. “Listen, I understand where your hurt comes from. Osiris suffered with much the same anxiousness. But, you chose to get close to her. You see how the women in our town are raised. The fact thatPennyof all people was willing to go against her father—even if in secret, should show you that there is hope. Read her letter, at the very least. Osiris went though great lengths to retrieve it from that fox of yours. Quite smart, I must admit.”
Elias held her gaze for a moment longer before releasing a breath. “Very well.”
“Good. And after that, perhaps we can discuss the proper management of foxes and vermin. Because if I step on one more dead rat, Iwillmake myself a fox-fur coat.”
He inclined his head, laughing at the idea of Eleanor ever being capable of violence.
Eleanor lingered around the house for only a moment longer, with a few passing comments about the creatures scattered about the house his fox had left for him.
It was not until the door had closed and he was alone, that he pulled the ivory letter from his breast pocket, tearing through the thin envelope and pulling out the parchment.
I suppose you were right,
Her letter started, the familiar curve of her ink spanning the paper as he read.
that first night we met… my final composition will be one so sorrowful, yet so full of beauty. Because in my music, you will be safe. You will never again be hunted, Elias. Persecuted for what you are.
And it is in my hopes that you might still listen. That from a distance, you will still hear my music. That eventually, you will understand.
And if I could ask one thing of you, one favor.
Do not waste my sacrifice.
Live your life, every second of it. Find real happiness beyond your library, beyond the walls that bind me now, beyond the life I am forced to lead with another. And, if it can be, love—for my sake, and for your own. What use is an eternity if it is empty of love?
Yours,
Penelope
“No,” he whispered, voice broken as his fingers curled into the paper, crumpling it in his grasp. “No, this is not how it ends. Not like this. Not with him.”
Rising to his feet, his movements were swift, decisive, each step carrying the weight of centuries of loneliness. A loneliness he refused to return to. He would find her. He would claim her. He would not let their worlds dictate how their love ended.
21
PENELOPE
