“Wait.” When he looked back, his father had leaned forward in his seat. “Accessibility for the humans will take time, but I have started the process.”
“I know.”
“To prove I meant it, I gave you access to your inheritance fund.” Karroth’s brow furrowed. “Which you immediately drained.”
Kizros’s tail flicked behind him. “I didn’t need the money.” And as much as he wanted to leave, this was possibly the most civil conversation he’d had with his father in years. “You could have made a show of that money. Put your name everywhere and used it in your favor. But you didn’t.”
A small smile ticked one side of Karroth’s lips. “I know.”
“You know what I did then?”
“Oh, yes,” his father said with a huff of a laugh. “And I look forward to seeing what thebothof you create. I hope you’ll let your mother and me visit before… well, I’d like to see what you’ve built with those years of dedication while I was… a fool.”
Kizros stood there, unsure what to do with the immense relief and shock coursing through his system. It wasn’t enough to repair everything that had created the distance between them, but it was something. A start.
A spoken thank you still felt like too much, though, so he dipped his chin.
Karroth’s posture relaxed, and he opened his mouth as if to say something more.
Instead, a boom in the distance shook the building.
Kizros braced his feet as his father steadied himself on the desk. A few confused shouts came from outside the door, but other than the slight rumble, nothing followed.
Karroth jumped from his seat, hurrying to the window. “I don’t see anything. Something must have slipped out of the Dreadmoor.”
Fear gripped Kizros by the throat. “Aofe.”
“Son, she’ll be fine. The guard have protocols for this?—”
He was already running, slowing only to throw open the door. The office outside was returning tocalm, because, as his father had said, there were protocols for dealing with a rogue beast making its way into the Veilwood bordering Heck. While it wasn’t an everyday occurrence, it happened enough that half the city rarely heard or felt when such a thing happened.
But Aofe didn’t know that.
Kizros was two steps out of his father’s office when a voice stopped him.
“Kizros! Wait!” He turned to find Rosalind chasing after him, waving an envelope in her hand. “Someone mentioned you were here, and I wanted to stop you before you left.”
Fuck, the surprise. The second half of the reason he’d come here today.
She caught up to him, blowing out a breath. “Damn demons and your long legs.” Rosalind shoved the envelope at him. “Everything’s inside. Paperwork went through.”
Kizros huffed a relieved laugh. “Thank you, Rosalind.” He accepted the papers, tucking them into his shirt pocket as he started to retreat. “I’m so sorry, I’d love to stay and talk?—”
She waved him off. “Go. Make sure she’s okay.”
“Thank you.”
“Just invite us over when you get it set up!” she called after him. “You know our deal, but I get first dibs!”
Oh, he would be doing a lot of things for Rosalind in the coming weeks, months, years; all of it would be worth what he’d gone through to get the envelope tucked into his pocket.
Once he was on the street, Kizros sprinted. While thenoise had died down—the guard presumably handling the situation—his fear did not.
Aofe would be in the shop, all alone, thinking the worst about that noise. Maybe even thinking the worst had happened to him. He imagined a few vials would be broken, if they’d been on the edges of their shelves, and there were probably a few plants that would have retreated or gone into their protective states.
Blazes, what if she’d been handling one when the shaking had happened?
And now he was terrified she was bleeding out in the shop with a terrified plant’s spike through her chest, Attie whimpering next to her.
