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Charlie walked toward the bed, looked at the bones, and said, almost too quiet for me to hear, “Shit.”

I waved at the duvet. “I wasn’t sure. If I should put them back, I mean.”

“I’ll do that.” Auris picked up the plastic bag and handed it to Charlie. “Get changed. Collect everything you want or need. Do you have your passport?”

Charlie nodded. “The one Jonathan had made for me.”

Whatever that meant.

Auris just nodded. “Get that as well. We’ll leave as soon as you have everything.”

Charlie nodded. He vanished back into the bathroom, and Auris turned to me and pulled me from the chair into a nearly crushing embrace.

“I love you very much, my sweet, so very much. I will protect you with my life, I swear it.”

I hugged him back. “I know. I trust you. I love you too.”

He left me standing there while he collected the bones, and I was left wondering what had upset him so much, what Charlie had said or done.

We were walking down the stairs when I wondered whether it was the fact that Charlie had been waiting here for seven years that troubled Auris that much. It certainly troubled me.

12

We left the Airbnb, and a stranger exodus out of a rented apartment had never happened in Kutná Hora, I was pretty sure: a vampire, a skeleton, a photographer, and whatever Charlie was.

The drive was quiet, and I ended up messing with the radio until I found some classic rock station, which I set to a low volume, just loud enough that there wasn’t a silence that needed filling with words. Even so, the drive back felt far longer than the drive there had.

Back home, Charlie’s eyes went big when we walked into the apartment.

“It’s all black.” He stood just inside the door, taking everything in.

“Yeah, but it really works.” I took off my parka and put it in the built-in wardrobe in the hallway that I’d only found after Auris had pointed it out to me, then beckoned Charlie for his. He didn’t look like he wanted to take it off. “Uhm, you can keep your jacket on, of course.” I closed the door. I could appreciate him not wanting to let the clothes on his back out of sight.

He gave me a trembling smile, his hold on his plastic bag tightening. “Thanks.”

I pushed a strand of my hair back behind my ear. “Are you hungry? I’m sure we have leftovers or something in the fridge.”

Charlie’s eyes darted between Auris and me. I didn’t know what that look meant, but something about it unsettled me.

Auris gestured toward the kitchen. “Go. Have a midnight snack. I’ll make up the guest room for Charlie.”

“What are you going to do?” Charlie asked when Auris turned. After a pause that was just a touch too long, he pointed at the bundle of bones in Auris’s hands. “With those?”

Auris looked at the parcel as well. “I hadn’t decided. I thought maybe cremation.”

Charlie nodded. “Sounds about right.”

He gnawed on his bottom lip for a moment. I used that time to make a quick dash to the bedroom to leave my camera there. When I came back, there was still an awkward silence hanging over the hallway.

“Kitchen’s that way.” I pointed. “The housekeeper made some peanut sauce that is to die for. I don’t really understand how it works, but it does. You’re not allergic to peanuts, are you?”

“No.” Charlie shook his head. “No allergies. I’ll eat pretty much anything.”

He followed me, and we proceeded to have a very awkward meal in which I pulled out several things from the fridge to offer to him while he stoically kept his head down, nodded, and stuffed whatever I put in front of him into his mouth. I still couldn’t decide whether he was scared, angry, desperate, or any combination thereof. He didn’t seem friendly, but surely that could be excused. If I’d waited for someone who was long dead for years, I probably wouldn’t be myself either.

The fact that Auris hadn’t joined us meant he was on his phone, working whatever magic it was he used when he wanted something organized quickly, quietly, and efficiently. I wished he was there to break up the awkwardness. Whenever I turned my back, I could feel Charlie staring at me, and it made the hair on my neck stand up.

“Hey, do you like muffins? The housekeeper left some in the freezer.” Eva had specifically pointed them out to me and told me she had written temp and cook time on there. It had led to a bit of a mini tirade about how Celsius was the best and Fahrenheit was silly.