Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
AGATHA
A gatha put a hand on Seleste's shoulder, and Sister Summer recoiled.
"Aggie!" she clutched her chest. "You startled me."
Sorscha let out an incoherent noise. "What's gotten into you?"
"It's noth?—"
Grimm charged through the door like a wolf into a hen house. Rather, he kicked open the door and charged in carrying four carafes of what smelled like coffee and tea. Gaius entered behind him balancing a tray of cups, while Arielle cradled too many wine glasses next to him. Laurent strolled in behind the three of them with four bottles of wine, their necks grasped between his fingers.
"Drink up, everyone," Grimm said as the men deposited their bounty on the table and Seleste rushed to help Arielle. "We leave at dawn, and I'm afraid we have much to discuss. It will be a long night, my friends, and we are not leaving Anne alone in here."
Dulci bustled in the still-open door with four boxes of pastries, Tindle on her heels with a tray of cheeses. Grimm caught sight of the pastry boxes and rushed Dulci, snatching them from her. He barely had them tossed onto the table before one was open and he was scarfing down a croissant.
"Did you not feed him in Achlys?" Winnie snorted at Agatha.
She refrained from adding fuel to the already tense fire in the room. "He's a grown-arse man, he can feed himself."
Grimm grinned at her, wolfish, his cheeks stuffed with pastry.
"Where is Eleanor?" Winnie changed the subject.
Laurent turned from where he'd been at the sideboard, a glass of amber liquid in his hand. "She elected to stay with Lydia and Tomás, to help the others prepare to leave."
"You found the good stuff," Grimm murmured to the cirque master, clapping him on the back.
"Where is your Eldritch Dreadful I hear you were supposed to bring along?" Laurent kept his voice low, Agatha wasn't certain why.
"Ah. Woke up this morning and the bastard was gone."
"Gone?" Laurent was incredulous.
"Vanished without a trace." Grimm turned back to the group at large. "Grab a drink, any drink, all. This first part of the evening will hurt like Hades."
Agatha wasn't precisely certain where Grimm was headed first, but he was masking the fissure in his heart that she could feel acutely in the bond. And that meant she was going to need something stronger than coffee or wine. As everyone poured their drink of choice, Agatha moved to the sideboard where she had spelled a particularly old bottle of liquor into hiding upon first arriving in Merveille.
When she turned around with the bottle, Grimm was staring at her, aghast. "You wicked little witch." He shot forward and stole it from her, laughing as he looked at the bottle. "This is essentially an elixir of the gods you've been hiding away."
She smiled up at him, playful. "I was saving it for a special occasion."
Her words faltered there at the end, and the vestiges of Grimm's cheerfulness faded. He looked over his shoulder at all their friends chatting and drinking, then turned back to her. With a brush of his lips against her cheek, he whispered, "Everything will be all right."
Agatha nodded, blinking too many times. As he poured her drink, she watched the mask of a rebellion leader fall over Grimm's features, pulsing away his sadness, hiding it away. He handed her the glass with a resolute smile that did not meet his eyes.
Turning to face everyone, he forced a grin to spread across his face. "First," Grimm said, holding his glass out wide, "how much did you miss us?"
Chuckles passed around the room and Tindle shouted, "To the prince getting over his ego!"
The chuckles turned to outright laughter and hear , hear as glasses and china clinked together.
"All right, all right," Grimm said, making a motion for everyone to calm down. "In all seriousness, I only wanted to bring a bit of light to us all before what I'm going to say next."
A hush went through the room. Sorscha looked at her wine. Gaius reached for Arielle's hand.
Grimm shuffled on his feet. "You may not like me for this, but… We've all lost a great deal. And as versed as we all are in avoidance"—he gave a weak, watery smile—"I'm afraid we have to face it before we can face the rest of what needs to be said tonight. Before we face what awaits us at the end of our trek to Eridon?—"
"Helsvar," Seleste corrected.
"What? Someone told me Eridon." Grimm paused. "Who even was that?" He shook his head. "See? Much to discuss. But the fact is, we can't go forward until we face what is behind us. What we've lost. Who we have lost. Thus, I am going to be the bad guy here, and make us all fucking hurt."
Sniffles were already beginning, everyone in the room remembering their lost.
Grimm raised his glass. "To—" His voice choked off. "Ah, fuck," he sniffed, blinking rapidly. "To my mother." He hung his head, and Tindle stood, pulling Grimm against him.
"To Dimitri." Tindle barely got the words out, and Grimm tucked him under his arm, murmuring something to him.
Agatha lifted her glass. "To Emile."
Anne appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, dishevelled next to Augustus, and Sorscha hiccuped before lifting her wine high in the air. "To Ambrose and Lorelai Joubert, and Nadja Rashad who protected them."
Winnie reached and pulled Sorscha's head against her chest where they sat on a sofa. "To my Lilette. "
Gaius stood, Arielle's hand still in his. "To my mother, Manu Zivai Asholm."
Dulci came to Grimm's other side, sandwiching him between Tindle and herself, lifting her teacup. "To Mila." Grimm hung his head again, cursing softly, and a tear dripped to the floorboard.
Laurent raised his glass. "To all the witches, mages, Druids, and mortals who gave their lives to bring us to this moment."
Seleste stood, walking regally to the front to stand on Tindle's other side, his arm slinging around her waist. "To love and loss and every blessed, beautiful moment in between."
"Hear, hear." Grimm started it, and they all followed suit.
"Wait." Sorscha flung her head back, groaning at the ceiling. They'd all been peppering Agatha and Grimm with questions, and it was safe to say everyone had the beginnings of delirium and a migraine. "Just wait a damned minute."
"My goddess, Sorscha," Winnie groaned, resting her forehead against Laurent's shoulder. "They've explained it seventeen times."
"And it still doesn't make sense!" Sorscha clapped back at Sister Winter before turning to Agatha. "When you, Asteria, gave Athania magic as she gave up her place as Lady War—why was it any different than what you bestowed upon witches?"
"The difference," Agatha answered patiently, because she, too, had struggled to grapple with the same question, "was that I gave her a portion of my Primordial power. The very essence of magic given to me by Hespa. What I bestowed upon witches was just a dipping from the well of magic, not a piece of the Source as I gave Athania."
It was strange to finally begin to refer to herself as the Goddess of Magic. Grimm's lips twitched to one side as if he might be thinking the same thing.
"Aggie," Sorscha griped "That's the same thing you've said a hundred times."
"She gave of herself." This from Seleste, and they all turned to look at Sister Summer. "Athania carries a piece of what belongs to Asteria."
" Fuck ," Laurent muttered. Tindle and Eleanor both cursed as well.
All of Sorscha's cynicism faded and her eyes welled up. "Aggie, why would you do that?"
Grimm felt the torrent of tears building in Agatha before they fell and laid a hand on her leg. She swallowed, a familiar, deep ache blooming in her chest until she had to rub uselessly at it with her palm.
"Because I loved her," she finally said quietly. "I trusted her."
Winnie rose and came to sit at Agatha's side, opposite Grimm. "This tied you to her."
Agatha nodded. "Yes. In a way. It should have been Primordial magic that lived within her, tied to her soul until she died as a mortal. Then, it would return to me. But—" She shook her head, curls falling in her face and Winnie pushed them back tenderly. "Not only has she not died, but Athania also twisted and warped magic within her. Her very soul blackened. It corrupted the pure portion of magic's essence she has within her."
"A rotted vein that would corrupt the whole," Seleste put in.
Agatha nodded as many of the others shook their heads in dismay.
"That's why her blood was slowly killing me," Laurent mused, and Tindle let out a low whistle.
"The only way to protect magic was to bind her to us, to keep her alive," Grimm said. "Now, we know how to set things right again."
"Pardon," Anne's quiet voice broke in, and their attention all swung to look at her. She had not yet spoken since Emile's death. "Excuse my na?veté , but why did Chresedia not find success with her plan when she took over the body of a Sister Solstice—twice?"
"Seleste?" Grimm deferred to Sister Summer. "Would you like to take this one?"
Seleste gave an appreciative nod. "I'd be delighted. Anne, I toyed with this very idea as well. Since magic is tied to the soul, it remains with it." She inclined her head to Agatha. "Unless Aggie is present, if her restoring the magic to Grimm's lost souls is any indicator. We also know from what Miriam told Grimm and Arielle in the Winter that Chresedia essentially causes a body to tarry between life and death, using animancy and blood magic to take over the body with her own soul and power, as the other leaves it."
Anne's eyes roved over the lush carpet beneath her feet as she contemplated what Seleste had said. "So, when she was in Ta—" The young woman paused and started again. "In Sybil's body, she had no trace of Sybil's magic as Sister Autumn. "
Agatha could have hugged Anne for her forethought to point their attention to Sybil's possession rather than Talan's. "That is correct. Which means she only ever had access to three of the Sisters at a time."
"I need another drink," Laurent mumbled.
It was a long, long time of trading information later that everyone was softly snoring.
Grimm snuck out of the room to finalise the plans to have his father transported to a place where he could have peace and the care he needed. Agatha kissed him before he left, hating any moment away from him now, but he needed to do this on his own.
She turned from the door to see Seleste smiling at her blearily from a chaise. "I'm surprised you let him out of your sight," she teased, scooting over so Agatha could sit.
"I didn't want to, believe me." She plopped down with little grace, leaning her head against the back of the chair. "But he's had plans in the works for a while to move the king somewhere safer—better for him."
"Oh, that's wonderful," Seleste said genuinely.
Agatha nodded, twisting her wedding ring around her finger. "There is an old chateau out in the country, along Noir Bay, that belongs to the Crown, but it's been abandoned for some time. Grimm had staff and physicians sent out there. Since we're travelling to Helsvar, we have enough time to take a small day's detour there. When we leave in the morning, the king will go with us as far as Boisloch, just outside Bellvary, where the manor is. "
Seleste stiffened and Agatha faced her. "Seleste?" Her face had gone ashen in the candlelight. "Seleste, what is it?"