Chapter 41
ChapterForty-One
Alistair whistled as he walked into his office. Everyone in the Academy gave each other a strange look as he meandered over to his desk with a rather impressive jaunt to his step. He knew he was walking around like there were clouds beneath his feet. And in truth, there were.
He’d had a week of bliss at home. A week back in his own room, with the woman of his dreams in his arms. And they had finally dropped all pretense of the past. They were together. He didn’t care what anyone said about that.
His father was gone. No one could scold him about how he deserved someone better than her in his bed. No one was better than her. Particularly in his bed.
Setting his things down in his chair, he looked out through the windows of his room with a wide grin on his face. She had filled his life with so much bliss. He hadn’t been joking when he told her that for him; she was happiness to him. Every time she walked into his office door, he smiled. Sometimes she’d come out of the bathroom after a bath, her wet hair in a tangle over her shoulder and already soaking her nightgown on one side, and he’d realize how lucky he was.
She wasn’t perfect. She broke things on a regular basis. The grimoires wanted to eat her every time she came into the library, and most of the time, the tea she brought him was burnt. But there was something about her that made him smile. He couldn’t stop himself from doing it now.
Rubbing a hand down his face, he let out a little chuckle. “I have to get a hold of myself,” he muttered. “The students will think I’ve lost my mind.”
He’d been speaking for the fae, but another voice interrupted his thoughts. “Yes, what are you going to do about that intriguing young woman in your care?”
The Headmistress.
He hadn’t seen her in a very long time. She’d kept in her own office, for the most part, only coming out for official gatherings, and even then, he rarely saw her.
Clearing his throat, Alistair turned around to greet her. “Ma’am. I was unaware you knew about Thea. Or even that you’d met.”
The Headmistress closed the door behind her, a poor sign for how this conversation was going to go. A deep amethyst gown hugged tight to her waist and billowed out from her hips. Tiny gold runes were inscribed throughout the velvet, shimmering whenever the light hit them. She held a cane in her hand, although she had no reason to use one. No matter how old the woman got, she always seemed to stand with a straight back and powerful demeanor. The cane was merely for show. Or perhaps as a weapon in case she needed it.
He swallowed hard. The glare on her face was a bad sign. Extremely bad sign if he were being honest with himself.
“I know everything, Orbweaver. Haven’t you learned that after ten years of working for me?” She tapped the cane against the ground. “No, I was led to believe that you were going to give me what I wanted. And come to find out, you were playing with my staff’s hopes.”
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You are well aware that I hired you for a reason. I gave you all the resources this school has, and I have been very patient with you.” She eyed him with no small amount of disgust. “You are a disappointment, Alistair Orbweaver. Your father would never have taken so long.”
He refused to let the words wiggle under his skin. He’d done everything he could as a teacher here. The students were unruly, and he knew he wasn’t changing their minds about how the world worked. Their parents did that. But he taught them well, and they retained more information about what he’d taught them than the other professors. Surely that should count for something.
Unless...
The memory of the fiadh rudh flashed in his mind. Tiny faeries hung off the deer’s antlers as the red stag told him to protect the fae. That beast had known something he didn’t, and apparently, now was the time the Academy would finally play their card.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said quietly. “I’ve done my job better than most in this school. I never call in sick. The students who leave my classroom have an adequate understanding of history and where we came from. If you’re asking more of me, Headmistress, then I must admit I can’t imagine what it is you seek.”
She slammed her cane on the ground again, and a blanket of darkness covered the windows. Shadows moved at her beck and call. He’d known that before. She summoned light and devoured it. At least, that’s what the rumors claimed.
As darkness closed in on him and Alistair realized the truth of her power. She didn’t devour the light. She snuffed it out entirely.
“Alistair Orbweaver, I hired you because you are the first and only person to have a gift that sees between the worlds. When you were hired, it was under the expressed understanding that you would share that gift with the Academy. You were tasked with creating a way for myself and the others in this school to break through the veil and use the fae to our whims. You were meant to be the reason we discovered the way to control our gods rather than the other way around.”
“Even saying such a thing is blasphemy,” he muttered, taking a few heavy steps away from her. “The gods have always ruled our lands. I will not be caught in some web meant to change that.”
“You don’t have a choice,” she hissed. “I will fire you, Alistair. More than that? Every powerful person who lives in Wildecliff will hunt you down and strip away everything you love. We allowed you to have this time because we believe in you. If you are not going to do what we want, then that is fine. But it’s not just your life at risk.”
Would they ever stop threatening his life?
“I can leave,” he tried. “I have no reason to stay here. Not now.”
“Do you not? And here it was my understanding that your father bound you to that house.” She rolled her eyes. “Alistair, I’m no fool. Neither was your father. He knew you wouldn’t want to complete this task because of some foolish desire to maintain that you are a good man and no one else in your family was. Now, take care of that family you so adore. Bring us something that can see through the veil at the next gathering. Or that young maid in your house is the first person I will take.”
Desperation set in. His vision skewed, and his lungs heaved in great gulps, but it still felt like he couldn’t breathe. “I could kill myself. That would take care of all this.”
“Would it?” She lifted a brow, then turned to leave. “Alistair, I know many ways to keep a person alive. You will give me what I want, no matter how long I have to torture you to get it.”
He refused to believe there wasn’t a way out of this. Not after how happy he’d been when he walked into work today. There had to be an option. A way to fight back. Something...
The Headmistress stopped at the door of his classroom. “I’ve taken the liberty of canceling your classes for the day. I assume you have more important work to be doing rather than teaching young minds who don’t care about history.”
And then the door slammed shut behind her.
He groped for a chair and sank into it. “What am I going to do?” he whispered. “I can’t risk her life. I won’t.”
A tiny faerie crawled up his pant leg. The same kind of faerie that had hung off the red stag’s antlers. It gave him a sharp look and then scolded, “You’re making decisions for her.”
“Excuse me?”
“We wouldn’t have sent you a witch for a bride if we didn’t know how strong she was.” It crossed its tiny arms over its chest, dragonfly wings fluttering with anger. “Talk to Thea. See what she thinks.”
The fae knew about Thea?
Of course they did, he scolded himself. He’d known all along that he was being watched by the fae. It shouldn’t surprise him that they had a hand in finding Thea for him. Or the two of them finding each other.
“I wanted a little more time with her to myself,” he muttered. “She’s a gift to my life and... I didn’t want anyone else to muddle that up.”
“Then talk to her about it.” The faerie stomped its foot on his thigh, hard. “You’re not a fool, Alistair Orbweaver. We chose you for a reason.”
As it took off toward the window he always left open for their kind, he had to wonder how much they knew about him. If the fae had already picked out Thea because they believed in her, then did they know what would happen?
Either way, the little creature had been right. He needed to talk with her. He needed her to understand the dangers that were coming for them and to see if maybe she had any ideas that might help them continue forward.
Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck and gathered up his things. It was a bit of a trek back to the house, and the carriage had already left without him. But he’d use the walk to figure out what he was going to say to her.
Of course, by the time he made it back home, he hadn’t the faintest idea what to say. Slipping into the manor was easy enough. He hung up his jacket and set his case down by the door. The house was quiet, but it had been for quite some time.
Now that the domovoy wasn’t in the basement, there wasn’t so much of an icy chill when he walked into the entryway. The windows were spotless, and the sun shone on the giant stairway in front of him—beams of light caught in the dust motes merrily spun through the air. Thea would hate those, but he thought them rather charming.
Feeling heavier than he had since his father died, Alistair made his way to the stairs and sat down hard on them. He thudded down, but it didn’t feel like he had eased any of the tormented weight that made him so darn tired. Leaning back on his arms, he stared up three levels to the ceiling. There was a skylight up there, he thought. Maybe. It was hard to tell from this angle.
He didn’t know how long he sat there, staring up the stairs, until a pale face leaned over the railing on the second floor and looked back at him. Her dark hair slid like ink over her shoulder and trailed into the air. He almost expected a wet plop to hit him on the forehead.
“Alistair?” she asked.
“It’s me.”
“You’re home early.”
“Something happened.”
“Ah.” Thea’s brows wrinkled. “I’m coming down. Stay where you are.”
Well, he wasn’t planning on going anywhere. He didn’t move and listened to the sound of her footsteps as she marched down the stairs and then plopped down next to him. Tilting her own head back, Thea looked up at the ceiling.
“What are we looking at?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. I think there used to be a skylight up there.”
“Ah.” She nodded as though that made sense to be staring at. “I could get a very tall ladder and then we could try to clean it?”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“All the best things are.”
They stayed quiet for a little while as she reached out and held his hand. Just sitting on the stairs, leaning back on their elbows, looking up at the same stupid thing on the ceiling that didn’t matter in the slightest.
Finally, he sighed and said, “They invited me to the next gathering.”
“What’s that?”
“A place where all the staff go to mingle. The best and the brightest of all Wildecliff are there in what I would argue is a complete and utter waste of money.” Really, it was a giant party for everyone to pat each other on the back and talk about how great they were. He hated going with his father back in the day, and once Balthazar had died, no one ever invited Alistair again.
She squeezed his hand. “That sounds like a good thing?”
“The Headmistress tasked me with bringing a way to rip through the veil of the world so they can control the fae and the gods. If I fail to do so, then the Academy and those powerful people will attack people I love.”
Thea nodded and made a long sound in the back of her throat. “So you’re worried about me again, I take it?”
“Very much so.” He couldn’t even look at her because the mere thought of those bastards hunting her down, intending to harm her, made him shake. He wanted to hit something, and he never wanted to do that.
But he’d gotten a taste by shoving Marren out the door and watching him roll to the sidewalk. Now he wanted to snarl at everyone who threatened him. He wanted to flatten the city into dust at her feet and then offer her their hearts forever, daring to threaten her wellbeing. He wanted...
Thea pressed her lips to the back of his hand, kissing his knuckles as though she wasn’t worried about what was going through his head. “You know you can’t let them see the gods.”
Finally, he looked at her and his heart twisted in his chest. “But I can’t lose you, either.”
“You won’t. We’ll find a way to beat them. Shutting me out only means you have one head to plan with, and together, I believe we’re unstoppable.” She held his head to her heart, and his knuckles brushed the warm metal of the necklace he had made her. “I’m scared, Alistair. I’m always scared. But that doesn’t mean I choose myself over countless others. Fear is a warning, yes. But it should fuel us as well.”
His brave, foolish, ridiculous woman would let no one stop her. Alistair drew her closer and pressed their foreheads together. “You always say the right thing.”
“That’s because I’m smarter than you.”
“Of course it is,” he replied with a chuckle. “Do you have any plans on how to stop them?”
“Not yet. But I know a few grimoires that might have some ideas.” She lifted their hands between them and kissed his hand again. “Have faith, my Alistair. Nothing will ever come between us again.”