Page 27 of Written in Red

“We can go sit,” Mercury said. “The Brands are likely half frozen and completely exhausted. They’ll appreciate retreating directly to a warm room and a comfortable bed and won’t need us entertaining them.”

“May I come as well?” Zizzy asked, listening from not far away.

“Always,” Mercury said.

With a bit of a smile, Tacey asked, “May I come as well?”

His eyes lingered on her, and his heart answered with the softest skip of a beat. “Always.”

“Baby Blue was sleepy.” Zizzy sat on the floor of the sitting room, looking over at Baby, curled in a ball on the sofa next to Mercury, sleeping. “He’s been scared. I think that makes him more tired.”

“Perhaps everything will be quiet for a day or two,” Tacey said. She was sitting on Mercury’s other side. “We could all get some rest that way.”

“Are you tired as well?” Mercury asked her.

She leaned against him. “Today was a particularly harrowing day.”

Mercury slipped his arm around her, tucking her up against him. It had been a very difficult day. A man coming with a weapon, intent on doing harm. Yet another person locked in the tunnel. Harrowing. Worrying. But, in that moment, with her sitting in his arms, it was very nearly perfect.

“How many people do you think we’ll have to keep prisoner here?” Tacey asked.

“The Vanns said quite a few people do the Forever Flame’s bidding.”

From beside Mercury, Baby Blue’s little voice answered. “We’ll be safe here, though.”

“Did we wake you, sweetheart?” Tacey asked.

“A little.” He sounded half asleep still. “We’ll be safe here, won’t we?”

“I cannot think of any place safer than Aventine Manor,” Mercury said.

“And we’ll be together,” Baby Blue insisted.

“Yes. Just as I’ve always promised we would be.”

Tacey tucked herself more cozily against his side. “You will recall, Mercury, that I asked for that same promise from you earlier today.”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

He sat there for a moment, his arm around her, Baby Blue curled up beside him. Zizzy sat on the floor nearby. Though Mercury had no memory of his family, he imagined this must have been what it felt like to have one. He’d told himself all his life that he didn’t need family or a feeling of home. But now, having experienced the tiniest taste of it, he knew he would never again feel whole without it.

“I can’t sleep here.” Baby Blue’s voice was a little weepy. The poor thing needed rest.

“Would you sleep better on the foot of my bed?” Mercury asked.

“Yes, please.”

“Let’s wander up that way, then.” Though he hated letting go of Tacey, Mercury stood. The sooner he could help Baby Blue sleep, the sooner Mercury could rest as well. No matter Tacey’s expressed hope that they would have a quiet few days, that was unlikely to actually happen.

Zizzy took Mercury’s place on the sofa next to Tacey. “Have you ever danced at a ball?”

“I have,” Tacey said. “They are elegant and lovely. But, do you know, I have enjoyed the times I have danced here with you far more than even the most fashionable balls I attended in London.”

Zizzy had always struggled to feel at ease with anyone but Mercury. Tacey had quickly won over the wary wraith. They were now wonderful friends. Tacey had become so essential to all of them.

It was a testament to how tired Baby Blue was that he didn’t say a single word as they made their way down the corridor. Mercury didn’t know how to save the sweet boy from the weight of all that was happening. Aventine was the safest place they could be, but it was also where the Forever Flame and his bounty hunters knew to look for Mercury. It was unlikely to be peaceful. Baby Blue would be perpetually exhausted.

They turned a corner and came across Captain Capitate. Next to him, the Brands’ diminutive ghost looked all around, eyes wide with amazement. Wonder must have been one of that specter’s Integral traits.