Page 118 of Serpent and Shadow

Then I started to unfold my crossed legs, and she meowed again in displeasure.

She leapt off my lap and stalked over my thigh, aiming her fluffy feet to another spot on the couch. Before she left entirely, she gave me an over-the-shoulder look that could have scorched glass.

I finished unfolding my legs and winced. I rubbed my thighs to try and get the circulation back, bending my knees a few times before I tried to stand. The knocking started up again, louder that time, and I gritted my teeth.

“Coming!” I called out.

They probably couldn’t hear me, I realized belatedly.

The chimaeras on that door and wall were dense.

Still trying to regain the circulation in my legs, I stumble-walked in the door’s direction, holding onto the back of the couch where I could, then the kitchen bar, then a work table, until my legs and feet started working a bit better. I made it past the bed, still walking a little out of balance, then took off across the open floor between the bed and the door.

My mind hadn’t really grappled with who was out there yet.

Our private study group, as we generally referred to ourselves in public, all had access to the tower’s chimaeras by now, at least the core members. That meant Luc, Nyx, Jolie, Alaric, and Darragh could enter the door at the base of the tower without my permission, and could get into Bones’s alchemy lab without my being there. Once inside his lab, they also had access to every room, including all of the storage and supply areas.

None had access to my living area at the top of the tower, not without me, not even Alaric, although I’d been tempted to alter the chimaeras to grant him permission to the upper floor. I worried he might need a place to hide at some point, given his precarious situation with most of the royals still attending Malcroix.

I was still thinking about that when I unlocked the bolt and swung open the door. It only occurred to me after I’d opened it that I’d already decided my visitor must be Alaric, since no one else would likely come here after I’d told them not to.

It wasn’t Alaric, though.

Luc stood there, looking sheepish, hands stuffed deep in his pockets. With him, flanking either side of his lanky form, were Miranda Rook and Draken Joran.

All three of us just stared at one another for a few seconds.

I found my eyes kept wanting to return to Luc, maybe as the safest option, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking at Miranda when I saw the look on her face as she stared at me. I felt my throat close when I finally met her gaze.

I don’t know why that time, of all others. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen her before. We didn’t talk, but I’d seen her in classes. I watched her and Draken surreptitiously sometimes. I’d even tried smiling at her a few times, but she usually looked away, and often before I could tell if she’d even seen me trying to make an overture.

Maybe it was where I’d just been, with Bones on that hill overlooking another city he was probably attacking right now, on his father’s orders.

Maybe it was because she’d never come to visit me here, or even acknowledged this place at all, likely because of who it belonged to.

Whatever it was, I struggled to control my facial expression, and in the process I glanced at Draken, too. I saw a pained look on his face, and what might have been regret.

My eyes shifted back to Miranda, and she hadn’t looked away.

Worse, her eyes had brightened.

Before I could wipe my own eyes, or control my spasming face, Miranda leapt at me with a loud sob. She wrapped herself tightly around me and squeezed, shocking me with those freakishly strong arms of hers. It almost made me want to laugh, but I couldn’t get out any sound but a sob of my own.

I hadn’t yet managed to take a full breath when Draken enveloped me in a hug from my other side and crushed both of us into his chest.

The three of us stood there, clinging to one another and crying, for I don’t know how long. Even with tears running down my face, all I could feel was relief.

It got awkward again after I’d ushered everyone into my room.

I offered tea and chocolate in a stammering voice, and then they were all sitting around my fireplace on the couch and the two leather chairs as I fussed about in the kitchen, yanking down clean mugs and trying to remember everyone’s drink as I put the kettle on and fumbled with various packets and jars.

I struggled to act normal as I set down a tray covered in steaming mugs a few minutes later. I returned to my spot on the leather couch, still caught between what I’d seen when I finally got through to Bones, and the two friends I hadn’t exchanged more than a few words with for over four months.

Wraith was standing in Miranda’s lap, looking up at her face, and meowing to her plaintively. She kept meowing over and over, sounding all the world like an annoyed person complaining about how long it had been since they’d seen one another, and exactly what she thought of Miranda’s part in that.

Miranda was speaking to Wraith in a low, soothing voice, apparently agreeing with her, and nodding to every meow.

“I know, I know, darling… I’m so sorry.” She wiped her eyes again, and glanced up at me sheepishly. “I’m here to make amends, don’t worry. I won’t do that to either of you ever again, I promise… I promise, I promise.”