AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You told me of Praecepsia. And while I’ll never understand what drove you to kill innocents, I can’t bring myself to condemn you for it entirely.”
Gaze cast from mine, he breathed hard through his nose. “Praecepsia was only the beginning.”
I took his words to mean he’d killed more. Thousands more, if the silvery tattoos all over his body were anything to go by. He’d once told me they were markings left for every soul he’d taken. “I’m cold.”
He stared down at me, as if trying to read my thoughts. “Of course.” The elevator lurched into motion again, my stomach still twisting with his confession. The bold side of me wanted to ask what came after Praecepsia, but the shadows behind his eye assured I didn’t want to know.
After a relatively short ascent, the elevator slowed to a stop once again. I practically held my breath as the doors opened to the empty foyer, where the dim light of the chandelier flickered overhead.
“Is anyone here?” Jericho asked the question burning in my mind.
A sound of movement echoed from the upper floor, followed by breaking glass, a loud curse, and more movement. Anya appeared at the top of the stairwell, the sight of her making me smile, until a shiver coiled through me, and the inclination to cover myself sent a needling panic over my skin. Not even Jericho’s reassurance that I appeared fully clothed could stop me from feeling buck naked.
“Master? You’ve returned! And Miss Ravenshaw! Oh, my heavens, both of you!” Lifting the skirt of her dress, she hobbled down the stairs. “Girls! The Master and Miss Ravenshaw have returned!”
My muscles eased a little when Anya didn’t appear to be shocked or even to take notice of my breasts in all their glory.
Familiar faces peeked out over the banister and from rooms down corridors. When Anya finally reached us, she offered a respectful nod toward Jericho, then, throwing out her arms, wrapped me in the most awkward hug of my life, given my lack ofclothes.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see the both of you again! Oh!” Her hands smoothed over my back, and as she pulled away, she ran her palm over my arm, frowning. “How strange. This fabric feels ice cold. And soft as skin.”
I didn’t have to look at him to know Jericho was holding back what I imagined to be a wolfish grin. “My skin was damp when I put it on.”
Wearing a look of disbelief, she continued to stroke my arm, just missing my exposed breast, and I prayed the roof would cave in right then. “Your hair is sopping wet, too. Did you go for a swim?”
“Yeah. One of those polar plunge deals.” Crossing my arms over myself, I shivered, rubbing my shoulders for warmth.
With a confused expression, Anya turned to Jericho. “Sir, that’s quite a scratch on your neck! We’ll have to get that looked at by the doc!”
“No, no. Some antiseptic and a bandage will be fine.” It was then I noticed the blood had become darker than before, reminding me of the day I’d cleaned Remy’s wound.
Concerned, I peered closer, wondering if perhaps Anya was right, after all. “Those do look pretty deep.”
After a quick glance toward me and back to Anya, Jericho asked, “The dogs. How are they?”
“All three seem to have mourned your loss, Master. They rarely chase so much as a rabbit these days. Once that wound is cleaned, perhaps the two of you can pay them a visit. I’m certain it’ll lift their spirits.”
“Yes, I’d like to see them.”
The chill still rattled my bones as they spoke, and I caught Anya glancing back at me a couple times, as if my teeth had chattered too loudly.
“Very well, I’ll have the kitchen staff make you a nice big welcome home feast. It is so wonderful to have you back.”
“Thank you. If you’ll excuse me, I don’t know about Miss Ravenshaw, but I could use a hot shower and some fresh clothes.”
God, the sound of hot water on my skin right then was heavenly. “I could definitely use a hot shower and some fresh clothes.” At the winging up of Anya’s brows, I cleared my throat. “Separately, of course.”
“Of course.” The wily curve of her smile had me paranoid, looking away for fear she’d suspect something about the pregnancy. “We’ve kept the linens laundered along with the clothing, in hopes you’d return soon. The night you disappeared was … chaos. Complete chaos. The dogs were going crazy. We kept hearing awful noises, and there was monstrous thunder in the sky.”
Had they missed the whole battle between Drystan and Jericho, and the godawful nightmare of him bursting into flames before my eyes?
“You didn’t see anything else? Anything strange like bolts of lightning touching down?”
Or maybe hundreds of those mutated creatures, the Alatum, stampeding across the property? The fire Jericho had started had held them back for a short time, of course, but surely they’d gotten around it.
“Lightning? Not that I saw myself, no. Only heard the thunder. Wedidhave an impressive wildfire. Took nearly a week to burn itself out, and as a result, Misty Hollow is now being called Dreary Hollow by all the locals.”
It was odd that they hadn’t even witnessed a moment so utterly heartbreaking as Jericho losing his wings and bursting into flames, as if it’d never happened.
