AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Joy!” I squeaked.
“I’m just sayin’,” Joy said.
“Don’t worry, Chloe,” Aristide said. “I’ll be sure to pass this wisdom on to Noctus.”
“Don’t, please,” I warned him. “We’re not—I don’t—”
“Chloe,” Aristide said. “I may be blind, but that doesn’t mean I’m deaf. EvenIheard of your illicit street kiss.”
“Aristide!” I groaned.
“I thought it was cute,” Ker said. “Just like a movie. But while I’m certain Noctus would be very willing to give you a library—eventually, that is—the next step in your courtship should be him giving you flowers.”
“You’re just saying that because your flower shop is the only one in downtown Magiford,” Aristide said.
Ker winked at me. “I’ll order something special for you—and all of my flowers are sourced from elven arborists, so you know they’re high quality!”
“Elven arborists?” Joy asked with interest.
Desperate to change the topic, I charged deeper into the library. “Why don’t we sit down?”
“Over here,” Ker called. “There’s a nice fire this way.”
Ker marched past the spinning globe and turned into the maze of books.
She led us to a back corner, where a fire pit already lit with blue and white flames and filled with glass stones was positioned in the center of a circle, surrounded by plush cushions made of satin and silk with silver tassels and embroidery lining the edges.
Ker plopped down on a tufted cushion, then gestured to the other cushions. “Make yourselves comfortable!”
Aristide shuffled purposefully around the circle, using his cane like a measuring stick to find a mound of embroidered pillows that, when he settled down on them, propped him up and supplied a semblance of back support.
Joy chose a cushion that was as large as our parents’ dining table from our childhood home. I thought maybe she just wanted to sprawl out, but she grabbed me by the hand, tugging me onto the cushion as she sat down. “This is fun,” she said. “But doesn’t the fire need ventilation?”
“The flames are magic,” Ker explained. “Noctus’s magic, to be precise. So it doesn’t burn the way regular fires do.”
“Does it not need energy to burn?” Pat asked. He’d put a polite expression on as he sat down next to me, sitting so close his leg scraped mine and I was essentially pinned between my siblings.
“It does, but Noctus’s magic serves as the energy source,” Ker said. “That means it’s technically a limited resource, but Noctus is strong enough to heat the mansion this way.”
“Enough polite prattle,” Aristide interrupted. “I’m sure there’s got to be some questions you’re dying to ask. What do you want to hear? The foundation of our friendship, or tales of our sordid past? I’m afraid it will be rather disappointing: Noctus’s greatest concern in the past decade has been trash collection and disposal within the city.”
“City?” Joy echoed.
“Village.” Noctus emerged from the bookshelves, his hair damp and his charcoal gray suit dotted with what I was assuming was—based on the ceiling—rain.
My entire body tensed—I didn’t know if I should get up and…what? Hug him? That kiss meant something, and I knew we were something, but I didn’t know what that something was.
In the end, it didn’t matter—Pat and Joy had me wedged so tightly between the two of them I couldn’t get up, and neither of them seemed inclined to move.
The air was tense, until the Paragon bustled out from behind Noctus—his robes similarly rain spattered, except for the baby sling that covered his front. “Village? You call that avillage? You need a refresher in English vocabulary terms.”
Judging by their appearance, I was pretty sure Noctus had just given the Paragon a tour of the city.
The Paragon used a swatch of his long hair to wipe off the sling, and—as expected—a pink head and triangle ears popped out of it. Aphrodite tilted her head so far back she was looking at us upside-down, and chirped at us.
“Mmert!”
Noctus ignored the Paragon and walked past our little circle, and instead drew back a thick curtain from a window.
