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I shake my head. “I’m not even going to ask how you found out where I live, but thank you. I’m glad you thought of it.”
Another pause. He sighs. “I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Well, if you hadn’t, I don’t know if Missy would be OK. Did someone change her litter tray? Did they—”
“I should not have bitten you. Or made you feel like an object. A plaything.”
“Oh.” I stop partway through what I was about to say. “Erserro, really, I—”
“I want to show you something. When you’re feeling better.”
I stare at his face, trying and failing to make out his eyes beneath the glasses. “What?”
“It’s better if I show you. Can you walk?”
“Of course I can walk.” I swing my legs over the side of the bed and go to stand nonchalantly. Luckily, Erserro catches me before I stumble to the floor. “OK, maybe not.”
He bends and scoops me into his arms. “Then allow me.”
He carries me out of the guest suite and through the expansive kitchen out a back door to a little path down an incline. Instead of steps, a ramp leads down to a door cut into the hill. When he opens it, he has to duck his head.
The air inside the cellar is instantly cooler. I feel the temperature change immediately. When I look up at his face, Erserro’s jaw is set and it might be my imagination, but his movements feel stiffer than they did moments ago. I’m leftwondering if it’s just the cold air or something else down here that has him tense.
He takes me past high tech wine fridges stocked full of bottles and shelves of aging cheeses. It’s strange. His house seems set up to host huge parties or a large family group, but I’ve only ever seen him here. Not even any of the staff he’s mentioned.
At the back of the cellar, a ceiling light flickers. Erserro sets me on my feet, holding my arm until I’m steady. I peer into the darkness and gasp when I make out a human face staring back at me.
“There’s nothing to fear.” Erserro’s voice is quiet, and its tenderness slows the wild beating of my heart a little.
“Nothing to fear from him, anyway.”
I glance around to try to work out what he’s talking about.
Erserro isn’t looking at me. Instead he stares into the dim corner of the cellar where the incredibly lifelike statue looks back at us.
“What is it? What’s it doing down here?”
There’s a long pause. Erserro seems to be wrestling with something.
Finally he says, “It is—was—my friend. My lover, I suppose. Until I did this to him.”
I take a step closer. No wonder the statue is so lifelike. It’s literally a young man frozen into solid stone. His face is handsome and youthful. His lips are parted as if he’s about to speak.
“What’s his name?” I long to reach out and touch him, but I’m not sure if I should.
“Bellus.”
I lift my hand toward him, wanting to know more.
“Go ahead and touch him if you like.” Erserro’s voice is darker than I’ve ever heard it. “Nothing you do makes any difference to him now.”
Rather than touch Bellus, I turn back to look at Erserro. “But it makes a difference to you, doesn’t it?”
He says nothing for such a long time I think I must have overstepped a line. Then I watch his jaw work as he swallows. When he speaks this time, his voice is broken. “Y-yes. Touch him.”
I’m still hesitating.
Erserro’s voice is barely more than a whisper. “Please.”
