Page 20 of A Honeymoon of Grave Consequence (The Unexpected Adventures of Lady and Lord Riven #2)
“What are you prattling on about?” the baroness demanded. “ I’m the one who’s been using it, not you. I can tell you?—”
“Reflection’s Heart can only show you what you’re actively looking for,” Margaret said patiently, “and I’ve recently learned that it’s dangerous to ignore the things around us that we don’t find of personal interest. Clearly, you see most of the world as unworthy of your attention—and tha t is how you’ve missed the obvious now! ”
As the baroness made a sound like a chicken being plucked, Margaret gave a firm nod of confirmation—and then leapt forward to snatch the artifact from the other woman’s open palm and raise it high above her own head.
The massive, three-foot-long black raven who’d been waiting on the closest castle turret dove down to snatch it from her fingers while the baroness was still lunging towards her in a vain attempt to get it back.
“You dare to steal from me? You nobody ?” As the night raven flapped high out of reach, the other woman’s face contorted in vicious rage.
Grabbing Margaret’s shoulders, she shook them violently.
“You’re no one, only the latest social curiosity.
You didn’t even hold a family title before you were married! ”
“That is true,” Margaret agreed, through rattling teeth. “But I also have a family legacy—and unlike yours, mine taught me to grant my focus and respect to matters beyond my own reflection.”
“You will regret this!” Releasing her, the baroness whirled around and started for the door in a furious run.
Margaret hurried after her, just in case.
But the baroness came to a halt even before Margaret glimpsed the other two figures stepping out from the doorway.
Hood flung back to reveal her pale, smooth head, Leonie stalked forward beside Herr Schneider, who held his soul pipe at the ready.
“What are you creatures doing in my home ?” The baroness drew herself up, vibrating with rage. “I issued you no invitations! When I report to the authorities that you vermin invaded my property?—”
“The way you invaded ours, you mean?” There was a martial light in Leonie’s red eyes; this time, she didn’t hunch or lower her gaze. “At least we didn’t come sneaking and sliding into your own bedroom to insult you.”
“You can’t prove I did any such thing,” the baroness snarled, “and you’ve just made a fatal mistake. I’ve been trying for years to force the local magistrate into clearing out your rancid nest, but he always claimed he couldn’t do that without proof of any crimes. Now, he’ll finally have it!”
“Oh, really?” Margaret crossed her arms. “Who exactly do you think will offer him that proof?”
“ I will, of course! And so will all of my servants. Even if you two somehow managed to elude them?—”
“Oh, no,” Leonie said flatly. “We didn’t miss a single one of them.”
Margaret released a breath of deep relief.
The baroness blinked rapidly. “You didn’t?—?”
“We haven’t harmed any of them,” said Leonie, “because unlike you, we aren’t monsters—but they all fell asleep and never saw us. There will be nothing for any of them to tell.”
“What do you mean?” For the first time, the baroness looked genuinely unnerved. “Did you somehow drug them all with sleeping powders? Or?—”
“I told you,” said Margaret, “you should have done more research...and paid better attention to the world around you. Now you can finally learn that lesson.” Nodding to Herr Schneider, she said clearly, “It’s time for her performance.”
The baroness’s gaze darted rapidly back and forth between Margaret and the two supernatural visitors, her face twisting in contempt.
“I don’t care what wickedness you’re planning.
Even if you somehow cast me into sleep now, I will remember what you’ve done here when I wake.
I’ve never forgotten anyone who wronged me or mine! And when I go to the magistrate?—”
“Actually, you have a different set of hosts awaiting you now,” said Margaret. “They’ve become impatient for your next visit.”
“What—?” began the baroness.
But the first low, whispery note from Herr Schneider’s soul pipe silenced her before she could utter another word. Her mouth fell slack and her eyes widened as the note almost visibly hummed through her body.
Even Margaret felt the shivery force of its power as it passed her.
Closing his eyes, the soul-piper bent into his work. Long, bony fingers flew across the open holes of his pipe as the tune he played cast ribbons of desire through the air and wrapped them around the baroness with tangible force.
Her eyes glazed over, and she gasped with delight. Shifting in place, she turned to follow him yearningly with her gaze as he strolled slowly past her, playing that tempting trail of music that led directly to her soul...
And then she began to walk, at first slowly and haltingly and then speeding into an eager, impatient stride as she followed the inexorable call of his soul-pipe towards the looming, waiting trees.
Leonie crossed the pathway to Margaret’s side in silence.
When Margaret reached out a hand, the nachzehrer took it—but neither of them spoke a word as they watched the baroness take her final walk into the forest she had claimed to own.
..and to the Diamantensee, where the nixen would be waiting to receive her final visit.
The baroness had been wrong. Margaret’s heart was not too soft after all to bear hard decisions...at least, not when it came to the safety of her husband and her friends.
She waited until the piper and the baroness had both disappeared into the green walls of the Black Forest. Then she let out a sigh of relief and turned to Leonie, releasing her hand. “Which way?”
“Second floor, third door to the right,” Leonie said promptly. “Herr von Krallemann is guarding him, just in case.”
It was exactly as they’d planned, and Margaret couldn’t hold herself back at the news. She lunged forward to close her arms around the nachzehrer’s lean frame. “Thank you,” she whispered with all of her heart. “ Thank you!”
She’d never had a community she could fully trust before. It was a gift beyond imagining.
Leonie froze for one startled moment—but then, rather than yanking herself free, she lightly patted Margaret’s back with one clawed hand. “I told you,” she said. “You’re one of us now.”
Margaret had used up all her own words. All she had left to fill her was emotion—and it carried her aching legs up the winding castle stairs at a run.
The third door to the right stood ajar. Panic thrummed through her at the sight, despite everything—but when she pushed it fully open, she found the glass coffin still lying in the center of the room, safely protected by the windows’ thick, floor-to-ceiling curtains, while a long, rangy grey wolf lay on the ground beside it, ready to ward off intruders.
Margaret collapsed on her knees beside him. “Oh, thank heaven!”
Herr von Krallemann gave a low chuff and then settled his chin back on his clasped paws to wait beside her for sunset to finally arrive.
In the hours that passed, Leonie visited several times with updates.
Herr Schneider made another two rounds throughout the castle, ensuring that no one would wake in time to be a witness to their presence.
A low, resounding “ Cawww!” outside the window marked an update from Herr Fischer that Reflection’s Heart had been safely secured within the inn, as planned, to be returned to the nixen the next day.
Through it all, Margaret sat beside the glass coffin and waited, gathering her thoughts and making plans.
Finally, Herr von Krallemann rose to all four paws, gave a leisurely stretch, and then nodded politely to Margaret before prowling out of the room. The sun must be just beginning to set.
Margaret pushed open the coffin with trembling fingers.
Lord Riven’s eyes were closed; his face, perfectly still.
Then his big chest abruptly shifted in a deep breath—and Margaret flung herself forward to kiss him with all the passion she’d been storing up for hours.
He made a startled sound, but his arms rose to close immediately around her with that instinctive welcome she had almost come to take for granted.
As he rose to a sitting position, she moved gladly with him, every brush of his lips and tongue a reassurance she desperately needed.
When they finally fell apart, he looked around, taking in the glass coffin itself and their unfamiliar surroundings.
His eyebrows rose. “I take it you’ve been adventuring without me?”
“Oof!” She slumped, groaning. “I’ll give you all of the dreadful details later...but first, I have to make a confession.”
“Very well.” Adjusting his seat in the glass coffin, he shook his head in rueful wonderment and then pressed a final kiss against her hair.
“I am prepared, no matter how radical it may be. Have you arranged for us to join the wild nixen in their lake for the next, distinctly damp stage of our honeymoon? Or come up with a radical new scheme for us to sleep in coffins from now on as a scholarly experiment?”
“No and absolutely not !” Margaret shuddered. “I never want to see another coffin again.”
“Mm.” He looked down at her with a small smile playing on his lips. “In that case, what are you so worried about telling me?”
Margaret swallowed hard. It was absurd to find it so difficult to force the words out now, after everything else she’d been through today. And yet, under his steady gaze, with the memory of everything that she had so nearly lost today...
No . She couldn’t hold his gaze—but she also couldn’t hold back the truth for a single moment longer.
“You aren’t just my partner or my friend,” she said raggedly, staring down at her hands as they clenched around the closest wall of his coffin.
“I mean, you are my dearest , my best and truest friend, and I value that very much, but it’s not all. The truth is, I...I mean...”
He tipped her chin up with one gentle finger, and she almost lost her train of thought in the tender warmth of his smile.