Page 59 of Eldritch (The Eating Woods #2)

Groaning, I crossed the room toward the window and peered out to see Raivox perched on a nearby balcony beneath a stony overhang that kept the rain off of him. “I think we’re covered for now.”

Zevander strode up alongside me, as if he needed to see for himself, and sighed. “I suppose a bath wouldn’t hurt. It’s been a while.”

Lingering at the window a moment longer, I puzzled out why Raivox had chosen to remain. While, on one hand, I loved the safety of having him close, on the other, I knew him to be a creature of instinct. Protective.

Was it Aleysia that stirred his guarding behavior? Zevander?

Or something else entirely?

The chill leaking through the window urged me back toward the fireplace, and I lifted the lever fastened to the stone wall beside it, which gurgled and creaked as water filtered out of a stone spout, into the cauldron on a hot sizzle.

Curls of steam rose up over top of the cauldron while I pumped away, filling it with fresh water.

I gathered the oversized blanket from the bed and dragged it toward the fireplace, depositing it on the floor. “Sit here by the fire and warm yourself while the water heats.”

“I’m fine. I’m not as delicate as I look.” His comment brought a smile to my face.

“No. You’re not. But for once, could you let me feel useful?”

He quirked a brow, and the most atrociously handsome smirk played on his lips. Without further argument, he lowered himself to the blankets and rested his elbows on his bent knees. “Happy?”

“Very. I’m going to light a fire in Aleysia’s room. And…mine.”

Lips pressed together, he slowly nodded, wearing a look of disappointment.

From the wall, I lifted one of the stone sconces and knelt in front of the fireplace to light the small bit of kindling at the top of it, then carried it like a torch out of the room.

My heart pounded in my chest, while the longing to lay with him, soothe him, pulled at my hair, beckoning me back to his room, but I kept on.

Aleysia hadn’t yet returned from the kitchen, but I could hear the distant sounds of her cursing and rifling through drawers, clanging pans and silverware.

I lit the fireplace in the room across the hall for her, then headed to the room adjacent to Zevander’s.

A cold breeze danced over my feet before I’d even opened the door, and when I stepped inside, the temperature nearly stole my breath.

The windows had been knocked out, the curtains blowing in the breeze as rain pattered across the stony floor.

“Absolutely not this room,” I muttered to myself.

After closing the door, I made my way farther down the hallway to the next room, opening it to find much smaller and simpler quarters. Perhaps the subordinate clergy rooms, which held nothing more than a simple cot and a much smaller fireplace. “It’ll do for the night.”

I crossed the small space toward the fireplace, but paused mid-step at the sound of a hoo-hoo-hoo at my back.

Slowly turning around brought two glowing eyes staring down at me from the rafters there.

I gasped and lifted the torch to find an owl perched on the wooden beams overhead.

How he’d gotten inside, I didn’t know, seeing as the window and door were both closed.

Instead of pondering it too long, I exhaled a shaky breath and tiptoed back toward the corridor, closing the door behind me.

I’d just have to share a room with Aleysia. Her bed would easily fit the both of us, anyway.

I told myself the decision had nothing to do with how the corridor seemed colder and darker, the further I went.

I ambled quickly back to Aleysia’s room and found her sitting in front of the fireplace with palms outstretched.

She twisted around, regarding me with a frown. “Not a single speck of food. Place must’ve been entirely ransacked. I’m just going to bed at this point. It’s the only way to keep my mind off the incessant grumble in my stomach.”

“Mind if I share a room with you?”

Her brows furrowed deeper. “Are the two of you not …”

“We’re not. I mean, we are, but. Not.”

“Oh, good grief, Maeve. You’re ridiculous. Just sleep in his bed.”

“Are you refusing to let me share a room with you?”

“What if I am?”

I rolled my shoulders back. “That would be incredibly rude.”

She snorted a laugh. “Then, share a room with me, if you’re so insistent. I’m too hungry to argue.”

“Thank you.” I stepped inside, noting the bed was a little smaller than I’d originally visualized, but good enough. We’d slept beside each other on a much smaller bed before, though Aleysia had a tendency to flop around quite a bit.

Like Sacton Crain’s room, this one, which must’ve belonged to the head Red Veil, boasted a beautifully carved stone fireplace and a tub. However the small closet held only robes and shifts.

As hesitant as I was to change out of my dress, on the chance that something happened in the middle of the night, it was still soaked.

From beside the closet, I tugged an iron rack closer to the fireplace and slipped out of the clingy garments, grateful when the blazing heat touched my bare skin, as I hung my wet clothes on the rack.

A prickling sensation at my hand reminded me of the strange, scaled glove there, and its sharp metallic nails caught the firelight as I held it out in front of me.

“That is positively revolting,” Aleysia said, while I continued to examine the finer details in the light.

“I just wish I knew what purpose it served. Or if it was harmful in any way.”

“I can’t begin to imagine.”

Sighing, I lowered my hand and kept on with my undressing. The rain had soaked the damned cammyck, and as I peeled it away, an echo of my annoyance from earlier flared as I was reminded of its open crotch. I quickly changed into one of the shifts, swimming in the much larger garment.

Aleysia sat chewing on her nails as I passed her to the bed.

“They won’t make much of a meal, you know.

” I peeled back the thick, velvet blanket on the bed, and a small spider scampered across the mattress.

I slapped my hand over my mouth, smothering a quiet squeal, and carefully reached for one of the decorative pillows that lay within reach.

A quick smack of the pillow sent the spider scampering away over the edge.

“Was it one of them?”

“It isn’t getting bigger. Or coming after us.” To be sure, I rounded the bed to the other side, and on finding no sign of it, I yanked away the blanket in search of more. “Looks to be the only one. Perhaps just a simple spider.”

“I never imagined I’d be relieved to hear you say that.” She also slipped out of her dress, swapping it for one of the shifts in the closet, the action exposing the marking on her torso.

Both of us climbed into the bed beside each other.

Only the crackling of the fireplace filled the room, as I lay staring up at the ceiling. “Aleysia…have you not noticed the black veins on your body?”

“Have you not noticed the black veins on your lover’s face?”

“He’s not my lover.”

“Do you love him?”

“I don’t know,” I said, a bit more defensively than intended.

“You don’t know if you love him? Or, you don’t know because you’ve never been in love?”

“I hardly know him.”

“You don’t have to know every detail of a person’s life to decide you give a damn about them. Answer this…if he were to fall prey to one of those spiders and you lost him, how would you feel?”

I thought back to the day when we’d trained and Zevander had gotten trapped beneath one. How much I’d panicked at the thought of it hurting him. “Devastated.”

“Then, it’s settled. You love him.”

“Don’t you think love is just a bit impractical, given our circumstances?”

“I think love is more important now than ever before. Love is what grounds us. Gives us hope. It reminds us that, even when the world is slowly crumbling away, love is everlasting. But what do I know? I’ve always been impractically in love.”

There had been times over the last few days when I questioned whether, or not, the sister I knew was still inside of her somewhere. This was one of the times I was certain of it.

Beneath the covers, I gathered her hand in mine and smiled when I felt her gaze turn toward me. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too. Perhaps you should go check on him? He’s awfully quiet.”

“You think he should be making a clamor in there?” I joked, but in truth, Zevander’s silence had come to be concerning to me, also. It was usually the times he was most quiet that he slipped into his head.

“Maeve, go check on him.”

I wanted to. Desperately. But I didn’t trust myself around him.

With Aleysia having awakened, and having had no luck finding the vivicantem at Moros’s, I was more uncertain than ever.

The likelihood of him having to return to Aethyria alone loomed over me.

“You just want the bed to yourself, don’t you? ”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about the black veins on your torso,” I said, ignoring her response. “Where did they come from?”

“I don’t know. I probably picked something up from that old witch’s house.” She rolled away from me, tugging on the covers. “I’m too exhausted to talk. And far too hungry to patiently wade through your questions tonight.”

“Fine. For now.” I turned over to face the closed door, my mind wandering back to our conversation, all while the ongoing silence from his room stirred my worry.

Go check on him.