Page 83 of These Eternal Bones

“He has a name, and he’s more of a bronze, really,” I correct softly. Something about reading Imogen’s old diary, the stories of him and me…I can’t help but to miss him, in a way. To pity him as well.

She just rolls her eyes. “He’s been spending a lot of time in town with that older woman. I suspect he’s pleasuring her, but Tien seems…nervous about it. I have known the chimera for many long years, and he rarely seems worried by much.”

A memory pops into my head. Her smirk as he left the front entrance. How Elric had pulled me away from the window, all snarls and fang. “She visited a while ago. Why?”

Péal eyes me, nibbling her bottom lip.

“Don’t clam up now.”

She frowns. “I am a seal when I shift, not a clam!”

When she what?

My mouth pops open, staring at her for a moment before shaking my head, no longer surprised by anything here. “What I meant was don’t suddenly decide to be secretive. You no longer serve Elric, right? You serve his mate.”

Her eyes widen, as if she’d forgotten. “It was something about a boat on the way to port. Master didn’t want it here and then the older woman spewed some stuff about remembering blood in the soil. She had an odd feel to her, uncomfortable, like sucking on a tart berry.”

“She and Cartiel are friends?”

Why would Cartiel be friends with someone Elric used to feed on, or is he sleeping with the elderly woman? Not to sound prudebut he’s…beautiful, I’d imagine he has his pick if he truly wanted a someone to warm his bed. It seems an odd choice, but I suppose most manners of the heart are.

“I wouldn’t say friends, I don’t think the gold-bronzeman has an aptitude for them. When she showed up, he got skittish, made himself scarce.”

I lean back, worrying my lip before an idea pops in my head. “What are the chances of getting the fox up here?”

Péal lets loose a guffawing laugh at that. “On a scale between he simply trots inside, to master kills everyone in the castle?”

I level her with feigned annoyance; it sounded like a longshot, even to me.

If I can’t see Rummes, can I call him?

Can we still talk the way he did in the woods?

We’re connected, right? Elric said we formed a soul connection.

Much to my shame, I’d called out for him, mentally, in those first days locked in this cage. I wouldn’t dare do it out loud. My mate's brain would’ve imploded. He hadn’t answered.

Péal reaches through, brushing her hands through my hair in a comforting gesture when I sigh, letting my head thud against the bars of the cage. “If we’re going to get Cartiel up here, we’ll need to distract master, to get him away from you.”

A needle of worry fills me for the small woman. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

She shakes her head. “I will be fine, but I have conditions.”

My brow quirks.

“You must explain to me what you’re doing. Why do you need to speak with him?”

I heave a sigh as I go through the past few months, the way he’s watched and longed. How he’d helped me find the diary, and by the time I’m done with it, she only seems more unsettled.

“How did you fall, mistress?”

I rear back slightly, taking in her expression. She couldn’t possibly–

“I-I was…” I stop, huffing in frustration. “I must’ve leaned too far over. Cartiel said the upper rungs were weak.”

“They aren’t.”

I shrug, feeling oddly defensive of the constant hate Cartiel seems to earn from everyone else. Granted, he’s far from pleasant to be around. He’s done nothing but be exactly that.