Page 19 of Unbroken (Rath & Rune #4)

Irene looked exhausted when she came by to drive them to work the next morning. As soon as they were in the back seat, Noct asked, “Are you all right, darling?”

She stifled a yawn. “Just tired. Mrs. Norris’s house has been cleaned and put in order, by the way, and the staff told that the Norrises departed for a sanitarium in New York for their health.

Rupert had the bodies brought back to the estate for examination later today—they’re under various enchantments to keep them cool and slow any further rot, but they were hardly in the best form to begin with. ”

“He means to autopsy them?” Ves asked in surprise.

“Well, have Cousin Terrence do so. He’s studying medicine at Harvard, but is coming on the first train available.

” She brought the auto to a halt to let pedestrians cross the street.

“I’ll pass along anything of interest, of course.

In the meantime, let’s hope Mortimer has managed to track down Mr. Fuller. ”

With nothing else immediately demanding his attention that morning, Ves spent a few peaceful hours in the bindery, until a junior librarian brought him a note.

10:30 am - Mr. Rune

A man who said he’s your grandfather called at the ticket booth. Asked you to meet him for lunch at Marsh’s.

Dread unfurled in his gut, and his limbs turned leaden. So much for his quiet morning after last night’s excitement.

He didn’t have to go. Grandfather couldn’t force him to do anything. He could just stay here, immerse himself in work, and…

He wasn’t fooling even himself. Feeling as though something constricted his lungs, he kept one eye on the ticking of the clock, which seemed to move much more quickly than he really wanted. When it reached ten minutes until noon, he took up his coat and hat and set out.

Marsh’s was a popular lunchtime spot for the museum staff, as well as for clerks and shop workers from the surrounding area. He found Grandfather in a booth at the back, perusing a menu with a cup of coffee at his elbow.

Ves sat across from him. “What do you want?”

“Why, a pleasant lunch with my grandson.” Grandfather smiled over Ves’s shoulder as the waiter approached. “What are the daily specials?”

Ves didn’t hear a word the waiter said, just mumbled an order for coffee and a fish sandwich. Once the waiter had left, he said, “It’s more than that.”

“Is it?” Grandfather looked suddenly tired, the lines in his face deeply etched.

“I don’t understand your hostility toward me, Vesper.

I love you and your brother. I thought you and I could at least share a meal together.

I want to know about your life, your hopes and dreams, your plans for the future. ”

The waiter returned with Ves’s coffee, then hurried away again. “Very well. My plans are to put an end to these damnable Books of the Bound without getting killed.”

Grandfather nodded. “It’s hard, isn’t it? Why, I remember—”

“Why did you trick Ambrose into talking about his family?” Ves cut in.

“I didn’t trick him. We conversed as equals, two old men whose glory days are behind us.” Grandfather took a sip of his coffee, winced, and spooned some more sugar into it. “You’re too young to understand.”

“And it’s just happenstance that you did your conversing with one of the Endicotts?” Ves arched a brow.

“Who else? Oh, I’m sure there are a few monster hunters scattered about this town, but he’s the one I encountered.”

Anger boiled in Ves’s veins, hotter than the coffee. The waiter returned and placed a fish sandwich in front of each of them, before another table called him away.

“I don’t believe you,” Ves said, fighting to keep his voice steady. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a child anymore, to accept whatever you tell me.”

“Believe me, I have noticed.” Grandfather sounded irritated by the fact, as though Ves had inconvenienced him by growing up. “Ordinarily I would have stayed away from the Endicotts, but they’ve involved themselves in our family’s business.”

“You mean Noct and Irene.”

“I have to make sure Nocturn is safe.” Grandfather took a hearty bite of his sandwich, chewed, and swallowed. “Eat up, Vesper.”

He picked up his own sandwich automatically, then cursed himself. Apparently all the long years of obedience had left their mark deep inside.

“The ferocity of the Endicotts toward those they deem monsters is legendary.” Grandfather washed down the bite of sandwich with his coffee, then picked it up again.

“Ketoi, hags, Dark Young, umbrae, ghūls—there’s nothing they wouldn’t kill, and do it with relish.

Hybrids like yourselves were never safe, they were always bigoted when it came to the purity of human blood.

” He snorted in disdain. “When I heard they were working with…well, it doesn’t matter.

My point is, rumor has it they’d turned over a new leaf, but I was hardly going to leave the matter of Nocturn’s safety to gossip. ”

Ves locked eyes with him. “You could have trusted me to take care of him.”

“And I did. I didn’t intervene directly, but I needed to know for myself that they weren’t plotting against the two of you. Eat your sandwich, don’t just hold it.”

Because it seemed easier, Ves did as instructed. The sandwich was probably good, but at the moment it tasted like dust.

Grandfather had been right to distrust the Endicotts, hadn’t he? Rupert had taken the family in a direction some of them didn’t like. Ambrose might be in the minority, but Ves doubted he was the only one who looked on himself and Noct as abominations.

Satisfied by Ves’s quiet obedience, Grandfather went on, “I’d say you’ll understand when you have children and grandchildren of your own someday, but I suppose that’s not likely. How is your young man, anyway?”

The hairs on the back of Ves’s neck prickled in alarm, and he had to take a swig of coffee to keep from choking on his sandwich. “Stay away from him.”

Grandfather held up both hands placatingly. “Haven’t I so far?”

Time to change the subject. “We haven’t heard a peep out of the School of Night lately. Has Mother driven them all into hiding?”

“I wouldn’t give her all the credit. They haven’t fared well against you, either.” He took another swig of coffee. “The Chancellor would be a fool to choose direct confrontation, given how poorly it worked out for her underlings.”

Ves didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you know?”

“Me? Nothing. Your mother? You’d have to ask her yourself.”

Damn the man. Ves forced himself to take another bite so he had something to grind his teeth on. Of course Grandfather was evasive; when had he not been?

But he knew a great deal more than most sorcerers. If he was in a talkative mood, perhaps Ves should take advantage of that.

“The Book of Blood is being used to create blood-sucking undead,” he said, and went on to tell his grandfather of the basics, including the mysterious woman who had escaped them last night.

When he was done, Grandfather sat back and stared into nothing for a long moment. “There is a word I heard a few times, when I traveled through Romania and Transylvania. Stregoica—a sort of vampiric witch.”

Unease crawled along Ves’s spine. “Another connection to the Scholomance?”

“Perhaps.” Grandfather shrugged. “If the magic of the Books comes from something Gregorio Hollowell learned there, it could presumably make someone into a stregoica.”

Should he say anything about Lydia? What difference could it possibly make?

“Gregorio’s wife, Lydia, was from the area, could even have been a student herself.

We don’t know what her name was then, before it was anglicized and she took her husband’s surname.

Though I doubt it would tell us anything even if we did. ”

The lines on Grandfather’s brow deepened with thought. “Fascinating,” he said at last. “So we have these undead creatures—”

“We’re calling them leeches. Though to be honest, they’re more reminiscent of mosquitoes.”

“These leeches,” Grandfather said. “Members of the Widdershins Horticultural Society, who used some sort of magic to grow absurdly large flowers. Then this mysterious woman, who has the Book and has transformed herself into a similar state as the leeches, though alive rather than undead.” He tapped absently on the table as he thought, an old habit Ves recalled from his childhood. “Is she a member of the WHS as well?”

“I don’t think so? The only remaining members are Ian Fuller and Emily Rice. Fuller is a man, and Mrs. Rice is too old.”

“It all comes back to this society, though. Do you know what kind of magic they used on their plants? Could they have made a bargain with something from the Outside?”

“Over plants?” Ves asked. “I know people do stupid things for absurd reasons, but…”

“Very few in this world, even those with knowledge of the arcane, have the scope of vision we do.” Grandfather’s eyes went misty with recollection.

“Petty men and women, trapped by the smallness of their imagination, their vision. We would have remade the world, but they cannot even conceive of such greatness.”

Was it greatness, to live in a shack in the forest, hiding from the outside world? Ves kept the retort to himself; there was no point in starting such an argument.

“There are other possibilities, of course,” Grandfather went on. “When I was in Padua, I came across a fascinating case. In the sixteenth century, a Dr. Rappaccini was such a great grower of poisonous plants that his daughter supposedly became poisonous herself.”

Ves arched a brow. “I sincerely doubt the truth of that story.”

“Unless she was poisonous to begin with.”

Of course. “She was one of us. The Dark Young, I mean.”

“That was always my guess.” Grandfather brought a napkin to his lips. “His garden flourished due to her presence, whether or not that was his original intent. Perhaps one of the remaining society members you haven’t met is your half-sibling. Or the unknown woman might be.”

“Not her. Our magic doesn’t mix well with the Books—I don’t think any of us would be able to use them.” His blood had killed Siewert the moment the leech tried to feed on it. And his flesh had caused a very unexpected result when used in conjunction with the Book of Flesh.

As for the Book of Bone, he shivered to remember how dead the bones it touched had felt. Suspended in a single state, no decay, no life within them. Definitely not something of which the All-Mother, Lord of the Forest, would approve.

“It was merely a thought.” Grandfather pushed aside his plate. “Thank you for meeting me here, Vesper. I enjoyed our time together very much. And I hope I was able to help in some small way.”

As soon as he was gone, Vesper signaled the waiter and paid the check. He walked back to the museum, thinking hard about everything his grandfather had said.

Almost the moment he put his foot in the library, Sebastian spotted him and came over. “Ves—there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.” Before Ves could reply, he went on, “Mortimer thinks he knows where Fuller has been hiding.”