The Stars Over Bittergate Bay

Chapter 34

34

H alfway back to Hindry, it started to rain properly. Sidney pulled into the small parking lot at the train station and strode up to the ticket window barely feeling the downpour on his skin.

“No trains to Bainbridge until tomorrow morning,” said the ticket agent. They looked up at Sidney for the briefest of moments, their face contorting at whatever dour expression Sidney was wearing. He knew he looked disheveled, flushed and frustrated; he never had found his cap. “There’s a freight arriving at seven tomorrow morning that sometimes has a commuter car, and a passenger train at two in the afternoon.”

Sidney could sit in the truck in the parking lot until seven in the morning. That seemed reasonable and fine. He thanked the ticket agent and stumbled back to the truck.

The hammering of the rain on the roof did its best to drown out Sidney’s thoughts. His coat was heavy with damp and the stupid cab of the truck smelled like hamburger and Jonas beneath that. Sidney pressed his forehead against the steering wheel and tried not to breathe. Great. Now he just had to do that for the next eighteen hours and hope that Jonas wouldn’t report his truck stolen in the meantime. Very manageable.

Unfortunately, it was then that Sidney reached the end of his emotional tether. Objectively, lasting nearly half an hour past the worst thing that had ever happened to him was pretty impressive. He still fucking hated that he was crying.

The first tears that slid down his cheeks were hot, burning with embarrassment. Sidney had thought Jonas wanted him. Sidney told Jonas that he loved him! What a fucking fool.

Jonas was perfect, and that should have been Sidney’s first clue that something wasn’t right. He tolerated all of Sidney’s too personal questions, the way he’d put himself in Jonas’s space like he belonged there. And for all of that, Sidney had been too stupid to see what now seemed so obvious. Jonas was pretending. Jonas had even tried to warn him, in his own way. But Sidney had been stubborn. An idiot. And he deserved this.

Sidney’s sobs turned ugly, shoulder shaking. It didn’t matter. There was no one there to see him. No one could hear him over the sound of the rain. A train pulled into the platform, and people began to disembark, little more than shadows through the rain. Sidney took a shuddering breath as he watched them for a moment. Black suits and dark umbrellas. Suitcases.

If he’d had money, he would have gotten out and purchased a ticket. It didn’t really matter where the train was going. He didn’t have to be back at Holyworth until Monday. His research was fucked without Jonas’s telescope and library. No university would take it anyway. And now he didn’t even have his charts.

Sidney rested his chin on the top of the steering wheel and closed his eyes. Crying was useless, and he hated useless things. He’d wasted time. A lot of it. But now, he just needed to get back to Holyworth and figure out something else. No use dwelling on what had happened. It was over.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that didn’t exactly make it any easier. Months of work had gone to waste, all because Sidney hadn’t been able to put two and two together to make four. And somehow that wasn’t even the most upsetting thing about it, when it really should have been.

A knock on his window made Sidney jump. He lurched sideways, away from the rain-streaked glass and the sight of a very unexpected face.

“Sidney?”

Sidney’s brother Leo stood under an umbrella, his cloud of dark brown curls untouched by rain. His eyes were narrowed, his head cocked to the side as if to counteract the odd angle of a twice broken nose.

“Sidney?” Leo’s voice was an echo of Sidney’s own, always surprising people with its lightness, when his broad shoulders and chiseled features usually had admirers expecting something deeper. Now, it was laced with concern and loud to be heard over the rain. “What are you doing here? Are you alright?”

And then Leo opened the door and climbed inside.

Sidney slid out of the way out of habit, letting Leo have the driver’s seat. Leo folded his umbrella, then stood and waved to two people, a man and a woman standing on the train platform watching him.

“You two go ahead and take a cab! I’ll catch up!” He said, then sat on the bench seat, putting his bag between himself and Sidney on the upholstery. Leo pulled the door closed and dropped his umbrella near his feet. Newly wet curls sagged against his forehead as he looked at Sidney.

“What are you doing here?” Sidney asked before Leo could.

“Work,” Leo said, waving a dismissive hand at the people who were already gone from the platform. “A sort of party thing, with a client.” He wrinkled his nose and shook his head, as if it was nothing. Maybe it was. As far as Sidney could tell, most of Leo’s life was parties for his law firm and fundraisers for their father. Once, Sidney had teased him about never actually doing any lawyering, and Leo had looked so defeated by the jibe that Sidney immediately apologized.

“Are you okay?” Leo asked again. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m great,” Sidney wiped at the tear tracks he could still feel on his cheeks. “Really good, actually. Just leaving town. Well,” he swallowed. He never liked lying to Leo. “Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Leo frowned. “But—What’s all over your trousers?” Sidney looked down at his trousers, the bottom hem of his coat, both flecked with chocolate stains.

“Milkshake.”

“Milkshake?”

“Yeah,” Sidney nodded. The whole thing was too embarrassing to put into words.

There was a time when Sidney had been closer with Leo than anyone else in the world. They were born almost six years apart, and Sidney had admired Leo since the moment he was able to form coherent thoughts. After their parent’s divorce, when their father began to try and play them against each other, they’d drifted apart. Not because their father’s games had worked. Sidney knew Leo was trying to protect him from their father’s cruelty, his absurd expectations and terrible temper. But Leo’d gotten swept up in their father’s business as a result.

“If you’re not leaving until tomorrow, come to this party with me,” Leo said at once. “You can stay in my room. We’ll see if we can get you some clean clothes. You’re about Paul’s size. My coworker.” Leo gestured again to the train platform where Paul no longer was and gave Sidney a smile. “I’m sure he has a spare pair of trousers you can borrow.”

“I’m not good company,” Sidney said. Heard Jonas’s voice say the same thing in his memory, and he winced as the rest of that conversation came rushing back. What are you still doing here, Sidney?

“Well, that’s okay. You never have been good company.” Leo teased gently, nudging Sidney with his elbow. Sidney tried to smile.

“Your hosts won’t appreciate it.”

“Nonsense,” Leo shook his head. “They won’t even notice you’re there. It’s supposed to be a big to-do. One more face in the crowd.” Sidney wasn’t great at crowds in the best of times, but Leo countered Sidney’s protest before he could vocalize it. “Or stay in the room. You look like you might need to lie down.” It was a gentle pry, artful even. Leo really was better than Sidney at everything. Sidney sniffed and nodded.

“Alright.”

“I can drive if you want. Where’d you get the truck?”

“Borrowed it,” Sidney said, sitting back and reaching for his seatbelt. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“I’ve got instructions in here somewhere.” Leo felt around the inside pockets of his coat. “Gordy said it was a straight shot from the train station though. Then again, if you’ve been here long, you might know better.”He pulled a folded half sheet of paper out of his pocket. “How long have you been here?” Leo handed Sidney the folded sheet.

“About a week,” Sidney said, opening the directions written in Leo’s tidy looping script. His eyes darted to the address at the bottom, and he blinked at it, waiting for the words to sort themselves out into other words that made more sense. When that didn’t happen, he looked over at Leo.

“Elmmond House?”

“That’s the place. You know it?”

“Who invited you to this party?”

“One of the firm’s big clients attends every year, and he always passes a few invitations to us. Just another high-society weekend house party. Tiresome, really, though the food is supposed to be pretty good. And?—”

“And they come back every year? The lawyers who go?” Sidney demanded. Leo frowned at him.

“Yes? What a bizarre question.”

“I don’t think you should go,” Sidney said. Fuck, was he going to have to explain faeries and demons and magic to Leo? Leo pursed his lips.

“Well, unfortunately, I have to go. The firm is paying me to be there. And Paul and his wife already took a cab up. I wouldn’t leave without them.” Of course, Leo was going to be wholly decent and practical about it. Shit.

Sidney looked out into the rain and tried to puzzle out what he was going to do as quickly as possible. Shockingly, somehow, he hadn’t asked Jonas enough questions about the Ascension party. Were all the attendants in glamours? Did the humans who go get a primer, a pamphlet, on the basic principles of magic? Getting marked? Sidney winced.

The simplest thing to do would be to go up with Leo. Keep an eye on him. Pretend like he was as ignorant as everyone else of the whole thing. And technically, Sidney did have an invitation.

“Sidney?” Leo prompted. Sidney took a breath.

“Sorry. No, it’s been a long day. I’m being stupid. It’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Leo’s voice was firm. It was comforting almost, to be trusted implicitly. Sidney nodded, wiping away at the phantom sensation of tears on his cheeks.

“It’ll be fine. Let’s go,” Sidney folded up the directions and put them on the seat beneath Leo’s bag. “I know the way.”