The Stars Over Bittergate Bay

Chapter 42

42

Z achariah grabbed Sidney by the shoulders and dragged him up on top of the large stone. An altar. Dark stained glass windows stared down at him, colors desaturated, hued orange in the candle light. If he was in Bittergate Chapel then it might be possible to make it out of this alive.

The long-bladed knife in Morrow’s hand begged to differ. Sidney tried to shift to the side, marble slick beneath his sweaty palms. His body still refused to move properly, and Sidney collapsed onto the stone.

“Stay away from me.”

“We’re going to make a deal,” Morrow said.

“I’m not making any fucking deals with you.”

“Need I remind you, your brother is still in Elmmond House.”

“Leo’s a hell of a lot smarter than I am.”

“I doubt that’s among his greater achievements.” Morrow smirked. “In exchange, for your soul, I will assure your brother’s continued safety. Throughout the weekend, my associates will guide your brother away from any threats toward his personhood, and protect him from himself, if need be.”

“Why?” Sidney stalled. He needed to get more sensation back in his limbs before he could escape. Father Michaels’s house wasn’t far. Morrow arched an eyebrow at him.

“Why?”

“Yes, why. Why do you want my soul? You’re not a demon or a fae. You’re a human. What use do you have for it?”

“Gods, you’re nosey. I bet Jonas loved that.”

“Fuck you,” Sidney snapped, enraged suddenly. Jonas had tried to warn him about sorcerers. About the whole thing. The cruelties people would commit for power.

And that slotted two disparate thoughts together in Sidney’s head. Asterion told Sidney that Jonas’s former research partner had been horrible to him. Jonas’s behavior after their caving expedition. And his warning about sorcerers. Sidney’s mouth dropped open.

“You’re Jonas’s research partner.”

“Partner?” Morrow snorted. “That’s one word for it.”

“What did you do to him?” Sidney wanted to be screaming. Morrow laughed.

“Oh, he certainly has you wrapped around his claw, doesn’t he?” Morrow winked. “I’d guess he enchanted you, but then, that never was his style. Loyal to a fault, our Jonas. Not to mention I took all his magic?—”

“ You took his magic?” Sidney felt like he’d been hit with another ceramic pot. “You— How?”

“Well,” Morrow leered, so obviously pleased with himself. “To say I took it would be untrue. He gave it to me. All I had to do was ask. And he’s so stupid, so guileless, that he actually did it.” Sidney as hollow with rage. Morrow chuckled. “Don’t look all put out. Jonas wanted me to be a part of his world even more than I did. He didn’t even make me work for it. Unless you count all the stupid cuddling and caressing work.” Morrow’s tone turned simpering, as he batted his eyelashes. “ Oh Edmund, do you love me? I’ll do anything for you, darling. ” Morrow snorted. “What an idiot!”

Sidney’s fists clenched. For the first time in his life, Sidney didn’t want to run. He didn’t want to hide. Sidney wanted to fight. He understood what Asterion had meant now. He felt like he understood everything. And he hated this man more than he’d ever hated anyone else in his life.

But Sidney couldn’t move to fight him And he wanted, desperately to hit him squarely in his stupid, smug smirk. So, he did the next best thing.

Sidney’s spit hit Morrow square in the cheek, and slid down his face. Morrow’s eyes widened and he flinched, shocked, fingers wiping at his face and coming away damp.

“You little shit!”

“Fuck you,” Sidney hissed. “You’re a monster.”

“Oh, Quince,” Morrow snarled. “You have no idea how monstrous I can be.”

Jonas pulled up to the cottage almost exactly two hours after he’d driven away, even more certain that something hadn’t been right when he’d left. Maybe it was wishful thinking. He didn’t think so, but Jonas wasn’t going to storm back into Elmmond House and charge through the halls just yet. If Jonas’s intuition was wrong, then he’d just embarrass them both.

Except, he didn’t think he was wrong. He hadn’t known Sidney long. But he did know him well. ‘Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.’ Sense and Sensibility had not been his favorite of Austen’s works; Marianne Dashwood particularly at odds with his own sensibilities. But Dom’s conviction about his brother had made Jonas really think about how well he knew Sidney.

Barely more than seven days, perhaps, and maybe Jonas hadn’t been honest with Sidney about what he was. But they had connected over things deeper than that, in ways that mattered. And the Sidney in the conservatory wasn’t the Sidney he knew.

When Jonas climbed out of his truck, he only had the beginnings of a plan. He wavered on the gravel drive: to go back to the cottage and strategize or go up to the house and enlist Verne or Delilah to help him check on Sidney. Verne wouldn’t like being relegated to spymaster, but he would do it. Delilah would be willing, if she wasn’t busy, because she loved to snoop.

He glanced at Elmmond House, all imposing shadow speckled with glittering lights, like pinpricks through a piece of black paper. And that was when he noticed two figures walking across the lawn toward him.

It was early for him to be getting stray visitors from the house. People didn’t usually wander over, lost and confused, until a few days after the Ascension. The light from beside his own front door caught the cerulean shine of Asterion’s hair. What was Asterion doing coming back over here? Had one of the servants told him how Jonas had rushed from the house?

Asterion’s boots crunched on the gravel, and the man beside him came into the light. He was short, with square, muscular shoulders. It was the build of a boxer, someone meant to be quick and strong. When he looked up at Jonas, Jonas startled.

The man’s eyes were the same as Sidney’s, downturned at the corners and narrowed in scrutiny. The same mouth, full bottom lip, over a different, squarer jaw. Where Sidney had black straight hair, this man’s hair was a nest of dark brown curls. For each thing about him that looked soft, there was a different feature that read hardness; the obviously broken bridge of his nose, the final piece of this handsome, if incongruent, puzzle.

“Is Sidney here?” Even his voice had a melodic note to it. Just like Sidney’s.

“This is Sidney’s brother Leo,” Asterion sighed, giving Jonas a look that very clearly said: You owe me for dealing with all of this. “I told him Sidney was most likely to be found here, since you’d come up to the house to?—”

“I just got back,” Jonas said turned toward the cottage with all its darkened windows, before looking back at Leo and Asterion.“When I last saw him, he was in the conservatory with a…” He trailed off, glancing at Leo. Leo shook his head, abrupt and exasperated.

“With a what? A faerie? A vampire?”

“He’s been well-briefed by his law firm,” Asterion inserted. “Or reasonably well-briefed. Baron Sarceda is one of their clients.” Sarceda was a member of the fae aristocracy with some of the most extensive landholdings Earthside and in Andurnei. It made sense that he’d have a human law firm on retainer.

“Sidney was with a demon in the conservatory,” Jonas said. “I didn’t recognize him. The demon,” Jonas added for Asterion’s benefit.

“Sidney’s not in our room,” Leo said. “Or in any of the common areas.”

“Desdemona’s the only demon with a room at the house this year,” Asterion said. “So, if they were going to…” he trailed off, glancing at Jonas apologetically. “Not that they couldn’t slip into any unlocked bedroom, I suppose.”

“That’s not like Sidney,” Leo frowned. Jonas took a breath, fortified by the fact Sidney’s brother saw it too. Leo’s worry made Jonas’s own feel justified.

“We can check the cottage.” Jonas turned to the door. “And if he’s not here, we’ll go to Verne.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t just go to Verne,” Asterion muttered from behind Jonas, as Jonas turned on the light in the foyer, stepping around the spilled food that was still on the floor.