The Stars Over Bittergate Bay

Chapter 46

46

S idney woke to near silence. His head felt fuzzy and he lay still with his eyes closed, trying to guess by touch and sound and smell where he had ended up.

Not in the graveyard. The smell of loamy earth and cold stone was gone. Instead, he was surrounded by the warmth of spice and the soft tang of body that was familiar and comforting.

Jonas’s bed was soft, and Sidney was relieved to find himself there. It meant that Jonas couldn’t be far, which was good for a number of reasons. Primarily, it meant that Jonas had survived dealing with Edmund Morrow. That no-good, scheming, two-bit asshole. On Sidney’s list of absolute fucking bastards, Edmund Morrow slotted in right above Sidney’s own father, which was quite an accomplishment.

That Sidney was waking up in Jonas’s bed also hopefully meant that things were mended between them. After learning about what Morrow had done, Jonas’s lie about his identity seemed like little more than self-preservation. It would have been foolish for him to do anything less, and if Sidney knew anything about Jonas Rookwood, it was that Jonas was not a fool.

Sidney opened his eyes, half expecting to see Jonas sitting at his bedside. It was a cliché and dramatic, even Sidney could admit that to himself, but he was a little disappointed to wake up and discover he was alone.

He was in Jonas’s bed though, still a good sign. Sidney pushed himself up with stiff arms, and glanced down at his bare skin. Someone had undressed him. And there were no injuries that he could see. Had the last twenty-four hours been a bizarre fever dream?

The light in the room was dim. Early morning or dusk? Or just another rainy Hindry day? Sidney glanced down at his palm, where lines of thin silver had been painted on his skin. Rubbing at them with his thumb did nothing. It was like they had been poured there, molten, and filled the natural creases. The last thing he could remember holding was his pocket watch, his hand clenched around it painfully tight.

It didn’t hurt now, at least. The silver bent as he flexed his hand, moving as though it had always been a part of him. He would ask Jonas about it. Where was he?

“Finally! You’re up!” Delilah materialized two feet away from him, cross-legged on the end of the bed. Sidney nearly had a heart attack.

“Christ, Delilah!”

“Karolina and Claire will be here soon, and someone has to open the door for them. Your brother’s still asleep,” she added.

“Where’s Jonas?” Delilah’s expression faltered, her mouth folding in a brief frown before she shook her head.

“He’s gone.”

“Gone?” Sidney shook his head. That didn’t make sense. Obviously, he wasn’t gone. He’d probably gone into town.

“He said not to expect him back for a week. Five days at least.”

Five days? Sidney’s head ached as he furrowed his brow, and he pressed his silver-lined palm to his forehead and tried to take a breath. There could still be a perfectly reasonable explanation.

“Where?” Sidney demanded. It was the wrong tone to take. Delilah crossed her arms, levitating two inches off the mattress in irritation.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but he’s gone to Clement’s Island to get some supplies.”

“He didn’t want to make sure I—” Sidney stopped himself, trying to swallow down the way Jonas’s disregard stung. Delilah’s eyes were wide, an extremely skeptical Are you stupid? written into the over-exaggerated arches of her brows. “I just meant?—”

“Did you read the note?”

“What note?” Sidney asked. Delilah pointed to the nightstand.

On the corner, beside the lamp was the satchel that held Jonas’s telescope. The telescope that had brought Sidney to Jonas in the first place. On top of it was a folded piece of paper, Sidney’s name in Jonas’s slanted handwriting.

Sidney’s stomach turned over as he reached for the paper. He flipped it open with his thumb.

Sidney,

Karolina and Claire will be here this morning to pack up some things for me, and to take you back to Bainbridge. I hope you are well and remain so. Please accept this telescope as a token of my deep regret. The telescope on the balcony is also yours to take with you back to Holyworth. I hope it will be useful to you. The lenses are in the study, along with my designs and measurements, should you desire to make more. I wish you the very best in all your future endeavours.

– J. Rookwood

“I wish you the very best in all your future endeavours?” Sidney stammered through the sentence aloud. Delilah snorted.

“Sounds like you got let go. Ever been fired before, Sidney?”

“No,” Sidney shook his head. It was hard to breathe all of a sudden. It didn’t make sense. He’d woken up into a nightmare. “Delilah, he rescued me.”

“And it cost him everything,” she snipped. Sidney dropped the note onto the bedspread and glared at her.

“What are you talking about?”

“He told me not to tell you.”

“Oh, so now you’re going to listen to him?” Delilah pursed her lips, straightening her arms as she considered him. “Delilah. Please.”

“If I tell you, you have to do something for me. And you have to promise not to tell Jonas that I told you.”

“I’m a bit leery of making deals at the moment.”

“Oh, so you have learned something after all?”

“Delilah, please.”

“I just want you to introduce me to your brother,” she flattened her skirt over her knees as she said it, her eyes drifting downward as though she was embarrassed, and Jonas was right, Delilah was still very much nineteen. Sidney barely managed not to groan.

“Yes. Fine.”

“He’s very handsome.”

“Delilah, you said Jonas rescuing me cost him everything. What does that mean? Why isn’t he here?”

“He had to give Elmmond House and the cottage and the whole property to Edmund Morrow in exchange for your soul.”

Sidney felt as though he’d jumped into the icy waters of Bittergate Bay all over again. His chest was tight, brain scrambling to process this new information.

“What?”

“He’s going to Clement’s Island for some of the supplies he needs to unbind the property. And unbind me from the property, because I’ll be fucked if I’m living anywhere near Edmund Morrow. The day Jonas banished him was?—”

“Why didn’t he tell me?”

“You left, remember? You accused him of using you for magic, which is a little ironic come to think of it, and then you left.”

Oh.

Oh, no.

Sidney couldn’t let Jonas go off thinking that Sidney hated him. Sidney didn’t hate him. Sidney understood Jonas better than he’d ever understood anyone in his life. More than that, Sidney loved him. And Jonas had given up the last things he had to keep Sidney safe.

“Where’s Clement’s Island?” Sidney asked as he got out of bed. His knees wobbled, his joints still stiff and achy.

“North of here,” Delilah shrugged. “I don’t know. You can’t see it from the cliffs. There might be a map.” She gestured toward the study, and Sidney took a step on his stupid, wobbly fawn legs. When he didn’t collapse, he kept going.

The bedroom door opened, and Delilah disappeared with a small screech before Sidney could turn around. For the briefest of moments, he thought it would be Jonas, and he scowled when instead, in the doorway, stood Leo.

“Why are you out of bed? And who on earth are you talking to?” Sidney had already turned back and was halfway through the study door.

“Nevermind about that, I’ll explain later. Can you give me a ride?”