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“Maybe we should be a little quieter?” said Jaspar with a grimace, looking around the dark hills. “He might not even be here.”
“Aspro is here!” she said, waving an arm toward the cloud-white stallion in the nearby stable. “The bastard is here! I know it!”
Louder the expletives came. Until, eventually, the banging softened and the calls became more sorrowful.
Then, Teigra collapsed.
Aurelius came to her, and she gripped at him, sobbing out all of that remnant anger. Somewhere, deep beneath his own wine-soaked breath, a call of pain echoed.
He ignored it.
This is what had to happen. It was the only way.
“Let’s go, Aurie,” she sniffed at last. “There’s nothing for us here.”
“No,” he said, through clenched teeth. “You go back to the embassy. I have some things to take care of!”
“What... what will you do?” she slurred, stumbling back into the carriage.
Aurelius cracked his knuckles. “No one hurts my cousin like this! Ever!”
“Oh, Aurie. I’m so sorry I was mean to you. I shouldn’t have... I shouldn’t have...”
He took her hand through the carriage window. She was still shaking with emotion. “I forgive you, darling. Now you get out of here. I don’t want you to have to see this.”
She nodded and slumped back.
“Be careful with her,” he said to Jaspar, loud enough that Teigra would hear it.
The mid envoy nodded. With a crack of the reins, they were off, rattling away down the road.
And Jaspar would take care of her. He was far more suitable for Teigra than a prince. In a few days, once the pain had eased, she would realize that. With luck, she would settle into a simpler life. A more suitable life.
Yes. It is better this way.
Aurelius was left with the quiet of the night, not just from the lack of moon, but from a blanket of clouds that gave the whole evening a muted gray undertone.
The villa lay before him, even darker than the night.
And inside would be Calix.
Would he be transformed? Shacked to some wall or locked away in some room? Or would he be there in meditation, desperately trying to stop the change from happening, still hoping that he might be able to get into town and fulfill his promise to Teigra?
How much control does he really have over himself?
Aurelius didn’t know the answer to that. But he wanted to.
He was still for a long moment, remembering the promise he had made to leave Calix alone.
But beneath all that pain was the denial. And Zosime was right: Calix was a good man. He deserved to live his truth. He deserved to be happy.
Aurelius shuddered in anticipation.
And he deserves to feed!
71
TEIGRA
