Page 60 of Noble Charms

She didn't say anything Noble had not already thought. Especially over the last week, as he returned in his memory to their kiss, as he pulled Aria into his bed so that they may read their book, as he held him close during the falling snow.

Aria was incompatible with his need for a wife.

Virginia stood up from her seat and moved to the chair beside Noble. She sat, and placed her hand atop his on the table. “I know that you can do this. You can find someone new. You're a good noble, Noble. Someone like him will hold you in place. Ellor has been much better off now that they're parted. You should do the same.”

“We never even socialized with the likes of Ellor,” said Noble. “How have you come to know all of this?”

“New Hieroph is an enormous city until it's not,” Virginia said, smiling. “I'm actually quite close with Lady Quint, if you remember? I met with her earlier today, and she told me the good news, that she and⁠—”

A loud crack rocked the house, and the scent of sulfur filled the air. Virginia and Noble were both on their feet in an instant. Noble, faster and taller by a fair margin, was the first to make it to the source of the sound. In the parlor.

Blood—

There was blood⁠—

Aria panted heavily from the floor, against the far wall of the room. His chest rose and fell, and his pale skin had gone gray and sweaty beneath the splattering of blood. His blood—his shirt had torn from wrist to shoulder, into a dozen shredded pieces, and the blood poured from the wounds beneath. But Aria didn't seem to notice, or at least didn't care, as he kept his wide, blue eyes focused pointedly upon the settee across the room.

Kip had scrambled to the far end of it, knees pulled up, and he was trembling fiercely. No blood on him.

“What’s going on here?” Virginia gasped.

Noble rushed to Aria's side and cupped his fear-paled face with both hands. “Aria. Aria, look at me.” Aria's eyes moved, unsteady, pupils blown wide. He was in shock. “Hey. Hey, it's alright, sweetheart. Look at me.” He stroked Aria's cheekbone with his thumb as he finally met Noble's stare. “Breathe in. Breathe out.” Aria did so, slowing his breathing, and then winced in pain. Noble sat back on his heels to lift his bleeding arm—slowly, afraid to disturb the wounds. Shiny glass shards twinkled within the cuts, like glass had shattered all the way up his arm. Noble didn't hesitate to rip the remaining scrap of sleeve off him, and Aria gasped. “Sorry. Sorry, I need to look.”

It wasn't a particularly gruesome injury, but it'd take quite a bit of time to remove each shard, and it no doubt hurt like the devil. Noble squeezed Aria's hand inside his own and said, “You're okay. Right?” Aria, shivering now from the shock, gave Noble a single nod of affirmation.

Still crouched, Noble looked over his shoulder at Kip and Virginia across the room. He only realized how intensely he spoke when they both jumped in fear.

“What happened?”

“Nothing, I—” said Kip. “I didn't know he could do that.”

Virginia stood off the settee and cleared her throat. “Noble, we really ought to go.”

“No,” Noble said, rising to his feet, and his voice had a hollow, haunted reverberation—an echo as if he cast a spell the way Aria could. He saw more broken glass upon the floor, and a dented metal cup—no, a lid. Some kind of lid. The smell of ozone and blood led Noble’s gaze back to Kip. “I asked: what happened?”

“I had a sleeping potion in my pocket. The draught kind that you activate. I simply placed it upon the coffee table, here, while Aria and I talked. It wouldn't have hurt anyone, I swear,” said Kip, his voice shaking. “It would have put him and you to sleep. Gently. Without harm.”

Virginia and Kip both shrank beneath Noble’s approach. He could see their racing pulses in the veins of their necks. “Why did you bring a sleeping draught to my home?” He pinned Virginia with a look. “Why have you come to me tonight, Virginia?” It wasn't to warn him about Aria, after all.

No, that was a terribly convenient excuse. A sort of blind fury took possession over Noble. He couldn't control himself, his movements, or what he said.

He didn't want to.

He'd never been this mad in his life.

“I meant it. I mean you no harm,” she said, firmly, squaring her shoulders against his slow, predator-like approach. She raised her hands, like it may stave off some of his rage. “I just needed to reach the safe beneath the stairs. You were going to fall asleep later tonight, when the draught activated, and I would return for it.”

“What is it?”

“They're letters of investments.” When Noble took another step closer, Virginia spoke more quickly and said, “It's money. They're money. Unattached—I could cash them in. You'd never miss them. And I needed them because the estate has repairs that I must do, and our divorce was settled weeks ago. I couldn't simply ask you for more money. But you've got plenty. Plenty. Do you not?”

Noble continued to march, but instead of stopping before her, or Kip, he entered the central corridor, and approached the stairs. He opened the door to the closet and grabbed the safe in question with both hands. He yanked it, cracking the wood casing as he pulled it free from the shelf, and marched to his front door. He shattered one glass pane as he kicked it open, and the sound of the break mirrored Noble's broken, red, spotty vision. He blindly threw the safe into the street, hurling it like a leather ball instead of a steel box weighing quite literally one ton.

The cobblestones around the massive metal case shattered, sending dirt and snow into the air. The safe's now-bent door creaked as wind flung it open. When Noble took several steps back inside his home, Virginia and Kip stared out the front window, silent and visibly alarmed.

His voice continued to echo, inhuman and dark, through his home. “Take it, then, and get the fuck out of my home.”

Virginia and Kip gave Noble a wide berth while they approached the door, fetching their coats and scrambling into them like he may change his mind, and call for the police. Or for Morgan.