I said, and my vision dissolved in tears. “I’ve got you now.”
Blindly, I stumbled toward our side of the bridge. Arcturus’s vassals rushed to my side as I approached, steadying us.
“It’s time to go home,” Arcturus said. He sounded almost content.
We were halfway to the plane when the howl of rage came from behind us. Leda had discovered what couldn’t be healed by magic on Cly.
She’d taken a finger from my mother. So I’d taken a finger from her daughter. Cly would have a much harder time passing as me next time.
I held my mother tighter, drawing strength from vengeance.
Our wards crackled as the Redbriars threw assaults at our back, but held strong. Ahead, the plane gleamed in the morning sun. “Onward,” I said.
Chapter 30
The sky was red outside the window port when I woke up, and it took me a moment to figure out it was dusk, not dawn. I’d passed out almost immediately after entering the plane.
“Mmph,” I said. My sleep schedule was thoroughly ruined.
“Hey there, sleepyhead.”
“Mom!” I surged up to a sitting position. My eyes burned, and it was all I could do not to start crying again. “Are you okay?”
Mom lay in the bed next to mine, still wan, but less frighteningly so than before. The lines at the corners of her eyes crinkled as she looked at me. “It was mostly that I didn’t eat so well for the past couple months. Nothing your friends can’t fix. They pumped a lot of healing magic into me.” She held up her freshly bandaged hand. “They say they can even regrow this with time. It would make typing easier.”
I struggled to swallow down the lump in my throat. “That’s… good. Did the Redbriars try to hurt you other than… ”
“It’s over now, Cass,” she said gently. I might be an adult now, and a super-powered mage too, but she tried to protect me anyway. “Your boyfriends came by earlier, you know,” she said, changing the subject. “They were very nice.”
“Ack,” I said. This was a lot earlier than I wanted to bring any guy home to meet my mom. “You’ve met them? I mean, Darshan is great, but Acubens didn’t say anything weird?”
“I take offense at that statement,” announced Acubens, swanning in through the magical barrier with two food trays. “I told her we’ve taken care of things at Wraithwood. You’re registered as a student under your own name, with a dorm room to yourself, and all of the grades and coursework you did as Cly—which is everything in her file—transferred over to you. Also, I paid your tuition.”
I looked at him, stunned. “That’s… that’s a lot you did for me.”
“Of course,” said Acubens airily. “You can’t take me to the school dance if you’re not a student, now, can you?”
“A dance. In exchange for a truly ridiculous amount of money and behind-the-scenes string-pulling.”
“Well, you also promised to slap me whenever I wanted,” said Acubens, plopping down at the edge of my bed. “And I expect you to keep that promise. What if I want to be slapped in the middle of the night? It would be awfully inconvenient if you weren’t on campus to attend to my every whim.”
Oh my god stop talking about slapping in front of my mom, I was about to say, but then I caught something careful, almost anxious in his eyes. He was sacrificing his dignity for mine, I realized. Being generous, and then being absurd about it, so it wouldn’t feel like one-sided charity. He was applying his own experiences of not feeling taken seriously to me.
“Acubens,” I said at last. “You’re a really great person when you try to be. Thank you.”
“Naturally,” he said, flushing just a little. “I’m great at lots of things. Including cooking. Try my six exciting variants on easily digestible food.” He magicked the trays over to us.
The soups were delicious. “Are we at Nightfeld Manor?” I asked, looking out the window, taking in the unfamiliar landscape silhouetted by the setting sun.
“Yeah, Arcturus is getting all the crates transported. We haven’t moved your mom out yet because I thought you’d rather see her first. Then they’ll drop us off at the school.”
“Actually… can my mom go with me to Wraithwood? As a ‘bodyguard,’ the way Arcturus brought you in.”
After all I’d done to get my mom back, I didn’t want to just leave her here, in another Great House manor, in the care of strangers.
And as much as I tried to ignore it, Aegis’s words