Page 32 of Cathmoir's Sons

“Of course.” I step back and let him walk in. I’m used to the den, but seeing it through Lords’ eyes, I realize it must look strange. It’s on the outskirts of town, at the end of its own lane, built into a hillside so it’s partially underground. Most of the windows are covered with heavy curtains. The only illumination is from witchlight, warm and golden.

The front door opens directly into the lounge, with its fireplace, deep couches, and sunken cuddle pit that Luca and I use for more than cuddles. I lead Evan through the lounge to the open-plan kitchen, dining area, and utility room where I was in the middle of making seared tuna for lunch.

“Tea? Coffee?” I ask Lords.

“Any herbal tea would be welcome,” Lords says. “I won’t take up too much of your time.”

“No problem. I was just making lunch. There’s enough for three if you’d like to stay.”

Lords’ eyebrows arch over the round rims of his glasses. “I’d like that, if it’s not an imposition.”

“No imposition.”

“I’m in town for Carrie Prince’s memorial,” he explains as he sits down at our dining table, half of which is currently covered with tuna-making supplies since I don’t like standing at the kitchen counter when I cook. Once I make tea for him, I sit down across from him and measure soy sauce into a flat-bottomed dish.

“I didn’t know her personally,” I tell him. I didn’t take any classes from her after the required history of magic classes my freshman year. “But my boyfriend is Jane Serpa’s student. He knew Doctor Prince. He’s going.”

Lords nods. “Your boyfriend’s Prince Lucas, is that right?”

“No one calls him Prince, but yes.”

“Please don’t be insulted by any of my questions. I’m coming into this backwards and trying to get up to speed. I was incarcerated until very recently, so I’ve been out of the loop.”

I measure mirin into the dish. “Please don’t be insulted,” I echo back at him, a technique I’ve been taught by Dittman to create rapport. “My boyfriend’s middle name is research. I know about you being The Mr. Black, Hector Gravka’s murder, the sham trial, and your time in Karkarus. I realize telling you I’m joining the White Cloaks must have been triggering. I’m sorry.”

“It’s my issue to deal with.” Lords waves my apology away. “I know you refused my offer of protection the last time we spoke, but I’d like to make it again. Your cousin Kimberly is missing. Although Bromios seems to have turned his face away from ourworld for now, Kimberly has other allies. I’m deeply concerned about her coming after you again.”

I mix together the marinade, take the tuna out of its paper wrapping, and slide it into the liquid while I think.

“What would it entail, the Capricorn Guild’s protection?” I ask.

“Bringing you to our headquarters in London—” Lords begins.

I shake my head.

Lords sighs. “I anticipated you’d reject relocation.” He twists two silver and black rings off his fingers. “Could I persuade you to wear these? The Ring of Nine Rivers was given to me by some very special witches in London. It will substantially enhance your natural abilities. And this ring will summon me wherever I am if you twist it around your finger three times and speak my name.”

I take the rings from him and fit them on my fingers. Like most magickal rings, they shrink to embrace my fingers comfortably. “Thank you.”

“I’m stretched a little thin at the moment,” Lords admits. “But if I can find a green cloak who can spare some time, would you let them?—”

“Babysit me?” I interject. “No, but thank you.”

“I understand. I’ve spent too much of my life confined to be comfortable forcing curtailment on anyone.” Lords drums his fingertips on the table. “I hate to dig around in what’s likely a painful subject, but might I ask about your other cousin, Odin Nalkaine?”

I flip the tuna over in the marinade while I think. “Let me anticipate some of your questions. I don’t know why he testified against you. We were close when I was little; he was like my big brother. But the age difference began to tell as we got older. We overlapped at Addlestone for a year and he was a dick to methere, avoiding me and putting me down to make himself look big to his friends. I recognize it for what it was now, but at the time, it stung and I avoided him after that. He tried to make it up to me after he graduated from Bevvy but I was firmly in teen shit-head mode by then. We didn’t talk except in passing at family events for the better part of a decade. I saw him at a family wedding maybe six months before he died. He offered me a beer and we played a game of pool. He looked bad. Skinny and tired in a way that said he wasn’t sleeping well. When I asked if he was okay, he brushed me off. Something he said stuck with me, though. I’d picked my major and told O that I was going for the White Cloaks. He laughed in a way that wasn’t a laugh at all and said, ‘maybe you’ll solve my murder, then’.”

Lords lifts his glasses off his nose and rubs his eyes. “He knew he was going to be killed.”

“It seemed like a joke at the time, but it’s haunted me ever since. I’m doing my Winter Study project on his death. I don’t believe he drowned. He was better on horseback than he was in the water, but he was a strong swimmer. He taught me to dive. I know that good swimmers can drown, but it just doesn’t ring true to me. He was murdered and I’m going to find his killer,” I tell Lords.

“It’s a cold case. You won’t get any help from the crows,” Lords responds, letting his glasses drop down onto the bridge of his nose again. “I’d like to offer you my assistance and that of the Capricorn Guild. Our resources are at your disposal. And if you would Water-Walk to the Guild to use those resources, oh, say every day after class, that would greatly ease my mind.”

I chuckle and turn the fish a final time before I rise and tap on the stove. “Nicely played.”

“I am very concerned about Kimberly coming after you again, Rhodes.”

I nod. “I’m not dismissing your concerns. I just won’t live my life in fear.”

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