Page 44 of Reflections of Silence

“But you’ll go without me, won’t you? And who will take you?”

“Minette has been there. I think.”

“You endanger your maid in this.”

I nodded. “Yes. It’s selfish. I’m sorry. But I need answers, for both of us.” I made small fists with my hands and stood. “Thank you for listening. You won’t tell him?”

Dolion’s head cocked to the side. “He is but a fool for avoiding you in this. I will take you. Tomorrow.”

My heart leapt. “You will? Thank you?—”

“On one provision.”

“That sentence never precedes anything good,” I smiled as I tossed his words back at him, lessening their sting, but the gargoyle maintained his grotesque appearance.

“We tell him.” Dolion's expression remained fierce as I opened my mouth to object, but he held up a hand. “Afterwards.”

I closed my mouth. “Well, better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”

“I’ll meet you at the jetty before the sun rises. Please warn your maid of me. Screaming sets some mineral inside me reverberating. It is most disconcerting.”

“It’s freezing. What does he look like?” Minette held aside half a weeping tree for me to pass. “That path.” She indicated a swamp ash laden fork to our right.

The jetty was set back quite a way from the house. We walked for an hour, and I began to understand how large the estate was.

“He’ll be stone, I think, when you see him.”

“How does he move? How does he eat?” Far from being afraid, Minette was inquisitive about the stone man.

Perhaps it came from being a maid in a vampyre’s household. Her questions continued the entire journey. I began to understand how Dolion must feel as I threw query after query his way and promised myself I wouldn't beleaguer him with questions again.

“I’m not sure how his body works.” I stepped over a slippery patch on the path and grabbed her hand to help her across.

“You didn’t ask?”

“I...didn’t want to know.” I blinked at the admission.

Sebastian’s words ran around my head as if he was still speaking to me, though I hadn’t heard nor seen him since the night I’d been lost in the maze and met Dolion. Unease grew in my stomach.

If I had the answers to give him, perhaps he would return to me? Dolion saw him, spoke to him. Surely, he would listen to his friend. I stepped around a moss-covered rock, halting as undergrowth around us on both sides waved in the non-existentair.This was a mistake.I turned to see both sides of the pathway, gripping Minette’s hand tightly.

“I shouldn’t have brought you,” I whispered.

“I wanted to be here, madame.”

A crack to my right turned both our heads. Shadows swayed in the pre-dawn light, dark and featureless. One broke away from the rest, shifting closer.

I swallowed, then peered forward. “Dolion?”

His face broke into a grin, and I launched myself forward, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. “Who else?”

“Cheeky bastard,” I threw the half compliment at him, then remembered too late I’d learned it from Amy.

Drawing back, I noted his skin was soft, despite still appearing like stone. His hands tightened around mine.

“Should you not introduce us?” His gaze fixed behind me.

I stepped back. “Of course. Minette, Dolion. He is—” I stopped, flustered.

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