Page 70 of Disillusioned
“What? I’m not getting my throat slit tonight.”
Lilac neared, gripping the doorframe, still processing Adelaide’s answer. “Did he leave for Cinderfell?”
Loïg was right there, yet Hywell’s horse was missing. Another thorough glance at the main room and she didn’t see Bastion. Or Emrys. She stared uncomprehendingly through the door as the witches watched her, briefly remembering the other hazy parts of her and Garin’s argument upstairs; Emrys had been killed by theGuàibut hadn’t stayed dead for long. “Did they all leave to deliver the chest?”
“Keep your bloody voice down,” Lorietta said sharply, marching over to them, the long pink robe draped over the apron swishing behind her. “No, the thing’s still upstairs.”
“The vampires tried to contact Kestrel again,” Adelaide added. “It would be a risk to travel to Cinderfell unannounced to deliver it. They’re awaiting a response, but if it comes to that, they’re taking the warlock with them.”
Her body was buzzing, her hands growing numb. She suddenly couldn’tfocus on anything else but laying eyes on him, ensuring he was safe with proof of her own.
“Fine. Where is Garin then?” When the witches exchanged glances, the sinking feeling in the hollow of her chest turned to panic as they regarded her with uncertainty. Maybe hewashere. Maybe they were keeping him from her. “Let me see him.”
Adelaide crossed her arms, the powerful scent of mead and cloves wafting off her. “He was adamant we didn’t allow him to leave the inn for the next week. I was against babysitting a vampire from the start, butshe”—she threw a displeased scowl at Lorietta—“insisted we help him.”
“We tried to restrain him,” Lorietta said. “But we should’ve known the inn’s magic wasn’t enough to keep Garin.”
“Keep him from what?” Lilac asked.
Adelaide stared. “Are you slow? Fromyou.”
Her heart dropped. She imagined him showing up at the gate and growing furious she wasn’t there. Searching the castle for her. Reeling, she stepped away from the doorframe.
Lorietta approached them, standing beside Adelaide. Their shoulders brushed, and Adelaide, whom Lilac thought would have flinched at closeness, didn’t notice.
“Before you panic,” said Lorietta, “he did leave, but I don’t think he went to your castle.” She gave Adelaide a pointed look. “If he traveled in her direction, he would’ve found her by now. On her way here.”
Lilac would be sick. “You were responsible for him. He asked for your help…” It was difficult to mask the tremble in her voice. “And you lost him?”
“He and hisfriends,” Lorietta replied, matching the frost in her tone, “were in his bedchamber when Bastion and Myrddin sprinted up the cellar stairs. They claimed that Garin and Casmir had bolted out of his cellar door. They then dashed out the front to follow behind on horseback.”
“Casmir? The vampire from the bar?”
Lorietta nodded.
Lilac rubbed her temples, trying to understand. “So, he’s with them now?”
“We hope so,” Adelaide answered. “They left together. The nomadvampire, the violent one, and that warlock.” She reached up, unbothered, to smooth a loose lock that sprung out of her updo. “And Garin.”
“Earlier this afternoon, the former three had gotten raucously drunk and burst his door open. They collected several of my wicker baskets and brought down a whole feast tospruce his mood,” Lorietta quoted. “The vampires brought spirits and bottled blood. They were tired of him sulking in there.”
“I told you it was a horrid idea to let them do that,” Adelaide said.
Lorietta grimaced. “I thought it would be good for him. Garin struggles with loneliness as it is.”
Lilac thought of the fragments of dreams she’d had in her bedchamber. Garin, pacing the floor, then wrapped in his quilt. Everything felt far away—pieces were starting to come together, but nothing was making sense in a way that comforted her. She felt unable to place the details into a coherent picture. They fuzzed in her brain, which only focused on one thing: locating Garin. “No one knows where they went? No one heard?”
“No,” Lorietta said, and Lilac thought the witch’s orange eyes flitted quickly over to Adelaide. “Meriam was tending the bar tonight. We’ve been taking turns since Garin began locking himself in his room after you returned home. She was the one who alerted us they’d left.”
She thought of the last few days, the hell they had been. Feeling prisoner to her own desires, yet unable to act on them, truly, until she did as Garin had asked and found out there had been no propositions for marriage. It had almost seemed too easy. Once she’d decided to try to leave to find him, most of her physical symptoms had eased.
Had he felt the same tortuous restlessness, the confusion she had? Was it also alleviated by giving up on trying to stay away?
If he’d left, supposedly to find her, and hadn’t… then where was he? “He told me I had to stay separated from him for a week to be cautious.”
“He is right in his concern,” admitted Lorietta. “This behavior of his didn’t start until after he sent you away.” She side-eyed Lilac and rubbed her forehead. “Have you two exchanged any amount of blood before the carriage accident?”
Lilac’s red face answered for her, and the way her voice cracked on her “No!” solidified her lie.
