“Yes, well, I think I might have killed those two.” Now it’s my turn to take a shaky breath. “But that … power …”
“Making people laugh so hard it kills them?”
That’s the simplest explanation, so I just add to it. “That’s a form of empathy. I can feel emotions, and I can … twist those emotions. When someone is lying to me … I can feel it. If I try.”
Kitty’s eyes widen, then narrow again. “Well, I don’t know, do I?”
Bolan tries to swallow a laugh and ends up coughing.
“I am not funny,” Kitty says to him.
Christoph finally raises his head, looking at Kitty. “I’m sorry you saw me like that, in that situation. I would never hurt you or allow anyone else to hurt you. Or Tommy. If Mirth hadn’t come for you, I would have busted Tommy out of that cage the moment I saw him. So … I can’t say sorry for being there, or sorry for accepting the invitation in the first place. Because I’m glad I was there. But if you can’t believe any of that of me just yet, that’s okay.”
Kitty blinks at Christoph for a moment. Then she climbs down off the couch and steps closer to Tommy. She touches her brother’s shoulder lightly, not wanting to wake him but making certain he’s safe.
Before we can continue the conversation, Elias and Sully step through from the hall connecting the two upper suites of my apartments. Finally.
My royal guard attempted to sequester us all separately once they got their hands on us again. Elias volunteered to take on the brunt of their interrogation and to oversee the aftermath of the mayhem I caused. After healing Tommy as much as the boy’s system could handle in the first session, Sully joined the earl. Insisting, without any hint of the anger or frustration on display earlier in the day — well, yesterday now — that as the head of the Savoy bond group, he should make his presence and support known.
I deferred to both of them because I thought it far more important to be with the kids. Though the still-irate earl is certain to use his sacrifice against me in some fashion in the future.
The paperwork will presumably be mountainous.
And I’m a little concerned that Roz is going to outright quit on me. She was so incensed outside the theater that she couldn’t look at me.
But it’s also possible that with my power now unleashed, I really scare the shit out of everyone. Explaining why no one, other than the people currently in the apartment with me, could manage to look at me in the aftermath. Or question me directly.
Elias’s cool facade dissolves upon seeing all of us arrayed in the living room. He pointedly looks out the windows, at the dawn encroaching on the city. I know he’s truly pissed because the few lights in the room dim for a moment.
Sully just grins at us all, tired.
“You should all be sleeping,” Elias snaps, yanking at his tie.
Kitty pivots away from Tommy, running toward the vexed mage before I can respond. She slides to a stop before him, head falling all the way back to gaze up at him earnestly. “We’ve been waiting for you!”
Elias blinks down at Kitty, completely confused that anyone would still be up at dawn waiting on him.
“Did you … did you find Mama?”
“Not yet,” he rasps. “The police are looking —”
“They don’t care!” Kitty cries. “Mom says we don’t mean anything to anyone like that!”
Elias goes down on one knee, raising his hands. Kitty is in his arms before he even gets them fully open. She presses her face into his neck, clinging to him.
His hands spasm. In utter shock, I think. Then he wraps his arms around her and just rocks her gently, side to side. “You mean something, kitty cat,” he murmurs. “You and Tommy, you mean everything to us. To all of us.”
My heart pinches harshly, then warmth floods my chest.
Kitty sobs into the collar of Elias’s rumpled suit. He presses his hand against the back of her head and just holds her. “I’msorry, Kitty. We’re here now. We’re here now. We’ll figure it all out together.”
Sully appears frozen in shock. Not by Kitty’s emotional display, but by Elias’s response to her. He shakes off his confusion, stepping closer to press his hand over Elias’s on the back of Kitty’s head, holding them both for a moment. Elias lifts his gaze to meet Sully’s.
“Everything will hurt a little less, feel a little less uncertain,” Sully says gently, “after a few hours of sleep.”
Bolan scoops Tommy off the couch. The fledgling cath palug shifter is still sleeping extremely heavily, but if the two shifters aren’t concerned, then I’m not going to fret. Much. Bolan carries Tommy back through the apartment to the guest room beside my suite. Between the two apartments, we have six bedrooms, which seemed like too many when Armin and I first had the suites renovated.
Of course, I also own an entire castle now. Lake Thun. Gifted to me by my father during the matchmaking event … for me and my bond group.
