Page 63 of Changeling
“Send me. I’m at your service. The twins are running my hostel in Debrecen, and they haven’t burned it down thus far. So I’m free to roam. Relay to me a message for your beloved, and I shall deliver it.”
“I couldn’t.” Though it’s extremely tempting. My heart is racing as I consider it. Would Sebastian come back for me? No sooner have I asked myself the question than I’ve ruled it out. “It’s not fair to him.”
“The truth isn’t fair to him?”
Well, when put like that… “No, I mean, it isn’t fair to rip him from yet another life he’s happy with. Sebastian has had enough loss. I won’t be the cause of more pain.”
“What’s he got to lose, exactly, Dominus? The Dozen’s doors are open to him. He can always go back if it doesn’t work between you.”
I shuffle to a sit, then scrub sleep from my eyes. “Are you serious?”
“As serious as a dog with a bone, yes. By all accounts, he cared for you in return, and yet somehow the two of you just walked away from each other. I’d like to know how Sebastian is doing now, not just how he says he’s doing in a letter.”
“What do you mean ‘by all accounts’? Who have you been talking to?”
“Rizpah, of course.” He holds up a finger. “Annais. Leonas. Danya. The others.” He holds up all ten fingers.
My head is spinning. All my staff members are laying bare my secrets? That seems a lot like them, come to think of it. “Damnit, Ivaz, how long have you been here?”
He grins like a cat with a mouse and shrugs. “Two nights. And I sampled the wares.”
This time I smack his head, but only in jest. Ivaz has always been welcome to partake of The Twig’s…charms. “Who?”
“Julian. He’s a doll. What a treasure you have in him.”
“My staff doesn’t belong to me. They’re free to do whatever they like.” Though I can see Julian being a good fit for Ivaz, both literally and figuratively.
“And whomever they like.” Ivaz smirks.
“Obviously, since Julian bedded you.”
“Now you’re beginning to sound more like yourself. What say you, then? Am I off to Bran Vigny to plead with your lost love?”
“For imp’s sake, Ivaz, no. Leave Sebastian be.”
“I will not. It was my duty to see him safely to The Dozen, a duty I never quite finished, thanks to the twins, so I’m going, whether you like it or not. And if you don’t want me to tell him I found you whiling away the hours feeling sorry for yourself in your bed, you’ll give me an honest, heartfelt message from your own lips.”
I fight the urge to grind my teeth. Ivaz has me cornered, and he knows it. “I’ll write to him. You can carry the message.”
“And you’ll tell him the truth?” He elbows me in the ribs. “All of it?”
“I’ll be honest.”
“That’s not enough. You must confess to him what you’ve told me. You’ve fallen for him. You miss him. And he has a place here with you if he wants it.”
“That isn’t what I said to you,” I protest.
“I beg to disagree. It is in so many words.”
“If I tell him that, he’ll come back.”
Ivaz rolls his eyes. “Yes, that’s rather the point. Won’t you trust me to parse out the truth from him as I did from you? If he’s truly having the time of his life, I’ll leave him be. But if he feels the same way, then curses, Dominus, don’t you want the both of you to be happy?”
Why do I feel Ivaz has gotten the better of me? “Fine. But you must be absolutely certain not to send him back to me if he’s comfortable there. Promise me.”
“I promise.” Ivaz crosses his heart, then shoves me out of the bed.
My bare ass lands on my fancy rug. “Camel spit!”
