Chapter 41: Ghost Boy
WINTER TERM - February 2nd
I rose early. I’d planned on letting Aries sleep, but he insisted on getting up too. He threw on one of my sweaters and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand.
“The dining hall isn’t even open this early,” he said.
I knew. That’s why we were heading to the Marblebrooks’ cottage. I was going to have to make another witch ball. And more than that, maybe I should actually tell Elandria about Ianthe’s latest threats. I was still reeling from the fact that she knows where we are. Or at least this was what I’d planned on talking about once we’d arrive.
We shadow stepped out of the Court, into town, and then, to the front gate of their front garden.
There was a fresh layer of snow over the garden. Kelyn had already switched out her Fire’s Night decorations for Bloomtide ones - pink flowers, faux eucalyptus leaves, gold and white hearts. I’d almost forgotten that was coming. I pushed the thought away for later.
I knocked on the door. Aries stood close, set his head on my shoulder. He was wearing my sweater under his coat, struggling to keep his eyes open. I tried to nudge him off of me, but Aries didn’t get the message. He just wrapped his arms around my middle. Well, it’s not like the Marblebrooks didn’t know we were together…
Elandria answered after several minutes, mug of coffee in hand, Boaz making a nest in her hair, still up, not yet arranged into her usual neat braid. Had I not spent all of Winter Break with her, I would have felt bad intruding like this. But I’d seen her even more disheveled. At least now, she was already halfway into a cup of coffee.
“Zephyr! Did something happen?”
“I’m really going to need that grimoire back.” I hadn’t meant to say that. It hadn’t even been top of mind until she came to the door but now it was all I could think about.
Elandria pushed open the door a little wider to let us in. “Let’s get you some coffee first.”
The conversation with Marblebrook was full of false-starts and fumbles. Eventually Aries spit it out: “Ianthe dreamwalked on him again. It was a long night.”