“I think it has developed a taste for you,” Bel said grimly. “And there is no one at the house.”
“Iwould be there.” Nicodemus was still windblown and bemused by the realization that he had…that he must have been in the Realm just then and Bel was choosing not to speak of it.
Then he knew why Bel was focused on other matters because Bel told him.
“Nicodemus, by tomorrow, you will likely not be able to leave your room for days. Even I will need to sleep sooner or later. I will not be able to keep you safe forever.”
Nicodemus’ legs threatened to give way.
Bel stopped, granting Nicodemus a moment to burn and shrink away from him, and then he urged Nicodemus on. “I’m sorry.”
“You aren’t supposed to know.” Nicodemus stared at Bel’s vest and all its buttons, then the street in front of him. Anywhere but at Bel. He shoved the subject away to consider other things. “Why should it come to the house?”
“What did I tell you drives people to Rings? What lures them?” Bel lowered his voice but devastated Nicodemus all the same. “What you normally hide is calling out right now, Nicodemus, and you will only grow hungrier. This is why you do not look, why you do not listen.”
“We are not near a Ring,” Nicodemus argued, needing to say something to defend himself and his cursed affliction.
“The house is.” Bel’s tone was flat. “And there are those that can make Rings. I am one. And so is this creature, it seems.”
“Thatwasa Ring.” Nicodemus tugged away from Bel at last and stopped, making Bel stop with him. “How long have you been able to do that?”
“Anyone can. Any one ofus,” Bel corrected himself distractedly, “if they think to try it. Nicodemus, this thing isn’t waiting passively for someone to venture in, and it’s no longer waiting to find someone to lure. It’s followingyou.”
“Because of this.” Nicodemus exhaled shakily. “My affliction.”
“That is need.” Bel was unforgivably gentle. “You arewant. Let me protect you. Please.”
Thepleasewas painful to hear, as if Nicodemus harmed Bel by saying no when Bel was the one who…the one who knew about him and had said so. Nicodemus should not have been able to harm Bel, but was almost grateful for how the possibility pulled him from his mortification.
Without looking up, Nicodemus nodded his assent.
Bel held him lightly by the elbow as he ushered him into a building across the street.
BEL HADCHOSEN the sort of establishment to offer spirits and card games downstairs, and rooms for the night or a few hours upstairs. Despite his intention to find such a place when he had left the house that evening, Nicodemus kept his head down as they walked past the bar to the stairs, as if a tall asterion with horns on his head was ever going to disappear into a crowd.
Some of those downstairs seemed to know Bel. Nicodemus bit his lip and stayed silent about that and about everything else, even when he was ushered into a small room furnished with a fireplace, a washstand, and a bed.
Bel turned up the lights, said, “Sorry,” again as he closed the door, and then went to the fireplace, which was soon glowing red-purple with his magic flames. “Try to get warm while I think.”
Nicodemus could have removed his coat and been fine, even without a fire. He did finally remove it and sat with it in his lap at the edge of the bed farthest from the fireplace. He stared at the floor, the noise from downstairs a murmur beneath his feet. The room was bright. He would give it that. Bel seemed to think light and warmth and company helped ward off despair, and therefore also the creature, so this place must have seemed a logical choice to him.
It might also be why so few peculiari operated in isolation. Even State agents sought each other out. Belchoseto live in the manor, and often spent his free evenings in the sitting room, silent but apparently content as the others interacted around him.
The thought was a heavy one, if also sweet, although Nicodemus would not ever think that the right word to describe anything about Bel. It also did not seem to only be a problem of the peculiari, since the creature was now after Nicodemus, in search of company…and grisly entertainment.
It was odd, then, that instead of worrying over that, Nicodemus took a moment to be proud of the manor, the house he ran for all of them. Perhaps Bel truly did not think him silly. In some way, Nicodemus was important to him, to all of them.
He would do better, he resolved. Offer them more kindnesses when he could. Make them stronger against the things they faced. He would do the same for Bel, even if there were things he wanted to give Bel that had nothing to do with meals or card games with the others.
That Bel had taken him into a bedroom not especially meant for sleeping did not help matters, but Nicodemus would be haunted by the memory for a week and then hopefully would be able to push it aside. Truthfully, the mattress was stiff and Nicodemus was in no mood to imagine the condition of the bedding. And, he reminded himself, that wasn’t why Bel had brought him here.
While he had been contemplating the cleanliness of the sheets, Bel had drawn the curtains on the room’s one tiny window. He was now glaring at the fire.
“You’ll get sick if you leave that coat on in here and then go back outside,” Nicodemus offered. He kept his gaze elsewhere but could see Bel turn to look at him.
“Thatis your concern at this moment?” Bel demanded, in a tone that would have been called grumpy if it had come from Holt. “Fine,” he added, and shrugged off his coat and threw it on the bed. “Happy now?”
Nicodemus huffed. “I know I am foolish and boring, but I have worries too, even if they are small.”
