The darkest, shortest day approached.
Robin watched the flames, then turned to the doorway a moment before Lucas appeared. Lucas had Phillip’s favorite mug in his hand, an oversized, sturdy cup glazed a shiny green.He looked startled, either for Robin being awake or Robin expecting him, but he continued in to hand the mug to Robin.
More tea, Robin assumed, only to end up staring at two melting jumbo marshmallows.
“Cocoa,” Lucas explained. “Rixon says mood matters too.”
And with that even more befuddling statement, Lucas walked out again.
The temperature must have dropped dramatically if hot cocoa and bigger fires were required.
Robin strained to hear more reassuring movement from the kitchen and caught a distant series of clicks instead. Female ravens made those sounds, as he remembered.
“Lucas?” he called out, “Where is Flint? Not still on the porch in this cold?”
“She’s more than used to it,” Lucas answered as he came back into the doorway. “But I was going to ask, if you wouldn’t mind….”
“Of course, I don’t mind.” Robin flapped a hand to tell him to go ahead and let the bird… birds… in. “But um, it doesn’t exactly seem like a litterbox situation.”
Lucas’ brief smile was a gift. “No. But they’ll want to be outside most of the time anyway. And your porch is wide and well-protected. A good place for a roost for a raven who isn’t very wild.”
The wild ones, or semi-wild since people in town liked to feed them, settled in trees or on rooftops and anywhere else they felt like it.
Robin had long wanted to ask how it worked, having a familiar with a mate who was not your familiar. Though Flint’s matewas clearly clever enough to be one. He must be, to be mated to another. But asking about familiars was too personal, or so Robin, with none of his own, had always thought.
He lifted his mug. “No cocoa for you?”
“I don’t care much for chocolate.” Lucas must be used to people judging that because he was quick to add, “I’ve tried many kinds. It’s fine. I just don’t love it the way others seem to.”
Robin licked a marshmallow thoughtfully because the cocoa itself was still too hot. “What do you drink then, on stormy nights? More of Athenais Sibley’s blends?”
Robin was still slightly peevish about that for no real reason. After all, if Athenais had admired something about Lucas enough to earn the tea blends, it wasn’t whatever Robin was thinking it was.
Which… no. He wasn’t thinking that. That was a silly thing to think.
“They are the best for healing,” Lucas said mildly and seemed taken aback when Robin glared at him.
“Funny, because I don’t think she’d notice, or care much, if someone was dying at her feet.” Robin heard it come out of his mouth, then quickly took a gulp of his cocoa. He deserved the burned tongue.
Yet his tongue wasn’t scalded, and the cocoa was rich with all the flavors Lucas had put in Robin’s kitchen. Put there for this, probably.
“Her clinical mind might be what makes her herbs the best grown and her potions the strongest.” Lucas made another statement. “She discomforts people too. And she understands how other witches can fear someone more powerful.”
Suitably chastened, Robin had another drink. “Her son also discomforts people, but I still think he’d care if someone were bleeding at his feet.” Robin sighed though, once the words were out, because the cocoa was perfect and Lucas was right, as ever. “But some of the discomfort might just be the Sibley money. Or their name. The others put a lot of stock into names and history.” Robin licked melted marshmallow from his lip. “This is very good. Thank you. You know, they make hot vanilla drinks at one of the coffee shops in town. For children, I think, but they smell as if they’d be delicious. You could try that. Or a sugary coffee if you never want to sleep again.”
Lucas half-turned away as if confessing a secret. “Actually, I like ice cream when it’s cold out. Although, I might have to find non-dairy flavors. As I get older, I am noticing… problems.”
“Not all-powerful, after all,” Robin remarked smartly. It made Lucas turn back just enough to give him a look somewhere between amused and irritated. Good. Someone other than Robin should feel that right now. “Did you bring any ice cream for yourself for while you’re here? You should have some. It’s pointless to stand on formality with me. You’re looking at me in action. Bundled up and exhausted on the couch. Fainting in my shorts.”
“Do you normally work in only boxer shorts?” Lucas was probably worried he’d stumble across that again.
Robin shook his head. “No. I think I felt hot, at some point. It was the fever, obviously, though I didn’t realize it. I’m glad you were here. Though not that I fell down immediately. I didn’t realize I’d gotten so….”
“Anyone can get lost in their work.”
“Stop being right,” Robin huffed at him, then waved him in. “And stop lurking in the doorway. Sit down if you want. Rest. If you do nothing while you’re here, I won’t tell Mallory.”
Lucas came into the room but didn’t sit. “I have to check on the food soon.”
