“Open it!” Alaric urged. “Come on. I’mdyingto know now! I want to know if I’ll have my lovely drinking pal all summer, or if I’m going to be crying in my cups to my friend tonight, about how I met this gorgeous, funny, charming witch only to have her ride a monocerus back into Overworld, never to be seen again…”
I laughed, shoving lightly at his shoulder without putting down the scroll. I went back and forth on whether I should do as he said, and break the seal.
In the end, I set it down, seal unbroken, on the round table in the center of the room.
“Not yet,” I said. “I’m not sure I’m ready to know yet.”
“Coward!” he declared.
“Guilty,” I confessed.
He was right. I was stalling. I knew I was stalling.
Now that the verdict for the rest of my life lived in a wax-sealed scroll on the table in front of me, I wasn’t sure I’d had enough wine yet to open it. I felt like I should have a better plan for both possibilities rather than no plan at all for either.
“You should probably go,” I said, apologetic. “Ankha likelywillbe back soon, and I doubt she’ll be very appreciative of me having company.”
Alaric let out a dramatic sigh. He did look genuinely disappointed, but hid it, funnily enough, by pretending to be more disappointed than he was.
“Fine!” he said loudly, with another exaggerated sigh. “Well, you know where I am now. Room 319. If youarestaying, I expect you to come by and let me know. Today,ma chérie.Drop me a note, if you can’t come in person. I simplycan’twait to know until tomorrow.”
I nodded. “Absolutely. I promise.”
“Promise-promise?”
“Yes.”
Leaning down, he startled me by kissing me on both cheeks.
“All right, dearest. Today, then. I mean it. Or you’ll ruin my night.”
I nodded, and walked him back to the suite’s door after he collected his jacket off the sofa’s back. I closed the door behind him and checked my watch.
I decided if Ankha didn’t come back in thirty minutes, I would open the scroll, and read the contents. I wandered back and forth in the hotel suite while I waited, now wishing I’d let Alaric stay. I poked my head into both bedrooms, looked at the claw-footed bathtub in one of the en suite baths, washed my hands and face and mouth in one of the sinks, tossed out the empty beer bottles and crisp packets, re-corked the wine and recapped the water, then set the last two things on a side table.
I’d just checked my watch a final time, and started to walk back to the round table at the center of the room, when another sharp rap at the door made me jump.
I jerked the suite’s door open a second time, and the same heavily-freckled face greeted me. That time, she thrust a scroll forward without any preamble at all.
This one was thicker than the first.
I glanced over the wax seal on the new one, and frowned when it didn’t have a lion. Instead, an elaborate letter “M” had been stamped there in silver and gold paint. The wax shone violet and green with an iridescent tint.
No other writing identified the sender.
Like the last one, it wasn’t addressed.
I frowned at it, feeling a strange heaviness in my gut that wasn’t just the wine.
Two letters? That couldn’t be good.
A voice coughed. When I looked up that time, I wasn’t surprised to see the freckle-faced bellhop standing there still, her blue eyes just as eager as before.
“Is Mister Graythorne still here?” she asked eagerly.
I hid a smile. “No, sorry. He’s off to court a new best friend. After a lot of thought, he decided I’m entirely inadequate for his needs.”
She blinked, then straightened her head slightly. “You’re yanking my tail, Miss.”
