I then stopped, for Silence was standing at the opposite end of a large room that was filled with tables that were still set elaborately for a royal dinner that had never been consumed.
And it appeared she was standing before a miniature version (but still necessarily large) of the very castle we were both in.
“Allo,” I called as I walked into the room.
She started and turned to me.
She also gave me a small smile that she did not mean.
There would not be many smiles for a very long time and not only because of what happened that day at the wedding.
Much more had happened, it was just that what happened locally took precedence.
For now.
I wended my way through the tables to her, stopped when I arrived and asked, “Are you well?”
“I’m just…” she gestured weakly to the miniature. “It’s a miracle. This cake.”
I turned to the structure and stared at it in shock, realizing from close it was a cake.
An exact replica of the castle made of frosting tinted in the palest of pinks, yellows, creams, greens and blues. Flowers and leaves and bunting and ribbon adorning the windows, walls, arches and turrets. I could even see little candles that would have been lit in the windows and globes, had there actually been a reception.
“Aunt Mercy did this,” Silence whispered, and my eyes darted to her. “For True. For Farah. For Wodell.” Her attention went to the cake. “Who knew icing had power?”
I felt my heart squeeze.
“Silence,” I said softly.
“She was not warm, but she was a good queen. I could have learned much from her and I sense she would have enjoyed teaching me,” she said to the cake. She then turned to me. “Now I will not, and she will not.”
“You will be your own brand of spectacular queen,” I assured her.
Again, her gaze went to the cake as she mumbled, “I hope so.”
I wanted to get to Cassius, check on the girls.
But watching Silence, I asked, “Do you want to go somewhere and sit, have some tea or a glass of wine?”
Slowly, her eyes came back to me. “I heard the men have returned. I mean no offense, my friend, but I wish to see Mars. He’s been with him and thus I wish my husband to share with me how my cousin fares.”
I nodded and smiled. “That’s understandable.” I then asked, “But before you do that, would you happen to be able to tell me where the hell my room is?”
A surprised laugh came from her, and even if it hadn’t been a day since so much was lost, it sounded strange.
Out of practice.
She hooked her arm in mine and said, “Of course.”
We walked. We chatted while we did. And Silence led me to a floor that was familiar before we bid our goodnights and she retraced her steps to find her own chambers.
As I walked down the hall to the rooms Cassius and I had that were across from the room Dora and Aelia shared, I tried to decide who to go to first.
Cassius?
Or the girls.
My decision was made for me when I arrived at the rooms, saw the door to the girls’ room was slightly ajar, and heard Cassius’s voice coming from there.
“They climbed, and they climbed, and they climbed…” he was saying.
What on…?
I approached the door, adjusted my body so I could see the bed that was set at the side, and froze stiff.
For Cassius lay on his back on the bed, Aelia down one side of his long body, her head on his chest, fast asleep.
But my Theodora lay down the other side of his body, head on his shoulder, and she was not asleep.
He had his head on pillows, his arms around both, and a book propped up close to Dora’s waist.
And he was reading.
“And when they reached the clouds, they did not know if they could step off—”
“Cass,” Dora interrupted him quietly. “She’s asleep.”
“I know, little bean,” he whispered, and my heart squeezed yet again that day, but in an entirely different way.
I had not thought they’d grown close in their time together in The Enchantments.
Though Dora never gave indication she didn’t like him. She answered when he spoke to her (and not in the cheeky way she did to me) and she watched him often and at least gave indication she found him intriguing (not as intriguing as she found Cass’s man Ian, but still intriguing).
But that was not closeness.
However, with that day’s events, I supposed you latched on to whatever you had that was real and breathing.
And lucky for Dora (and Aelia and me), Cass was both.
“I’m reading to you,” Cassius finished.
“I’m too old for bedtime stories,” she informed him.
“Indeed?” he asked with teasing disbelief.
“Yes,” she answered firmly, my Dora, wanting to be a grown warrior and wanting that a week ago. “I’ll listen if Aelia wants, but I can get to sleep without them. Ellie stopped reading to me years ago.”
Those years being, maybe…one.
“Well then, if I tuck you in and turn out all the lights, will you go to sleep?” he queried.
“Of course.”
I watched as Cassius bent to kiss the top of her golden head.
“This I’ll do,” he said after he did that.
I should leave them to it.
I was stuck in the vision of watching Cass kiss Dora’s hair, thus, I did not leave them to it.
And I would be glad I didn’t.
For after Cass tucked her in, Aelia beside her, and blew the lamp out by Aelia’s side, he came back around to Dora’s but grew still when she asked, “Will True be all right?”
Oh, my darling Dora.
Cassius stood immobile for a long moment before he replied gently, “You know he won’t.”
I closed my eyes tight.
“You know he won’t too,” I heard her whisper.
I opened my eyes wide.
How did she know Cassius lost his mother?
Did Aelia tell her?
Did my mother?
Half a dozen other big-mouthed Nadirii (namely, Jasmine)?
“Yes, Dora, I know he won’t either,” he confirmed.
“You have that. I have that. Aelia has that,” she noted. “I love Ellie, and I’m glad she doesn’t have that. But it makes us a little family inside a family, doesn’t it?”
His voice was deeper, thicker, when he replied, “I guess it does, little bean.”
“I don’t like why we have that family, but because of that why, I like we have that family. Still, I don’t like it that True became a member of our family today,” she whispered.
“I don’t either. We’ll have to keep a close eye on him, you and me, while we’re here. Yes?” Cass suggested.
Dora nodded. “Yes, Cass.”
“Now sleep,” he murmured, bent to kiss her cheek and that was when I skedaddled from my position, went across the hall and entered our room.
I was in the dressing room getting a handle on my emotion and wondering how appropriate it would be if I pounced on my prince the instant he walked through the door, and by “pounce” I meant the kind that led to making us both naked. Doing this to share how much I liked that he read bedtime stories and how much I loved how he treated Dora with care.
And I was still wondering when I heard him walk through the door to the chamber beyond.