“Do you think you can figure out how to make any of those?” Austin asked.
“The elixir and invisibility, yes. Easily. That’s just a matter of looking it up. The first spell that made the deer glow… I’ll do some research. I can’t promise anything, but…”
Agnes beamed. “Fantastic! I have all the faith in you.”
“Listen,” the woman said. “A mage that can do all of this, or someone that can afford to buy these types of high-powered potions, is incredibly dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. You need to try to see your way out of their affairs as quickly as you can. You don’t want to get mixed up with anyone of this caliber.”
A tense beat of silence filled the room. Austin’s hand rested on my shoulder.
I pushed the hair out of my face. “Too late now. I’ve accepted the magic. There is no going back.”TwelveI nearly fell through the door, I was so tired.
“She’s gonna get it done, don’t you worry, Jessie,” Niamh said, following me into the house. The others trailed behind us, except my parents, who had, thankfully, stayed downtown to shop and taste wine. “Ye know what, I never realized just how little I knew about her until this afternoon.”
“Just think, if you’d gotten better acquainted earlier, you could’ve had a friend all this time,” Ulric said.
“Not a hope,” she replied, the house almost sounding hollow without the noise from the TV spilling out of the sitting room. “She is much too chipper and sweet for me. All the smiles put me in a foul mood.”
“Your very existence puts you in a foul mood,” Mr. Tom said, straightening a painting in the hall.
“That is because I have to share that existence with ye, ya miserable old goat,” she replied. “Now pull yer socks up, unless ye want to be fired from another butler gig.”
He looked down at his feet. “I’ll kindly ask you to leave my socks out of it.” He paused. “You can’t even see them!”
“It means get ta work. That auld mammy is running circles around ya, boy. She’s handling the whole house with a smile, so she is. Jessie is probably rethinking having yer sad sack loafing around.”
“Oh my God, please don’t start at each other right now. I cannot handle it.” I rubbed my temples and stopped outside the front sitting room, the one we usually used to discuss business or just hang out. We had a ton of stuff to work through. Agnes’s contact was working on the potions, so that was out of our hands for the time being, but I had to work out guard schedules for the gargoyles within Ivy House, not to mention those staying in the hotel. Should we scatter them through the wood as lookouts? Edgar had been tasked with researching ways to circumvent Ivy House’s magic, since the house admitted to me last night before I went to bed that she did know of this issue from the past, but didn’t have a solution for me to fix it. She said she’d help Edgar in any way she could, but she didn’t have a recipe for a counter-spell. Talking that out was probably necessary, since information had to exist somewhere, or how did Elliot Graves know?
But at this particular moment in time? I just couldn’t be bothered. I was too exhausted.
“Mr. Tom, can you make me a snack or something?” I asked. “I’m going into my private sitting room.”
It hadn’t started out as a private sitting room, but it was small, in a seldom-traversed back corner of the house, and everyone left me alone when I used it. Within the last couple months, I’d started calling it what it had become.
“Of course, miss. I’ll be in directly. Would you like a snack for one, or…” He looked between Austin and me.
I wanted Austin’s company, if only because he had some immensely broad shoulders to lean on, as Agnes had clearly noticed, but I did not feel like putting myself out there to ask. Fatigue and frustration had a way of bringing out my vulnerability. I didn’t think leaders let their subordinates (the new gargoyles) see them cry on the cusp of battle, especially when it was over something as trivial as a guy not accepting an invite to join them for a sit and a think.
I shrugged and didn’t comment, starting off down the hall, my mind spinning.
“For three,” Austin said. “I’m hungry.”
My eyes teared up in relief. I was a mess right now. I needed sleep.
When I stepped into the sitting room, the comforting smell of books greeted me, the small bookcase at my back holding my favorite volumes and a bunch of books on my to-be-read list. The actual house library was a great place to read, but it didn’t offer the sense of comfort and seclusion this space did. I sighed as I sank into my favorite chair, the sun filtering in through the open window shades doing little to lighten my spirits.