The wake was in full swing when we arrived, Willard had gathered his lute from the bone-barn and was tickling out a jaunty tune, Amelia and Rose had brought out easy dishes from the larder and root cellar, and someone brought out the wine and mead. The other farm hands filled the space with the skeletons, mingling with chatter and some dancing. I reveled in how much the space had changed over the years since I took over the land. When Simon, Antonio, and I walked into the house, it was brightly lit from every room, shining like a beacon in the night.
As much as I wanted to go to bed and sleep off the emotional and magical exhaustion of saying goodbye to a dear friend, I knew it was imperative to mingle with my employees–my family. They needed me as much as I, begrudgingly, needed them. Jun had been so important to daily life at the farm: there wasn’t a single life they did not touch.
My eyes scan the faces in the busy house, finding people I loved from one end to the other. There were some new faces that I appreciated, like the beastmen who had come under my care with Simon and Antonio. There were old and new skeletons, the family I’d cultivated from the earth. Henry still couldn’t fit through the door, but sat outside the kitchen door, flung wide open, so that they were involved. Samantha and Lasis stood by them, jaws chattering together in a bright tattoo. Their magic isn’t reaching me, so I can’t hear the words they’re saying.
Someone wraps an arm around my shoulder and I look into a tan face filled with freckles. My heart clenches. “Haven?”
Haven grins. “Me!” She wraps her arms around my middle and pulls me into her chest, and I fight the urge to fall apart again.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, and I feel my eyes well up with tears.
“I heard about the wake, Neil sent someone down to town to let Maggie know. Maggie let Soleil and me know.”
My heart clenches and I make a mental note to thank the skeleton later. “Is Soleil here?” I ask, pulling away, but I already know the answer.
She shakes her head sadly, “Maybe we can sneak him up here soon, but it’s still too hot with all the king’s men passing through like they have been. He sends his love, though. Told me to give you a proper hug for him.”
I wipe away a stray tear and I nod, “I can’t wait to have you both up here more regularly again.”
“We are too,” she traces her thumb underneath my eye, capturing another errant tear and I feel like fracturing again. I can’t help the trembling of my bottom lip, and she quickly grasps my wrists. “Come dance with me? It’ll help. A little.”
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I nod and let her pull me closer to Willard’s chaotic luting. I take her hand and pull her through a few spins, watching her short hair spin with her sleeves. We stomp our feet with the beat of the music and twist with the melody, and I revel in the joy in her eyes. When I pull her into a dip, she ducks back behind my arms and twists me into a following position and I laugh, content to let her take the lead, keeping a close eye on her broken rhythm. Dancing with Haven was always a fun experience: her enthusiasm made up for her inability to keep up with the beat. She was flamboyant enough to cover up missteps from her two left feet.
We dance for hours until our feet blister, passing between partners and returning to join hands and tap out whatever Willard had the ear for. We collapse onto the sofa at the end of the night, and Haven gets up to find us some finger food. Before I have time to fall into my musings, I’m joined by Antonio, who takes an awkward seat beside me.
“What do you want, little prince?” I mutter, throwing my arm over my eyes while I try to catch my breath. “Tonight is not a good night.”
“Right. I know.” Antonio tells me, voice nervous. “I wanted to keep you company, just a little bit.”
A sardonic laugh bubbles out of me, startling me. “You can barely be in the same room as the bones.”
“I’m still getting used to the whole idea that they’re here of their own volition,” he admits. “But obviously, they are. Otherwise Jun would still be here.”
I swallow down a knob in my throat. I can’t say anything, I don’t know what to say. Not that I was trying to forget the reason we were in the middle of a wake, but it felt strange to hear their name.
He doesn’t say anything else, just sits beside me. I can’t deny that I’m thankful for his company. It’s a show of trust that we didn’t have between us before, a show of understanding.
Eventually, Haven returns with a small plate and waves Antonio away. He hesitates, then stands. “I’m sorry, Sybil.”
I blink at him from under my arm, surprised. “Yeah. Me too.”
He wanders away and Haven takes his place beside me. “Damn kid,” she grimaces. “Have you told anyone else?”
I pull my arm back stare at her in shock. “No, of course not,” I tell her quickly. “I don’t want him dead.” The thought is terrifying. If part of this time continuum was for Antonio to regain the throne, letting an entire town of cryptids know was certainly the method of killing him – which would disrupt the universal plotline. No, he needed to get his confidence back and gather his army and regain his throne – preferably without me. I liked my life, and I didn’t want to screw up my deal with Arceme.
My gaze darts across the room where he leans up against a wall, his darkly tanned face an extra shade of red as Tolstoy talks his ear off. There’s a panicked look in his eye that I can’t help but notice is not at all to do with the conversational trap that Tols has locked him in: Antonio de Cardenas was beginning to realize he’d caught feelings for the little beastman. What a day.
“Why not?” Haven asks.
“I don’t want the blood of a young monarch on my hands,” I tell her in half-truth.
She rubs her eyes tiredly and changes the subject, and I am immensely grateful for the distraction.