Tortus Bay

3.08: Expectations

Kara opened her door with a stern expression on her face. "Figured I might be seeing you tonight."

Henry stepped inside. "Have you thought about it at all?"

"No, I haven't."

"Then you're going through with it?"

"I'm doing something that I have done every month since I moved to Tortus Bay."

He wanted to shake her. "You don't understand."

"What don't I understand?"

"Things are different! You saw what happened last time, and the time before. It's dangerous. You can't expose yourself to -"

"I can do what I want to do."

Henry pulled his charms out of his pocket, and thrust them at her. "I did something to the mayor. Something serious. I don't want to explain it all right now, but I think that he might be out looking for revenge tomorrow."

Kara wasn't listening to him. She was staring at his hand. "Do you have any idea how much work went into those? No one's ever given one back."

"Well, I am."

"No," she said. Her eyes reddened. "No, this is what I do. Why don't you understand that? It's important to me that -"

"I can't save you again! I already watched you die once. If your game goes wrong again, I won't watch it a second time."

"My game?"

Henry let the charms fall out of his hand. They clattered against the stone floor.

***

Once more, Henry slept not a wink the night before the festival. He hauled himself out of bed well before dawn, spent a useless hour trying to convince himself to read more of the books he had liberated from the Gauthe estate, and then resigned himself to laying on the couch, waiting. Sometime after the sun rose, Niles set a cup of coffee down on the floor beside him. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm too old to be pulling all-nighters."

"You took care of Noel."

Henry sighed, and sat up. "I think I did. I carved that symbol onto him, but I didn't exactly stick around to do any tests. Maybe it didn't work at all, and he can still do his magic. Or maybe he has some way to get rid of it. Or, hell, maybe he doesn't need to do anything spooky. If he knows what Emmaline is really after, all he would need -"

Niles took him by the shoulders, and pressed his lips against his head. "Today is about you. Whatever else happens, nothing changes that. We're looking after your arm. Speaking of, are you ready to get going?"

"I don't get to finish the coffee?"

"Take it with. Teresa said we should start as early as possible."

"I love you."

"Love you, too."

***

Day proper came along with chilly winds and downcast sky. The ground in the old graveyard was hard from the night's frost, and the leaves around paled toward autumn yellow and orange. "I don't understand why we have to do this here," Teresa said. She had brought with her several bags stuffed to their brims with herbs, phials, and notebooks.

"He's scared of boney down there," Clair said. She was perched on a headstone opposite the Cass monument, yawning and rubbing her eyes.

"I'm not scared of her," Henry said, "I just think it would be wise for us to keep our eye on things. We don't know how long this will take, and we don't know what's going to happen here. Two birds, one stone."