Sapphire Bones

Shade

Updated: May 6, 2019

Corvo

I called Erin shortly after Damien got Ethel calmed down and back on the edge of the fountain. She would never truly understand our mothers eventual demise but for now she vowed to spend as much time with her as possible. And that was all I asked for. Our housekeeper picked us up at the park an hour later, but not before a monstrous clock somewhere near the park chimed midnight. By the time we returned home I barely saw the sun start to rise through the thick trees surrounding the pack grounds. I fell into bed face first and huffed audibly into the pillow and inhaled deeply the fresh smell of lavender and honeysuckle. Erin must have changed the sheets while we were gone in preparation for our drunken return, but to Ethel's dismay our return was neither drunken or filled with serotonin filled exhilaration.

Instead Ethel threw open her car door and marched up the front steps to the house, disappearing behind the French front doors without a glance back toward the driveway. The front door slammed behind her. Damien and I got out after Erin put the car in park and shut it off, and we walked with her back toward the house.

"Thank you again, Erin," I started but our housekeeper shook her head with a broad smile on her face.

"Corvo please," she started. "I would do anything for you and your siblings. A quick trip to the city to fetch the three of you is the least of my worries right now." Erin placed a hand on my shoulder, and I took that moment to pull her into a hug. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and held her there, my chin upon her shoulder. At the sudden jerk, she gasped but her muscles relaxed the second she realized all I desired was a hug.

"Thank you," I repeated. "You've done so much for me and my family," I said and she nodded in response, pulling away.

"It's my job and I love doing it every day. You have all treated me with respect and love. That's more than I could ever ask for," Erin answered, beaming with bright rosy cheeks that glowed in the moonlight above us. With nothing but the fog lights spread across pack grounds and the natural light from the moon and stars I could barely see Erin and Damien but her iris' were bright, unusually so, and the blush on her cheeks flushed, lighting up the area around us in soft pink haze. She placed the palms of her hands on my cheeks, right below the apples, and pressed so that the warmth in her skin flooded into mine.

"You've been a rock for us," Damien added, nudging her with his shoulder. "With everything that's happened you've been the strongest rooted tree here," he said firmly.

"Someone has to keep their cool around here, boys." Erin chuckled and started for the house. "It's cold out here and the two of you need to go to bed." She spoke over her shoulder.

I followed after her with Damien on my tail. The front doors to the pack house flung open with Erin leading the pack, and the three of us went our separate ways. Erin headed through the kitchen toward her quarters, and Damien made a sharp right into the living room where he flipped on the TV. I paused at the stairs. Looking after him, I wondered whether my help mattered for Damien's problems with Allison, and our mother. From past experience, I didn't have the best history with girlfriends or our mother considering for over ten years my father forbade me from seeing her. And now, despite her reappearance in Emerald I still felt the fortified wall built between the two of us through years of my father's tirade.

Damien flipped the TV on and threw himself onto the couch facing the large flat screen. I watched for another moment, maybe more, and made my way upstairs to my room. No point in helping or even offering advice. Damien and Allison's relationship didn't include a third wheel and I had no intentions of shoving myself in the middle of that train wreck. I followed the stairs to the Alpha floor and escaped into my bedroom, locking the door as soon as it clicked shut behind me. The weight of being an Alpha, of having the kind of fucked up family Ethel described earlier this evening, and of having a mate whose life hung in the balance, crashed down upon my shoulders. My back slid down the wood door, knees hitting my chest. Every stray tear in my body escaped through the tear ducts in my eyes. They poured down my face. A grand waterfall down my cheeks but without noise. Nothing came from my throat, just voiceless cries from quivering lips. My hands were pushed to my face to swallow any noise but without any I had nothing to muffle.

*****

Morning came with news of my mother.

"When?" I asked. My teeth ground together. I clutched the kitchen island with both hands. Damien held Ethel nearby, her head buried in his chest while she bawled, shaking with her entire body. This day dared come for weeks now. We all waited, wondering when Penelope Edwards would exhale one final time and leave this world to join our father and grandparents in another life. She deserved better than what this world gave her. Ethel's promises the previous night shattered in front of her the second she woke up this morning. A soft breeze rustled the curtains in the kitchen, and the sounds of leaves playing in the yard came in through the open windows. Shadows danced off the many solid fixtures in the room, a play of light that waxed and waned with the sun and clouds above us.

"Overnight," Dean murmured. He held a mug of tea in his hand, fingers latched onto the little paper fold of the teabag while he bounced the mesh case in the cup.

"Was she in any pain?" I asked.

"No," he returned. "It happened quietly and without disruption."

"Who found-," I started but couldn't bear to finish, instead resolving to biting my tongue. At my words Ethel's cries heightened. Damien squeezed her in his arms in an attempt to muffle her voice from traveling through the house. Her entire body shook in his grasp.

"One of the housekeepers," he started with a sigh. "She went to take your mother breakfast."

I gulped, unsure how to proceed, but Dean lifted his eyes from the countertop. The idea of Erin finding my mother flooded my thoughts. The one housekeeper I shared a loving, maternal relationship with.

"I'm sorry, Corvo. I really am," he moved around the island quickly and engulfed me into his arms. I froze in place, hands still attached to the counter. But slowly starting from where his arms connected with me I began to melt into his embrace. My fingers peeled away from the table and I swiveled in his hug to return to the favor, but tighter. My arms wrapped around his biceps and connected between his shoulder blades. In that minute, I couldn't imagine a more peaceful moment. Murky silence blanketed the room in a thick fog, sticking to every surface. It tasted of salty tears that slipped through parted lips when least expected. Ethel's cries softened into muffled whimpers, and Damien didn't shed a tear. His would come after he closed his bedroom door for the evening. No showcase of violent sobs while bent over with his face in his hands. No calling for our mother, no clutching at another person. No- Damien was the strong sibling. He held it in when Ethel and I couldn't. He patted her back and rubbed circles on her shoulder blades. He cooed in her ears and reassured Ethel everything was alright. But nothing would ever be alright again. A tempest beckoned on the horizon, and only I saw it. It was only a matter of time until it hit Emerald and washed us all away with the tides. 

_______________________

Hey, 

Surprise? 

QOC: Were you expecting Penelope's death anytime soon or do you think she would hold out and potentially live?

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Much love,

-Kate