Page 45 of Runes To Rain
My smile falls as I realize he’s not joining me to read.
“How’s the reading going, fellow knowledge seeker?” He asks with a grin.
His joy is infectious, so the smile returns as I respond that I’m enjoying my book.
“I’d love to join you,” he says, “but we’ve decided to take a quick break from rehearsing to meet with Malam since it’s been a while.”He grimaces and then laughingly says, “I think Dio will desert us if we don’twork towards the cause.” Grinning at me while rolling his eyes, he says, “His words.”
I can’t help but laugh at how uptight and accurate his impression of Dio is.
Eyes twinkling, he says, “Malam will want to see you while he’s here.” Then, with another grimace, he says, “I’ve also been asked to remind you not to try to listen in on our meeting with him.”
“Of course not, I really am sorry about that.”
He nods seriously, but then he’s already smiling at me again. “I promise after the concert we’ll dig into all those books we made Dio carry.”
I laugh with him for a moment before he needs to leave.
After the door closes behind him, I go to the bathroom to freshen up and pull on less rumpled clothing. I have limited outfits that allow for the movement I need. Because of that, I’ve been wearing the same few things to make sure there’s no delaywhen I can sneak away. They are getting fairly rumpled and grungy, even with the house employees washing them for me. That won’t do for a meeting with such an important demon.
Just as I’m finished dressing and cleaning up, there is a knock on the door. When I open it this time, it’s Fem standing outside. He looks slightly surprised to see me at the door, but recovers quickly and tells me to follow him. He leads us to the office.
Malam is already here, and he’s clearly been pacing. His eyes trail over me briefly, and he relaxes. He steps forward and sinks onto one of the overstuffed chairs, leaning forward with one elbow resting on his knee. I sit on the chair across from him, and Fem remains where he is, behind me, near the door.
“You look good, Chaosta,” Malam says, his voice composed this time.
I note the lack of anger on his face and relax a bit.
“You’re actually looking surprisingly well,” he says thoughtfully.
I bite my lip, hoping that if he notices, as I have, that there are muscles beginning to show on my arms, he’ll keep it to himself. I’m confident the boys wouldn’t support my sword practice, so I’d rather Fem not find out yet.
“I’ve been resting and reading a lot. Fem has been making sure I rest,” I say quietly.
“That’s good,” he says. Then I see him tense slightly as he asks, “Have you had any thoughts about hurting yourself?”
I glance briefly over my shoulder at Fem, wondering what he’s told Malam before saying, “No, I haven’t. There was an incident at the record signing, though.”
Anger crosses Malam’s face.
I hear Fem shift slightly behind me.
“An incident?” he growls, glaring briefly over my head at Fem before looking back at me.
“I thought I saw Bonum in the crowd, and I went after them.I lost my footing and got stepped on. Fem checked me out after, though, and it was just some bruising. I’m fine now,” I rattle out quickly before taking a breath.
Behind me, I hear Fem shift again.
Malam glares up at him over my head for a long moment. “Fem didn’t mention anything to me,” he growls, his eyes flashing.
“It really wasn’t that big of a deal. Like I said, I’m feeling good now,” I say, suddenly worried about Fem’s safety.
Malam pinches the bridge of his nose. Eyes closed for a moment, he sighs. When he opens his eyes, he fixes them on me. “Why was Bonum there?”
“I don’t know, that’s what I was trying to find out.”
“What were they doing?” Malam asks, a dangerous note in his voice.
“Just standing in the crowd and watching me.”
