Midnight Soul (35 page)

“Now, let us study this man,” I suggested,
using my hand to indicate my crystal. “We’ll need to know as much
about him as we can so we’ll be prepared the moment I arrive in the
other world.”

“This study will not be difficult.”

“He has no magic to block our regard?” I
asked.

“No, he’s highly easy to watch,” Valentine
answered.

To that, I smiled before we both turned to my
sphere.

And we watched.

* * * * *

Noc

One Month Later

Standing on a balcony of Tor’s palace in
Bellebryn, the sun warming through his clothes, the breeze from the
emerald waters of the Green Sea making a place that was the sheer
perfection of a goddamned, real-life fairytale even more perfect,
he bent his head to the thick sheet of expensive paper in his
hand.

It was a letter that had just been delivered
to him by Tor (Noc was careful how he went about the palace and the
city, considering he looked just like its ruler, without the scar,
and so they arranged it so Cora was with him if he went
exploring—the scar meaning he had to wear a big hat that was
completely ridiculous, but at least it didn’t have the totally
ridiculous feather most of the other men’s hats had in that
country).

Tor had also told him that in order for that
letter to come through royal post—something that meant missives
arrived a lot faster than normal post, Aurora kindly having allowed
Franka to take advantage of that—she’d had to have written it
within weeks of him leaving.

This meant Noc read the letter with a smile
on his face, that smile there for more than just getting his first
letter from his girl.

My dearest Noc,

Damn good start.

There is much to say but not much I can
write, I’m sure you understand my meaning.

She was not wrong about that.

But he got from her tone her witch training
was going well.

As you know, Valentine has been keeping me
company a great deal. I enjoy her presence and our many
conversations.

Yep. Her training was going well.

Noc’s smile deepened.

Brikitta has begun to show and as such,
she’s ordered her clothing from when she had Timofei in her belly
out of storage.

You can rest assured I shared with her
this was preposterous and demanded she go into
Älvkyla with
me to
requisition a new wardrobe.

She explained this was quite the waste of
coin as she would need a further selection of garments for when she
grew more with her child.

I explained that I was ludicrously rich (as,
now, was she, thanks to me, but I didn’t have a burgeoning family
to look after) and my sister was not going to be wearing the
fashions of more than two years previous while she nurtured my
future niece or nephew (I’ve decided on niece and Brikitta has
secretly agreed with me, Kristian will be happy with whatever, but
as a man, he is very bad at hiding that he wishes another son).

Of course, Brikitta, who I’ve noted has a
highly unattractive stubborn streak, flatly denied this request and
when I went into town and ordered her clothing myself, she
complained to Kristian.

Kristian brought his wife’s concerns to me.
To say he was not interested in them and therefore did not squander
much time in attempting to convince me to change my mind would be
quite the understatement.

Thus Brikitta’s new garments started
arriving yesterday.

She looks quite fetching in them.

Kristian agrees.

Brikitta does too, but she has not admitted
this aloud.

Though, Timofei has found his way to share
he much likes them as well.

He is, of course, becoming brighter and
brighter as the days pass. I’m no clairvoyant but I feel fairly
certain he will be Head of the Drakkar House when it’s his time.
Ousting one of the Frey’s direct line to do so will be quite the
achievement, but mark me, this will surely happen.

There’s not much else to tell, except both
Josette and I find it highly amusing that Kristian and Brikitta’s
servants have taken to calling her “Mistress Josette” due to the
fact I treat her with such familiarity and we often share
breakfasts and even lunches together.

I have not disabused them of the notion of
doing this. She’s far superior to any I’ve known in her profession
so this show of respect is due her.

At that, Noc started laughing.

Only Franka could make treating a servant
with equality seem like she did it with superiority.

As I feared, there is naught else to
share.

Though I do look forward to receiving your
communiqués.

And I very much hope you’re enjoying your
adventures.

Now, I shall bid you farewell until my next
undoubtedly titillating missive where I’ll regale you with news of
the next set of garments I’ll press on Brikitta and perhaps how I
liked, or disliked, the soup I’d taken at lunch.

Until then…and until we meet again,

Always yours,

Franka

Since he’d sent a letter from the port city
in Lunwyn (the part of it that used to be Middleland), and he’d
used Finnie’s dispatch to do it, Franka should be getting his
letter any day now, if she hadn’t already gotten it.

That didn’t stop him from walking into the
room behind him, his bedroom in this huge palace that Disney
animators would freak over, and go right to the desk in that
room.

He sat.

He pulled out paper.

And he shared news that might be more
adventurous than hers, but she wouldn’t think so since she’d seen
it and done it all before.

That didn’t stop him either.

In fact, he wrote three pages of the
stuff.

Then he sealed it and found Cora so she could
send it.

This she arranged before she gave him a hat
and took him to Tor’s horse, Salem, an outrageously handsome animal
(and one who could talk to him, right in his head, if that shit
could be believed).

Before getting to that world, Noc had been
horseback riding twice in his life.

He’d been on a horse a shit ton since they
left
The Finnie
—Frey’s kickass galleon that was straight
from a pirate movie—in Bellebryn’s port.

And off he went with Cora, having to pretend
to be Tor until they left the city and galloped across a
countryside where the air glittered.

Fucking
glittered
.

It was amazing.

He missed Franka. He missed just looking at
her, but he missed more how damned funny she was, how cute she
could be and how her trusting him the way she did, the way she
showed she did, the way he knew she didn’t give to anybody (but
maybe Josette, and perhaps the dead Antoine, but Noc didn’t go
there) made him feel.

But he sure as fuck was glad she’d made the
decision she’d made.

Because he wouldn’t have known what he was
missing.

But he was sure glad he didn’t miss it.

And he had it.

But in the end, he’d have her too.

* * * * *

Franka

Two and a half months later

Hey there, Sugarlips,

I should not smile. I really should not. He
was incorrigible. Even in the written word.

I nevertheless smiled.

I’m guessing you know Finnie and Frey have
returned to Lunwyn since they should have gotten there a while ago
and brought my last letter with them.

He was correct in this. They had.

Finnie wanted to continue on with me, but
Frey wanted her home. She’s getting along in her pregnancy and he
wants her close to a doctor he trusts. That didn’t go over real
well with Finnie. She thinks like we do in our world, obviously,
and most women work until they practically go into labor…

How bizarre!

And dangerous!

…
and they had a big blowout about it.
Frey won. Not because Finnie agrees with him that advanced
pregnancy makes a woman invalid, when it doesn’t. But he’s a dude
and dudes tend to express worry through anger and bossiness. She’s
been with him long enough to know that so they took off and passed
me off to Achilles, Apollo’s cousin (in case you haven’t met him,
tho’ with the incestuous way those Houses are, you probably have)
who, with some of Lo’s other guys, we went through Hawkvale and now
we’re in Fleuridia.

Gotta say, I’m not much of a fan of south
Lunwyn. There’s a bleakness to it that’s actually pretty, in its
way, but it’s also depressing. I can see why that asshole, Baldur,
didn’t like what he got in the cutting-a-country-in-two bargain.
Doesn’t excuse him being an asshole, but I can see that.

Bellebryn and Hawkvale, I don’t have to tell
you, are fucking amazing. There’s a lot of beauty in my world and
you’ll see that, I’ll make sure of it.

But there’s nothing like this. It’s so pure,
it’s like magic. It almost doesn’t seem real and the fact it is
makes it even more beautiful.

It also makes me wonder what my world was
like a hundred years ago, two hundred, a thousand. Was it like
this? Did we fuck it up with all our garbage?

If we did, you’ll see how much that
sucks.

What’s worse is that we’re still doing
it.

I won’t get into that.

What I’ll say is, Fleuridia is my favorite,
outside Lunwyn.

Oh my.

He felt the same as me!

It has the magic and the beauty of Bellebryn
and Hawkvale, but with sophistication. The food here is
unbelievable. The wine, even better.

He was quite right!

People are friendly, but not in your face
about it (that could be me having trouble getting around in
Bellebryn and Hawkvale, looking like Tor—here, some look at me with
curiosity, but most people don’t pay me any mind at all, and gotta
admit, that’s a relief—I don’t know how Tor does it, that’s gotta
suck).

Lahn and Circe went on ahead ages ago
because Lahn, like Frey, wants Circe at their house in Korwahn when
she’s getting closer to the time. They asked me to meet them there
and from what they said about Korwahk, I’d like to go.

But it’s gonna be hard leaving here. We’re
headed to Benies to hook up with Apollo and Maddie. I figure my
time is getting short, at most, I have three months left and it
takes forever to get anywhere. We’ll see. I’d like to take in all I
can but if Benies is half as awesome as the rest of Fleuridia is, I
gotta spend some time eating and drinking my way through it. So
maybe we can talk Valentine into sending us to Korwahk some other
time. It’d be good to catch up with Lahn and Circe and meet their
new arrival after he or she shows.

He was right again. That would be good.

And I liked how he said “talk Valentine into
sending us” because he’d said “us.”

Though even as much as I liked it, I wondered
at it.

What did “us” mean to Noc?

What did it even mean to me?

Those questions gave me the unusual sensation
of my heart fluttering in my chest at the same time dread settled
heavy in my belly.

I set both aside and refocused on Noc’s
missive.

One other thing I gotta do is make sure
Valentine transports the five cases of wine I’ve bought from the
vineyards we’re stopping at along the way. Have a word with her
about that, would you? And just to say, sweetheart, the way me and
the guys are going, by the time this letter gets to you, that could
be fifteen cases of wine.

This would mean I’d have Fleuridian wine in
the new world.

And Noc to share it with (for it didn’t even
occur to me that he wouldn’t share it).

Excellent.

Okay, not much else to say. Glad to read
you’re getting on with things and you’re liking doing that. Looking
forward to getting the full scoop, baby. Feels like time has flown
at the same time it feels like it’s dragging. There’s a lot I’d
love to know that’s going on with you and can’t wait to hear
it.

Now, I should go. We make Benies in two days
but only if I get my ass to bed so I can climb on that damn horse
tomorrow and hold on. Achilles doesn’t fuck around with taking in
the countryside. At least my ass is used to sitting that horse and
doesn’t hurt so goddamn much (along with the rest of my body) at
the end of the day. I’ll miss a lot from this world when I leave
it, but I sure as fuck will be happy to see a car.

I grinned at the letter and read Noc’s
last.

So I’ll end it here. Still miss you. It’ll
be good to see you again, Frannie.

Take care of yourself, your family and
Josette. Say hey to them all for me.

You, me and a slice of pizza, babe.

Soon.

Lotsa love,

-Noc-

Him and me and a slice of pizza.

Soon.

Very soon. Brikitta had grown quite heavy
with child (even if she was such stylishly, her pregnancy wardrobe
was stunning, if I did say so myself).

The wait for my new niece (I hoped) or nephew
(I would not be disappointed) I felt was close to over.

Yes.

Soon.

Noc.

Me.

And pizza.

* * * * *

One Month Later

The midwife at the other end, as Brikitta
sweated and grunted and moaned and gritted her teeth audibly in a
highly unladylike manner, I had the dubious (at that point) honor,
at Brikitta’s request, of attending the birth and holding her hand
through it.

It was a hand I’d feared she’d break for it
seemed she was tiring greatly but her strength had not been
affected in the slightest.