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“You know, Eliza’s girl’s daemon settled into the loveliest little creature the other day! A rabbit, with a lovely cream coat and floppy ears. Oh! He’s darling,” one of the ladies around the table titters to herself.
Another responds, fanning herself as she does, “She’s only eleven, too, the dear! So grown up to have a daemon settle at that age, don’t you think?”
Beau mimics their talking with her hands to Thaddeus, both of them crouched underneath the very table the women are lunching at.
“Oh, sure, she’s mature. A loser more like,” Beau whispers. Thaddeus, currently in the form of an alley cat, laughs and rubs his head against Beau’s hands, flipping over as he does. She offers him her fingers to lick off the frosting from one of the tea cakes she stole off the table earlier, and keeps listening as his rough tongue cleans them off. He’s always liked the sugar.
“Joanne, your daughter is about that age isn’t she? Has her daemon gotten any closer to settling?”
There’s a moment of silence before Beau’s mom answers, “No, unfortunately. Beauregard is still a tad bit too headstrong for that. We are working on it, but, well you know how children can be at this age.” Her mom replies.
Beau grits her teeth. So what if she’s headstrong! She just knows when she’s right, besides, she has more fun than any of their stupid kids.
“Oh dear, well, hopefully he settles soon, and into something acceptable to walk about with. Is it true that he was a buffalo the other day? Someone mentioned that to me the other day, they said they saw?” The first woman asks.
“Well— Yes. She was sternly disciplined for that though, and now they both understand that wouldn’t be acceptable. I am certain she will settle soon, despite any gossip to the contrary,” her mom replies.
“Are you really? Last time we met the child she was brash, outspoken. Quite frankly I’d consider finishing school for her, if I had a child that difficult.”
Rage bubbles up in Beau. She’s not difficult! She’s fun and easy and a delight to be around.
“We’re not difficult! And Thaddeus is never ever going to settle and if he did it would be as something huge and troublesome and fun!” Beau rushes out from under the table to yell at them, only realizing when she does that she’s given up her hiding spot.
The women scream, teacups clattering to the ground, broken ceramic littering the immaculate lawn. Her mom’s face turns red with fury.
Whoops.
Without stopping to listen to what will certainly be a lecture, Beau spins on her heels and takes off.
“Come on Thaddeus!” She calls over her shoulder. Thaddeus turns into a deer to keep pace with her, and the two of them dodge through the grounds until they’re well hidden, the sounds of shouting far enough to almost be mistaken for silence.
“I’m very sorry Beauregard, your father says he won’t be able to see you today. He has an important meeting. Stock has fallen, he’ll be busy all night,” Beau’s nanny is explaining, her daemon, a terrier, at her heels.
“But it’s my birthday,” Beau hates how whiny her voice sounds. She’s eleven now, and it’s not like it matters, she doesn’t care.
“I know dear, and he’s very sorry. He’s going to try to make time for you tomorrow, but he can’t see you tonight,”
Beau hates how matter of fact she is about it. But there’s no way her nanny has the sway to convince her father. Then, she gets an idea. Thaddeus, a river otter, pins his ears back in discomfort sensing in the shift in her body.
“Okay,” Beau fakes a heavy sigh, “Could you draw me a bath instead? Since it’s my birthday?”
“Beauregard— Heating the water for a bath is going to take the better part of an hour, I really don’t know if that’s possible,”
“Please?” Beau slaps on her best puppy dog eyes, and her nanny sighs.
“Alright. But you better go straight to bed tonight— No arguing okay?”
“Promise!” Beau lights up.
As soon as her nanny leaves the room to start drawing up water Beau makes a run for the window. Her rooms on the first floor so it’s an easy drop to the ground, Thaddeus transforming into a moth on the way down before shifting back into an otter on the ground. He runs after her, his ears pinned back in displeasure.
“Can’t we just take the bath? That can be our birthday treat! We don’t need to see what boring business your dad’s doing,” he whines
Beau shakes her head, “Come on Thaddeus, you know he never takes business home. That’s why he’s gone so often. This has to be something else.”
“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Thaddeus groans.
“In and out, promise,” Beau says, bolting around the house towards her fathers window. The office window is always unlocked so he can get some fresh air, and it’ll be an easy climb.
Thaddeus runs along behind her, lagging back just enough that sprinting full speed is uncomfortable, but not so much that she has to stop. She rolls her eyes, but keeps going.
As she approaches the window she hesitates for just a second. There’s a large vulture sitting in the tree, just staring at them. Thaddeus curls around her ankles.
“Beau,” he whines.
“Shh— something probably just died, it can’t be a daemon. There’s no one nearby.” She ignores the too-intelligent eyes of the bird and picks Thaddeus up to move closer to the window, starting to jiggle the edge.
The vulture tilts its head at the two of them curiously, before taking off.
“See?” Beau says, huffing in frustration when the window doesn’t slide up immediately.
Her father’s voice carries from the study— which is weird. No one was supposed to be here, is her mother there? Beau stands on her tiptoes so she can see through the window, her breathing fogging up the glass.
When she sees inside the office, she gasps. There’s a large woman hunched over, her hair hanging in greasy clumps at the sides of her face, and her cheekbones sunken completely in. Her fingers are much longer than they should be, with long unkempt nails. Beau can’t make out what she’s saying but can hear a raspy voice in response to her father.
“Beau, that’s a witch!” Thaddeus yelps before she can stop him.
The woman whips around at the sound, her beady eyes locking with Beau’s. Exactly the same as the vulture’s.
As their eyes meet, Beau’s heart leaps into her throat, and every horrible legend she’s ever heard comes rushing back. She feels a tugging in her chest, the feeling of something essential being ripped from her and she almost screams as it’s taken from her, but just as the air goes to leave her lungs, she feels that piece snap back into place.
Thoughts of seeing her dad forgotten, she turns and sprints from the office, holding Thaddeus tight to her chest so he doesn’t get shaken loose.
The vulture follows distantly behind them.
Beau’s crying by the time she gets back to her room, her nanny’s anger fading at the sight of her tears. Thaddeus is shaking like a leaf in her arms.
“Beauregard, what happened? Where have you been?” She bends down to offer Beau comfort.
“There’s a witch! In my dad’s office there’s a witch, we have to— we have to go save him!” She’s gasping in between words.
“Beauregard, honey, you’re hysterical. There’s no such thing as witches. You went out in the dark, you got scared, that’s all. Your father is having a regular meeting, everything is alright.” Her nanny runs a soothing hand through her hair. Her daemon stands on his hind legs to nose at Thaddeus’ tail, trying to be comforting.
“But— but.”
“Shh, everything’s alright.”
After a long while Beau allows herself to be comforted. As time passes, she can almost convince herself that her nanny was right, and there is no such thing as witches. No matter how old she gets though, those eyes never quite leave her mind.
“Cheers!” Tori raises the wine bottle to Beau’s in a mock celebration.
“Like hell, these are worth way more fenced than if we chug them here,” she laughs, shaking her head.
“I know, I know, business first, etcetera, etcetera. You’re no fun anymore, always focused on the overhead,” Tori teases.
“Nah, more like I’ve drunk enough of this slop at family events to know we’d be better off buying nicer wine with our earnings. Way more fun,” Beau retorts.
“I thought you liked their wine? You liked it a week ago,” Thaddeus grumbles from her feet, currently a small terrier.
“Shut it— I’m allowed to change my mind Thaddeus. You don’t know everything about me,” Beau snipes back.
“You’re allowed to— you just never do,” he replies, and Beau shoots him a glare.
“I do plenty. If I was stubborn you would have settled by now.”
“No, I haven’t settled because I’m not stubborn. Your stubbornness has nothing to do with me,” he replies smugly.
Beau takes a deep breath, gearing up for a longer fight when Lillian, Tori’s fox daemon speaks up.
“How haven’t you settled Thaddeus? Don’t you get the urge to?” She sniffs at his face and his hackles raise.
“Nope. Happy to change,” Thaddeus demonstrates, shifting into a large barn owl. Beau shivers as he does, feeling her soul change form. It always feels weird, now that she’s older.
Thaddeus used to warn her. Thaddeus used to not be a dick.
Tori gives a low whistle when Thaddeus changes form, “Impressive, bet that has its uses in thieving.”
“Not really. Thaddeus doesn’t like to change on command. Says it’s demeaning,” Beau replies.
“Huh. Lillian didn’t mind, usually. Hey— speaking of heists, I have a better idea than constantly stealing wine.”
“What’re you thinking? I thought we didn’t want to check out anything real until we got more practice with this?”
“I was, but then I got to thinking. You were telling me about those manuscripts your dad keeps right? And how they’re supposedly worth some ridiculous amount of money? Why are we wasting time stealing wine from your dad when he has those?” As Tori speaks Lillian curls around her ankles.
“I don’t know— He’s pretty protective of those. If we took them I wouldn’t put it past him to get the actual authorities involved,” Beau says, worry churning in her gut.
“Really? I mean didn’t you say he’d noticed the wine? You don’t think that he’d rather protect his reputation than punish you for something this trivial?”
“He doesn’t think they’re trivial, there’s lots of people who come here just to look at them, they’re under pretty much constant lock and key. I don’t know—”
Tori cuts her off, holding her hands up in the air in mock surrender, “Take it easy. If you’re freaked about the risk we don’t have to. But I wasn’t talking about all of them, just one or two could get us about a month's worth of wine money.”
“I guess I’m just not sure—”
“Like I said, I get it. I’m more desperate for money than you, I get that you don’t need this gig as much as I do. I only bring it up because I know some people who might be interested, got a buyer lined up and everything.”
“You have a buyer?” Beau’s eyebrows raise, and Thaddeus ruffles his feathers.
“I have someone who said they were interested, yeah. But like I said, if you’re scared, we don’t have to.”
Beau simmers in the silence for a moment. She doesn’t want Tori to think she’s a coward. Because she’s not. And is it really fair for her to turn down a job when she doesn’t need the money when Tori, her partner, her girlfriend does? She’s not sure.
“Just the one book?” She says.
“Beau—” Thaddeus starts.
“Shut up. You don’t make this decision.”
“Just the one,” Tori confirms.
“Okay. Let’s start figuring out a plan,” Beau agrees, Thaddeus scowling at her. Tori lights up.
“That’s my girl.” Tori kisses her, pulling away just as Beau starts kissing back. “I better get rid of this baggage before we get caught, see you later tonight to get the details sorted?”
“Works for me,” Beau watches her go. The second Tori’s left the passageway they’re hiding in Thaddeus spins around at her, clearly furious.
“This is a bad idea,” he hisses.
“You think everything is a bad idea!” Beau shouts. “You’re terrified of any and every idea we have! If you had your way we would stay in our room all day and do nothing!”
“That’s not true! I like doing things! I like seeing new places, I just don’t like to take stupid risks stealing shit we don’t need just to piss off your parents!” Thaddeus lifts off the ground, flapping his wings to stay level with Beau’s line of sight.
“Oh, we’re doing it to piss off my parents? Because you’ve never had any issues with their daemons, nope. You have no reason at all to rebel?”
“I didn’t say that! I just don’t think this is a good idea! I don’t trust her.” He adds the last part with some delay. It takes the bite out of their argument.
Beau sighs, rubbing at her temples, “You don’t like anyone I’ve ever dated. You like boring people, Thaddeus. You want me to date a librarian.”
“That’s not true either! I liked Cassandra!”
“Cassandra had a mouse daemon. Cassandra only did fun things when I suggested them, and thinking back that might have been because she was too scared to say no. Cassandra doesn’t count. I like Tori, Tori needs this, and I want to do it. We’re doing it.”
“This could push your dad over the edge.”
“Then we’ll hide out somewhere for a few days until he calms down. Case closed,” Beau starts walking, forcing Thaddeus to fly after her.
“Do we really have to do something dangerous just to impress her? Doesn’t she already like you?” He’s pleading now. Beau rolls her eyes.
“She’ll get bored. I said, case closed."
“But—”
“Thaddeus!” Beau spins around, the anger back in her, “I said case closed! I make the decisions! I’m the one in charge here! You’re the reflection of me! Not the other way around!”
Thaddeus visibly deflates, falling silent. Guilt pools in Beau’s gut. She knows immediately she shouldn’t have said that. Her mouth opens and closes a few times, trying to find the right way to take them back. Eventually, she stops trying.
She’ll give it time. They’ll both have forgotten it by the end of the month.
They wait for a night when Beau’s father is out of town. Not that it’s particularly hard to find one, he’s out of town more nights than he’s in nowadays. Wine business he cloys. Beau wishes he’d find better shorthand for “I’m cheating on my wife.”
Or just say it outright. Not like her mom would give a shit. Blatant adultery aside, it’s easy enough to check his schedule and see when he’s out. They don’t even have to get past the house’s security. Beau simply demands to have Tori spend the night.
There’s a customary fight about it, but the arguments just feel like playing out a script, there’s no weight to them anymore. Beau always wins, that’s just how it goes.
They find a couple of ways to amuse themselves until the sun’s been down for hours. Beau, who’s been down for just slightly less time, brings her hair back into a bun and Tori sits up.
“Is that our cue to go?”
“Mhm.”
Lillian and Tori both stretch, and Lillian jumps off the bed as Tori says, “I’m almost disappointed. Are you ready for this?”
Beau licks her lips. “Yeah. Yeah, for sure.”
In the end, it’s the stupidest fucking thing.
Beau has to light a candle in order for either of them to find the specific book they’re looking for— On Theories of Magic and the Application Thereof to the Workings of One’s Inner Soul: Daemonology and Its Effect on the Arcane Post-Calamity or… something like that, and the house guard must have noticed through the office window.
And it’s so fucking stupid, because they know it’s been Beau who’s been stealing even if they haven’t caught her, so they’re on alert and they’re under orders to investigate shit like that when her dad’s out of the house.
And it’s so fucking stupid that they finally find the book, and put the candle out and stuff it in Tori’s bag, and Beau pulls Tori close for a kiss and that’s enough, just enough, to distract Lillian, too.
“Don’t you two move,” comes the voice, and there’s a stomach-churning yelp and low growl.
Tori puts her hands up immediately. Beau, for her part, can see the guard’s daemon mutt in the corner of her eye, carrying Lillian by the scruff of her neck like she’s a naughty kitten, and it’s enough for the both of them to be quiet and docile when the guard—Adrian, maybe?—takes Tori’s bag, then gestures them out of the office and down the stairs.
Beau’s head is racing, trying to figure out a way to get out of this without Lillian getting hurt, but the mutt behind them is still growling lowly even as the guard opens the house’s front door and Tori is shaking beside her.
Thaddeus, thank every god there is, isn’t saying anything, a rat clinging to Beau’s shoulder. She can feel his claws in her hair every couple of seconds, trying to keep his balance, and that’s the thing that almost annoys her to tears.
It’s a short, quiet march to Trostenwald’s jail.
The dog daemon doesn’t drop Lillian until they’re both in a cell, and Lillian jumps immediately into Tori’s arms.
Tori clutches almost convulsively at the thick fur at Lillian’s scruff, bringing her knees up and her head down to hide her face.
Beau can hear the quiet murmurings of a humanoid and their daemon placating each other.
Thaddeus shifts on her shoulder, and Beau wishes he’d just go away.
“Maybe I can try breaking us out,” he whispers.
“Adrian’s seen both of us,” Beau retaliates. “That’s nothing.”
Thaddeus doesn’t speak again, and neither does Tori.
They rot in that cell most of the next day, before Thoreau Lionett makes his grand fucking way over to the jail to fix his ever-disappointed gaze upon Beau through the bars.
“Get the key,” he tells the man who let him in. “I’ve paid her bail.”
The guard leaves, and that’s when he lets himself actually look Beauregard up and down.
“What were you doing?” he asks, after a few seconds.
Beau shrugs. She will not feel small, damn it. She’s a grown fucking woman, almost. “We were just checking out a book. Is that a crime now?”
Her dad clicks his tongue. “I’ve already paid for your release, Beauregard. I only want to know why this happened.”
Beau stays silent. He sighs, heavily, and he and the golden eagle daemon who followed him in share a look.
Jette speaks next. “Thaddeus.”
He shudders on Beau’s shoulder.
“What possessed you two to do this? Beyond… the obvious.”
Beau isn’t looking at Jette, but she can see her father flick his eyes behind her at Tori. If Beau had fangs, they’d be bared.
Thaddeus says nothing.
Her father picks back up. “Fine. Fine. I give up.”
It’s about then that the guard comes back in with the key.
He unlocks the door, and Beau turns to say something to Tori before her father takes her arm. “No. I’ve only paid your bail. She is staying here.”
Tori, who had started standing, looks from Thoreau to Beau, eyes wide.
Beau swallows. Turns to her father. “But—”
“No. Absolutely not. She is a bad influence. She is staying where she is. And, with any luck, I may have the satisfaction of seeing the Crownsguard or Righteous Brand take her away. I think she could use the lesson.”
Beau blinks. “Dad, no. It wasn’t her fault. I planned this, okay? I was the one who suggested we steal the book, okay? We weren’t even gonna— she just happened to follow me. She’s not involved.”
“A likely story,” he replies, tugging Beau through the door. The guard closes it behind her with a final-sounding clang. “Someone has to pay for all the damage you two have been doing to my business, and, so help me, Beau. You might be the worst misfortune to ever befall me, you might be a curse, but I’m bailing you out anyway. I’ll fix you, daughter, if it’s the last thing I do.”
The guard is suddenly crowding behind her, and Tori hardly gets out a pleading-sounding, “Beau—” before she’s all but pushed out of the jail.
She doesn’t know what she’s expecting as retaliation, but it’s not— this.
They come in the middle of the night, because of course they do, and Beau’s asleep in her own bed, because no one’s told her to get the fuck out.
Thaddeus has barely spoken to her since The Incident, but he nudges her awake, and says, “Something feels wrong.”
Beau glares up at him. “Feels wrong? Go to sleep.”
He’s in the form of some sort of hummingbird right now, flitting nervously, but turns into a serval, his sudden weight on Beau’s chest making her shove him off. He hisses before turning into a rabbit, ears flicking. “I’m serious. I heard something.”
Beau grunts and turns over. “That’s cuz you were a fucking hummingbird, Thad. Maybe try being a fucking predator and you won’t be so fucking paranoid.”
She hears him start to reply, but doesn’t hear a reply. She’s confused for half a second, before her sleepy mind suddenly processes the fear, then panic and pain running through their bond and she jerks, panicked herself, before her wrist is grabbed, then yanked.
Beau inhales to scream, but then her throat feels like it’s being crushed. She lashes out with a fist, like a trapped animal might, but when that fist is caught like it’s nothing and she is yanked off the bed, she sees the reason for her inability to make noise: It’s Thaddeus, trapped against the bedspread by the talons of some kind of bird of prey, his rabbit’s throat crushed by the weight of the bird.
She realizes that this is their life that they’re fighting for, and she drives her elbow back, hoping to hit something solid. At the same time, Thaddeus is suddenly a wildcat, throwing the bird of prey off, and then he’s a wolf, snarling as there’s suddenly another bird—raven, maybe?— raking its claws down his back, and then he’s a bird, too, Beau sees his talons glinting in the light coming through their window.
But two daemons means two people, and Beau doesn’t have talons or teeth like Thaddeus. She’s panicking and enraged, and kicking and squirming and screaming, screaming, and her uncoordinated strikes are hitting but not like she wants them to, not like she needs them to, and once they start dragging her out of the room, her arms trapped behind her back, Beau realizes she’s fucking losing.
“Mom! Dad!” she screams, desperate, because even if they can’t help against people like this, they’ve gotta— she’s not just gonna disappear, not like this, they can’t just kill her, she can’t just—
“Mom! Dad! Please!”
When she’s dragged out of her room she catches sight of her father at the end of the hall, and Beau stops breathing for a second, her mind unable to process—
“Dad, dad, no, please,” she begs. “Please, please, daddy, no, please.”
It’s fucking pathetic, it’s pathetic, but she’s scared, she’s scared and he’s her dad and he can’t just do this, right, he has to— he can’t just—
He turns back to go into his own room, and Beau’s voice cracks on a sob.
“Fuck you, then! Fuck you!” It sounds weak even to her own ears, but she starts struggling again, she can’t just go quietly, and they hit her and it hurts, her eyes blurring either with pain or tears, and once they’re down the stairs she realizes Thaddeus hasn’t come with. The distance hurts, more than the punch to the gut did, and there’s pain and panic coming through their bond and Beau can’t help it, she can’t be alone, so she starts screaming his name, not sure what he can even do but, god, it has to be something, right?
“Thaddeus!”
This time, the punch lands on her side, and Beau sags against the body holding her arms, her body trying to instinctively double over in pain, protect her most important organs.
“Thaddeus!”
This time, the punch is to her solar plexus, and it’s so precise that Beau tries for a sob but can’t fucking breathe it’s so painful, and, fucking finally, she sees a dark shape fly from her room’s door over the landing of the stairs, and the pain of separation lessons. Thaddeus is an owl, bleeding on the carpeting over the stairs as he dives, talons first, towards whoever has been punching Beau.
It feels like being saved. Thaddeus is going to rip someone’s eyes out with those terrible fucking talons, or distract them so Beau can wrench herself free, and she can’t breathe for pain but they have a chance, they have a chance—
And then the person’s hand moves, too fast, and Thaddeus’s talons are sinking into their palm and their other hand is around his neck, and it feels wrong, wrong, so fucking wrong,
and something snaps into place, and it’s right, just for a second.
He’s settled.
And still being touched, and the hand is tightening on him— and it’s just wrong, painfearterrorviolenceragehorror wrong— And pain and she can’t breathe and and and— they’re just touching, hurting—
“Thaddeus!”
And then nothing.
A shadow darkens the doorway and Beau tucks her knees closer to her chest. This is the third time today, and the tenth time in three days someone has come to her room. It won’t work. They kidnapped her, she’s not just going to forgive them.
“I’m not coming out,” she grumbles.
The figure at the doorway sighs, moving further into the room, the floorboards creaking as they do.
“I expected you’d say that Beauregard. Now, may I ask, why not? What moral point are you trying to prove by locking yourself away in a dorm room instead of engaging? Who does this help?” This voice is new. It sets Beau’s teeth on edge.
“You fucking kidnapped me. My parents paid you to kidnap me— and I’m supposed to, what? Fuck around and help you? Fat chance.” She’s had this same argument every time. There’s no point to it. They’re not going to win.
“I see. You believe we’ve stripped you of something. Was your own home life lovelier than we were led to imagine? Your parents had you arrested, manhandled, to the point where even your daemon was harmed, is that what you want to return to?”
Beau flinches at the mention of Thaddeus. That feeling of hands, of settling, of— enough. She’s not going to relive that, not again.
“Fuck off.” The words leave her mouth with less bite than they had in her head.
“Right. Maybe that was insensitive. Thaddeus is settled now, yes?” they ask.
Beau gives them the middle finger. The laugh that leaves their mouth surprises her.
“I’ll take that as a yes, and both of you are upset with the form he’s been left in? You’re sulking about that, and about the molestation, correct?” They’re very matter of fact about it.
She won’t dignify it with a response. The silent treatment worked with one of the others, it might work this time. Instead though, she hears a shuffling of wings, and glances up to see the stranger’s daemon leave their shoulder. It’s a small white dove, and it flies over to Thaddeus. It stops just short of touching him.
It starts to speak, shocking Beau. What shocks her more, is that Thaddeus replies.
“I know you’re upset,” the little dove says.
“How?” he replies.
“It’s obvious. You’re sulking, Beauregard is sulking, this whole room is full of the aura of two creatures sulking. But that’s not going to help much, is it? Do you think that if you both sit here long enough you’ll be able to change again?” she pesters.
“No, but I don’t want to stay like this. If I don’t leave, no one else sees it.”
“Then no one else sees you.” The little bird tilts her head. “Is this really the worst form you can imagine being trapped as? You never spent any time in this form, never wanted to fly? You can fly all the time now!” she urges.
Beau watches, transfixed.
Thaddeus shifts his weight. “I guess that’s a good thing. But I didn’t choose this. We’re supposed to choose, Beau was supposed to help me choose.”
The stranger speaks up then, “You’re right. And what was done to both of you was horrible, there’s no question about that. It won’t happen here, that I can promise you, and people who have done it have been disciplined. But you can’t continue locking yourselves away either.”
“What can you do about it? Send us home?” Beau retorts. “At least there we have some freedom.”
The stranger sighs, and raises their hand. The white dove flutters back, landing on their outstretched hand.
“We will have to. But Beauregard, I promise you this, your parents will not keep you at home any longer. There are organizations far less devoted to your wellbeing and advancement than the Cobalt Soul. I certainly cannot stop you from pursuing them, but I can recommend you give our establishment a try before you do. I promise, you’ll find it far more hospitable.” With that, they turn and leave, closing the door softly behind them.
Beau watches them go. “Stupid, threatening…” she grumbles to herself, inching closer to Thaddeus. Thaddeus doesn’t close the distance between them, but he doesn’t move away for the first time since being reunited outside the jail cell.
After a long while, he breaks the silence, “Beau?”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe we should listen— just once. I’d like to get better at flying for longer.”
Beau sighs, “Let’s sleep on it, okay?”
The anger at being taken doesn’t fade overnight, and the rough cot certainly doesn’t do wonders for either of their sleep, but in the morning Beau wakes to the bell that rings across the campus. She looks out the window for the first time since she arrived at the Cobalt Soul.
And, with Thaddeus hovering only inches from her, they go to their first day of training.