The Demon in the Pastry Shop

71: I'm Sorry Dear Friend

Kit's mothers needed a lot of explanation when Shasnah peeled them off of the quilt and restored their shapes. They didn't remember anything but going to bed. Even though Mom had seen Kit before being enchanted onto the quilt, she couldn't seem to process this beyond the wisps of a nightmare. They never set foot inside the Hollow Realm before and now they were surrounded by its hollow creatures made of paper, bone, shells, bamboo, and pottery. And were in the same room as three Aces Under Creation! They needed lots of explanation.

Jude offered to do just that while Kit took a nap and a bath. She kissed his cheek. Then she hugged her mothers and left.

The nap was adequate, but nothing more than that. The bath was better and after Kit dressed in her grimy, sweaty pajamas again, she walked herself to the old Queen's chambers to borrow a dress. No part of her wanted to remember that oven. She shuddered and pushed the thought away. She didn't want to think about Lovell's pistol either. She pushed against that too. They didn't want to leave her alone, but she felt a strange comfort that she had survived before. And she still had Jude. And now she had Silus too.

When she returned to the study, entirely overdressed for the situation in a ballgown (she felt offensive wearing it, but nothing could make her change back into her old pajamas), the Aces were gone, as were her mothers and Jude. Only Ravitavah was left on the table, breathing but in grave shape. Kit took a few steps toward the door but stopped when she heard stirring from one of the chairs. She stayed in the threshold and watched as Silus walked up to the table and gazed down upon Ravitavah.

"You're going to make it, old friend," he told the Ace, stroking the fur along his body. His words were assurance, but Kit saw notes more somber in his face.

When Eltikan filled and fixed Silus' cracks, he only closed them, but the lines were still apparent in thin black seams. It could've been the couple of marks over his face that colored it melancholy, but then Silus said in a voice brittle and labored, "I'm sorry I always treated you like a pest. All you ever did was look out for me. When there was no one on my side, there was always you. I just... hated feeling like a mistake and being your friend meant I was one.

"I was bitter. I... resented you for singling me out. All I wanted was for you to leave me alone because I hated being associated with the Ace of Mistakes, but the way Lovell insulted you—"

Silus' voice caught and Kit clung to the door frame, half-hiding behind it. It must be wrong to linger there and watch him in this private moment, but she too felt what he was trying to express. Her loss was something she tried to hide from, tried to erase and escape, but with Jude and with Silus, she was beginning to feel colored by it -painted like she was a coloring page waiting to be made beautiful. It was terrible what happened, but what happened was part of her. A crack in Ravitavah's teapot so she might never forget what shattered, but still be made whole again and serve tea just the same.

Silus choked out a few sobs and his snakes drooped in mourning hisses, but he steadied himself and said, "he treated you the way he treated me and I realized we're not so different. And I realized I wasn't the first to be cruel to you either. You knew what it's like for me because it's the same for you. I'm so sorry, Ravi. I wish that I hadn't kept pushing you away."

She couldn't help herself. Kit abandoned the shadows and drifted into the room. She walked down the center of it -she wanted Silus to know she was there as soon as possible so he wouldn't think she was sneaking around. He only saw her when she got to the front of the table.

"Kit," he breathed.

Her eyes lowered down to Ravitavah and she gave a sigh and a forlorn kind of smile. A things-are-very-bad-but-that's-how-it-is-sometimes look. Silus came around the side of the table toward her. His lips parted as his eyes swept over her but he closed them again.

Kit opened her arms wide. Silus fell into her embrace. He curled into her, burying his face as his snakes nuzzled up against the side of her face searching for succor. Kit leaned into them and hugged Silus steady. When he slipped away from her arms, she touched his cheek and held his eyes for a moment more. Then she coaxed his hand into hers.

Together, they headed for the door. Kit resolved to convince Silus to get some sleep or at least close his eyes for a while. Maybe she could sit down with her mothers and listen to the Pumpkin Gnomes tell stories.

A faint feline noise gurgled from behind them. Kit whipped around, signaling Silus to do the same. She waded back into the study. The Ace of Mistakes raised his head and stretched his legs with obvious fatigue.

But he opened his eyes and murmured, "won't somebody have pity and bring this poor cat a cup of tea?"