Abaddon's Mark

Chapter Two

Graydon knocked. A second later, Naena pulled open the door and invited him into the room. He stepped in, parcel in hand, and saw a rather familiar looking box sitting on her desk. Opened, paper strewn across the desk.

"Uh," he managed, drawing the sound out as he had a terrifying moment of worrying that Theon had gotten her the same thing.

Because it had to be Theon, who gave her a gift so early. Only he and Theon were at Amos.

"He gave me a journal and pen, what did you give me?" she asked.

"A..." he stuttered off, feeling foolish. "A book."

"A book," she said.

"A romance book."

"A romance book," Naena echoed, except her tone had quite an edge to it.

"Because I realized my mistake and this is quite loved, and I thought, you know, I messed up so I'd give you a... damn it, it's stupid."

"Did you give me a romance book as an apology?"

"More of..." he trailed off and blushed as he looked away. "Look, we can't just have, right? We have duty and life and... and everything between us."

"Oh my god," she whispered. "Is this... Did you read this?"

"Yes, of course, I had to make sure."

No, he lied about that. Instead, he had listened as intently as his mother spoke about the book but hadn't been able to bring himself to sit down and read the damned thing.

"Is this," she said before she gave him a look.

Graydon almost choked on his own breath. Because he was almost certain she had figured him out, and he thought he had planned it well enough that maybe she'd get halfway through the book before she realized.

"Yes," he said. "I, of course, had to ask my mother what love was, and her response led me to believe that I, heir of the Pan family, may love you, Naena, a bastard. We can't... I mean, damn it, I'm sorry, but we can't."

"But this is what you wish for us," she said, holding up the parcel.

"If I could, if it were another life... a thousand things between us, but yes," he said.

She smiled at him.

"Thank you."

"He got you a journal and a pen?" Graydon asked.

"It was a very kind gift, and I think the journal is spelled, look, can you read this?" she asked, presenting him with a blank page.

"No," he said sternly.

Speaking the truth as he wondered how she knew the item was spelled before the fact. Theon wouldn't have told Naena that. It would have been a pleasant surprise later on.

Theon hadn't written the spell himself. His secrecy spells were not so well done that Graydon couldn't unwind them. No, whoever spelled the journal was a skilled mage. Such spells came with high prices, though Theon may have once saved the child of a mage with just such a skill.

Calling in old debts for a present seemed going a bit far.

"Right, so, update. Wow, is there ever one," she said, sounding quite excited. "I unravelled the pebble spell and can spell things to collect sound, so don't you be screwing me over."

And she reached out and jabbed one of his buttons while maintaining that rather creepy smile.

Graydon took a step back and wiped down even as her smile held, and she looked at the button, then to him.