True Love and Necromancy [Featured Story!]

Chapter XII

"TWO, PLEASE."

Tansy used a minuscule pair of silver tongs to deposit two cubes of sugar into Theo's cup of tea. The eggshell porcelain gleamed as white as bone. It was impractically beautiful, like a lady's high heeled shoe. Theo cradled the hot cup in his hands gingerly, afraid to drop it.

"I still can't believe it," Tansy said. She sat in the cushioned seat across from the sorcerer and stirred cream into her tea. She slid a platter of scones across the table toward her companion. Butter glistened with oily decadence in an ornate crystal bowl, nestled alongside a matching vessel overfilled with strawberry jam peppered with tiny seeds.

All these pretty things, thought Theo, And they are all hers, and she is the queen of it all. She is the loveliest woman I have ever known, and now I have lost her forever by bringing dark magic into her home.

"I'm sorry, Tansy," he said. "It was terrible."

"Terrible?" she echoed. "No. Well ... well, yes. It was terrible. She was terrible. But ..." Tansy looked across the room to where her grandfather sat with her father by the window. Her father held a book, but spared it only an occasional glance as the men's conversation lulled. She didn't have to finish her sentence. Her gratitude was plain in her face.

Tansy's father had come round when he saw that Theo's ritual had worked. Theo's investments in ingredients and long hours of labor had been made good with a healthy payment in gold.

But Theo had known for a very long time that it was not the payment he was after. It was Tansy.

"Aren't you frightened, though? Of course you know I would never have attempted an invocation were it not a final resort."

"Theo, I have never in my life been as frightened as I was last night. But I would not have given up the ritual for anything, for it was effective, as nothing else we attempted was. You saved him. I know Grandfather will not live forever. No one will. But you've given him back his mind for the remainder of his years. It's a priceless gift."

Theo felt a warmth spreading through his body. It started at his heart and spread down to his stomach and up through his cheeks. It soothed his tired eyes and lulled his mind. "I would only have done it for you," he said without thinking.

Tansy looked at him. Her smile was slow and sweet. She took a sip of her tea, and they sat in silence for a moment.

Theo was tired. Tansy had offered him the guest room for a brief rest after their late-night ritual, but it had been impossible for him to sleep. Being in a stranger's home was bad enough, but he had known Tansy was just a room away. He could hear her moving around in her room.

"What do you think she meant?"

"With what?" Theo asked foggily.

"What she said, about needing repayment. About the 'tit for tat.' Do you remember? What do you think she meant?"

Theo felt a chill creep down his spine. "Oh," he said with transparently weak optimism, "I'm sure it's nothing," which was to say, That is a problem for Future Theodosius.

"I don't think so," Tansy said. She pushed away her tea. "But ..." She reached across the table and placed her small, warm hand over Theo's. "Let's find out together."