Chapter 47

Alcina is busy packing - if packing means angrily, slightly hysterically, shoving every item she owns into her numerous suitcases. She tries not to fall apart at the seams each time her hand stumbles over something Brendan had purchased for her.

And there’s so much of it, and Alcina can’t stop thinking of how stupid she’d been, intoxicated with the delusion that any of it meant anything.

The dragons are safely tucked in their own trunk, to be handled with care, empty save for small cushions and a silk sheet lining. The last time Alcina had checked on them, they’d made a comfortable nest of the space, and that had been that.

Her bedroom door opens, and Alcina whirls around, head brimming with too many thoughts that are too loud.

As it is, she’s still clutching onto the handkerchiefs Brendan had re-purchased for her with a manic sort of vigor that belies a person very, very on edge.

It’s Alfred, evidently having finished the last of the discussions.

“So,” Alcina clears her throat, arm l