*Runze's POV*
Bael's text comes at eight forty-seven.
*Something came up. Don't wait for dinner. I'll explain when I'm home.*
I read it three times standing in the kitchen doorway while Mrs. Wen moves around behind me pretending not to watch my face. The message is short even by Bael's standards, which tells me more than the words themselves do.
I go back to the sitting room and sit down.
An hour later I hear a car on the driveway and I'm on my feet before I've thought about it, crossing to the glass panel beside the front door. My chest drops when I see it. Just one of the estate cars, idling by the steps. Grandmother comes down a moment later dressed in whatever she had on at dinner, she didn't stop to look at me, and gets in without looking back at the house.
The car pulls away.
I watch the gate close behind it and stay standing there for a moment, my hand against the cold glass, trying to figure out from the shape of what I don't know what is actually happening tonight.
