When I finally woke the following day, I was not alone.

  I had fallen asleep before Anna ever got into bed. Sometime in the small hours of the night, I had found her sitting straight up and shaking. Another nightmare had come for her and I had helped her the only way I knew how.

  I held her.

  “Do you ever think that we should tell someone about what happened with that (thing)? What if it comes back?” She had whispered right before I had been drifting back to sleep.

  “I’ll kill it. I won’t let it hurt you. Promise.” I sighed and pulled her tighter. I had not slept long enough for the warmth that the sweet drinks had left in my belly to fade, but I had meant what I said.

  She had wiggled her hips and pushed herself as close to me as she possibly could. “What if it tries to hurt you? I can’t protect you.”

  “That’s why I have Sam, I think.” I had said through a yawn.

  I had taken her snores as a sign that my help had actually been helpful and let sleep take me once again.

  When I finally woke the following day, Anna was up and sorting through her books.

  She had opened her side of the canopy and snapped one of the lights on, but her hair was messy and she was still wearing her night clothes. I didn’t move or make a sound. I laid there and watched her do whatever it was she was doing for as long as I could. From a book to her notebook and then back again, she seemed to be searching for something or trying to gather bits and pieces of information.

  The days after Azza had buried me alive had been some of the worst I could remember, but watching her do much the same thing as she was then had one of the few pleasures within them.

  “What’s this dust over here?” She said aloud without turning around.

  “How long did you know I was awake?” I asked her, only slightly annoyed that she had seen through my attempted stealth.

  “The whole time. I can tell by your breathing.” She answered.

  “That’s how I know when you are asleep. You start to snore.” I sat up and stretched my arms above my head.

  She turned around and glared at me with so much intensity I thought I might catch fire. “I. Do. Not. Snore.”

  “The Mother in Yellow snuck a firefly into my pants.” I said, answering her question from a moment before.

  She shook her head in what looked like absolute confusion.

  I rolled forward on to my stomach and propped my head up on my hands. "The dust. It was a firefly. I want to keep it. What are you doing up?"

  "I was thinking about something you told me that The Mother in Red said to you right before you came back," She said as she continued to flip through the books and take her notes. "She was right, more right than she knows I think. If we work hard, we can figure out all the things none is able to tell you. We have their names now. All it will take is time."

  "Yes, coach." I laughed and brought myself to the edge of the bed.

  “It makes no sense. Old Mothers, new Mothers, red Mothers, blue Mothers. You run away and willingly come back, they hang nine punishments over your head. You get caught outside of the manor and attack them, and they give you what you ask for. We are going to figure it out." She continued.

  "Yes, coach," I repeated and stood up. My voice cracked when I tried to speak again. "I have something I need to ask you."

  Anna put her book down and leaned back against the desk with her legs crossed. "Are you okay?"

  I swallowed and looked down at the stones of the floor, feeling more nervous than I had when I had been brought before The Mothers. The question had come to me as soon as Nocti had told me about The Mother in Blue's school, but it had gotten lost in the sweet drinks and games.

  “They are letting me go to school. Not the one I wanted, but that doesn't matter. It's not here. That's what is important. I, uhm, I won't be here and. . ." I trailed off and swallowed again. There was a pit in my stomach that grew with every word I spoke. I felt vulnerable because I was allowing myself to be vulnerable.

  For fucks sake, she standing there in her underwear, you held her while you slept last night. What are you scared of? I asked myself.

  "And?" She said.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "Will you go with me? I don’t know what it will look like yet, but I can’t imagine not being around you. I cannot stress enough how little I know about how this is going to go, but I need you with me. I know you came here because of me and I hope you aren't angry that I'm asking you to go somewhere else." I said in one long, desperate, breath.

  Without another word, without so much as a nod or shake of the head, Anna turned on her heels and left me standing in my room alone.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  The shock of her leaving left me unable to move. She already did so much for me. She had gotten me the sandals I had wanted so desperately and she had woken up with nothing but concern for my situation and I had asked more of her.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck. I repeated in my mind, feeling like I would be sick.

  "Hey, what are you doing? Come on." Anna said as she leaned her head back into the doorway.

  A full body shudder shook through me. I did as I was told and nearly ran out of my room after her. I followed her down the hall and past the bathroom. She opened the door of her rarely used room and we went inside.

  Two chests, just like the one I had hidden in when we had played hide and seek, lay open against the far wall. Anna's clothes were piled high on her bed and the top of her desk. She pulled me into her closet and made dramatic gestures at the emptiness that filled it.

  "What does this look like to you?" She asked me with an amused look on her face.

  "I don't know. I'm sorry I asked, I should have thought about it more or waited long-" I started.

  "Autumn. Take a breath." She said and brought her hands to my hips.

  I did as I was told. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

  She looked me in my eyes. "My closet is empty. There are chests in my room. Think about it."

  "No," I refused. "Just tell me."

  Anna groaned. "I started packing last night, dummy. As soon as you fell asleep, I went down and asked Idensyn for the chests. Of course I'm going with you, I'm kind of pissed you even felt the need to ask. I love you. We're together. Where you go, I go. I don't give a shit what those dusty old bitches say."

  Before I knew what I was doing, I had thrown my arms over her shoulder and kissed her. The first led to a second and then a third. I let myself get lost in her without fear and she did not push me away. She wanted me the way I wanted her and neither of us resisted it.

  Only separated when my need to catch my breath could no longer be ignored, I realized that we had found our way to the floor.

  Anna relaxed against the stone wall behind her and I laid my head in her lap to try and let the heat in my face dissipate. She chuckled to herself and pushed her raven hair back from her face. "Well, that was something. How do you feel?"

  The hurried rhythm of my heart pounded in my ears and my aura had built inside me without my intention. I raised my left hand and let just enough of my power out to lessen the pressure against my seals.

  It came out in a streak no longer that my pinky and burst in red embers only a small height above my palm.

  The small one

  "Like that. You make me feel like that" I answered her honestly.

  "Will you go with me," She said, imitating my voice and laughing at her own joke. "When that Trea lady was holding you down and trying to hit you, I knew that she was going to have to kill me too. I'm weak, I drink too much, I don't have magic, but I was going to try to choke her to death. When you were gone with The Mother in Red, I slept on your side of the bed and held your pillows so I could pretend you were still here. Shit, this is embarrassing. But, back when we were at the boarding house, before I ever knew what you really looked like, I used to sneak upstairs at night and listen to see if you were awake. I didn't even really know why I was doing it, I just wanted to be near you. Besides, who's going to hold me when I wake up with the spooks if I don't go with you?"

  I didn't answer her. I brought my hand up to the skull hanging around her neck and held it in my hand, perfectly happy just to be with her.

  After the excitement of my birthday and the news that had come with it, the days began to pass like they had before my punishments had begun.

  I would wake up and go to The Well. My mother and I would have lunch in the garden. I would go back to The Well until dusk came. Arthur and I would play points or I would watch him train with his wooden sword. Sam would hunt or lurk around in the shadows of the manor. Dinner was different every night both in what we ate and who was there to eat it. Anna would get her wine and we would go upstairs. She would interrogate me about the memories I had viewed and I would tell her. We would train with my aura and then I would go to sleep with her reading beside me.

  Her nightmares came every so often and occasionally, I would have one of my own. Whichever of us needed to be held would be and we always managed to get enough sleep.

  When I grew too restless and my mind began to wander to Erosette, the siblings and I would escape the walls of the manor and go down to the city. We were caught several times by the captain and Nocti, but nothing ever came of it. I ran into Pyreme enough that she began to recognize me despite my glamors the way Arthur and Anna could.

  Arthur left several weeks after his invitation from Rhiannon had come. Ms. Lao had not been happy about it and had come all the way from Hymneth to try and forbid him from going.

  The tan line around my neck faded and soon there was no trace of Azza's gift left on my body. Only taking them off to sleep or to enter The Well, the criss crossed lines of my sandal straps quickly replaced took its place.

  I saw Patience once and felt nothing resembling rage or heartbreak.

  The six Mothers that had not punished me yet did not come for me while I was still at the manor.

  My mother had said that the day of my birth was the first day of autumn, but the time that came after it felt like one endless summer. The good days, and there were very few that were not good, passed by me in a warm drift.

  Rhiannon had kept her vow and all the things she had told me in her safe place were true.

  She loved me. My mother loved me. Arthur loved me.

  Anna loved me and all was well.

  End of The Near Infinite Names of Autumn Aubrey Volume Two: Passion and Rage