It's Your Castle

The cleaning fairies had made tremendous progress already. About ¼ of the castle was clean. Clean but with broken furniture. Ash would need to address that problem next.

Like he told Blair, he had absolutely no intention of rebuilding the coven but he should replace what he broke. The empty rooms could stay empty for the rest of his miserable eternal life.

Ash would stay here alone reflecting on his own stupidity and how he had failed to protect everything that mattered to him until he rotted away. But first he needed to exact his revenge on the Cromwell coven.

He wasn't sure exactly how to do that yet. When he escaped, his only thought was that he had to live to fight another day. The Cromwells were rich and powerful but he had no idea where their wealth came from.

The Mayhew coven had sustained themselves by trading information and knowledge with the witches. They were a clan of researchers. Or you could call them spies.

Ash wasn't involved in that aspect of things. People reported things to him constantly but he hardly paid attention to intelligence reports unless they posed an active threat. That had led to their downfall.

Thirty-six vampires—including people he had known and cared about for centuries—had died because of his mistake. People who trusted him.

That was why he was so intent on not breaking Ruby's trust. He couldn't let anybody down again. This fairy trusted him at her weakest point when he was a total stranger. That fragile trust was precious and he could not afford to lose it. At least not until she left.

If she thought he had been spying on her, she would be furious. It was better to let this blow over. She could leave happy, feeling secure in her secret and he would never have to worry about letting anyone down again.

Ash sighed. Dealing with other beings was complicated. He truly was better off alone.

He waited a while but eventually Ruby did come upstairs unprompted to get something to eat. She smiled when she passed him.

"Hey. Did you sleep better this time?"

He nodded. "Yes. I notice the cleaners made a lot of progress today."

"Yeah, they did. I got some stuff to make this place a little easier for me to live in too; I hope you don't mind. You can get rid of it when I leave," she said as she puttered around the kitchen before finding some food item and sticking it inside a slotted metal contraption.

Ash didn't really care one way or the other. It wasn't like he would ever have a reason to go into the kitchen once she was gone. It wouldn't affect him at all.

He leaned against the wall and tried to be casual even though he was still thinking about what he saw earlier. "Would you like to go to the furniture store now?"

Ruby frowned. "Is it even still open?"

That…he did not know. Blair had left out the rather crucial detail of what the store hours were. The apothecary was open from noon to midnight to cater to both types of sleep schedules common among the fae.

Ash wasn't able to predict what sort of hours elves would set for something. They had adapted to human life alarmingly well from what he heard. They knew the best business practices to attract the majority.

If they adhered to standard human schedules, there was a decent chance they were already closed or would be closing soon. His desire to go furniture shopping today may have been doomed from the beginning.

"I'm not sure," he sighed. "It might be best if you go alone tomorrow when you're...doing whatever it is you do when I'm asleep."

"I don't know what you like though! It's your castle," Ruby protested. "Don't put all that responsibility on my shoulders."

Ash shrugged. "To make it easier for you, try to replace the broken furniture as accurately as you can to the original. That shouldn't be too hard to do, should it?"

"No."

Almost everything here was made of polished mahogany and velvet. He didn't know how much those things were going for these days either. Ruby had been able to afford everything without difficulty so far but he didn't know how far that would extend.

"How much did you make today?" Ash found himself asking.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You asked me this yesterday too. Why do you want to know?"

"I'm concerned about potential furniture costs."

Ruby laughed. It was an almost bitter sound, which didn't make sense given the context. "You have nothing to worry about. I told you I can buy anything and I meant it. Would you like to go around and help me catalogue what we need? I have a few hours before I need to go to bed."

That was a good idea. Ash agreed and they started roaming from room to room seeing what exactly needed to be replaced.

He was a bit embarrassed looking at his handiwork. She seemed to be under the impression the castle had been destroyed when he got here and he had no intention of correcting her.

Ruby's notes were very thorough. She had named or numbered all of the rooms already—was it related to the labels for the panes of glass she had been making?—and made a meticulous list of everything found in each room that needed to be replaced.

She also had a list of extra things she needed to buy for herself such as a trash can for the kitchen to replace the bag that had been hanging there with her food waste and more disposable plates and utensils.

She was really going out of her way to make herself comfortable here. Not that Ash minded. He didn't want her to be miserable while she was doing him a favor.

She had already more than fulfilled her end of the bargain. Their deal had been unevenly balanced from the start so he found himself wishing he had more to offer her. It didn't seem like there was anything Ruby needed aside from her freedom.