Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
Joan’s memories from before she was ten years old were fuzzy and indistinct, but she had one from her eighth birthday that was always crystal clear.
She woke up with a stomach bug. She couldn’t stop throwing up.
She stepped out of her room, rubbing her eyes, to go tell her parents.
They wouldn’t be much comfort, but they’d at least make the house staff take care of her.
They’d been at the foot of the stairs, and it was early. They didn’t hear her as she stood at the top. Something made her pause. Something made her listen.
They were arguing about her and her inability to cast. Selene wanted to give up; she was talking about a boarding school overseas, where Joan wouldn’t be around anyone they knew.
But it was Merlin who insisted they not give up on their daughter.
“She’s a Greenwood,” he was saying. “She’s mine, and no daughter of mine will be sent off in shame. Give her time, Selene.”
Joan had thrown up a little pool of bile at the top of the stairs.