Chapter 7 #7
I raise a brow. ‘Part of the claiming? Really?’ I ask innocently.
His cheeks color but his grin is wicked.
‘Don’t play games, Jak. I know you heard us. You and Locke both.’
‘Aye, we heard, you cunt.’
I glance back at Bryn again and lower my voice. ‘She was happy? After?’
My friend straightens, puffing out his broad chest. ‘Of course. I pleasured her well. She was thoroughly sated in my bed.’
I give him a long-suffering look. ‘I don’t mean bodily. I mean…’ I tap my chest. ‘In here.’
He sobers. ‘Being at home with us makes her happy. Good food and a full belly. Spending her days here with you as well. She enjoys our company, though she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t trust us, still. She doesn’t speak to Locke much.’
‘Do any of us speak to Locke unless we have to?’ I sniff.
‘True enough,’ he grunts. ‘Anyway, she sees this place as her only chance to have a life as one of the freefolk. Because of that, she’s willing to overlook much.’
‘Like being attacked in an alley?’ I mutter, my fists clenching.
‘Aye. Like that.’
I step outside, closing the door behind me. ‘I thought she might be more afraid here afterward, that it might have tainted this place for her, but she barely mentioned what happened. Though it scared her, she simply…put her efforts into the good, ignoring the bad.’
Morgan nods. ‘But that’s why I don’t want her out there without us, especially not with Voss.
She spent her life being treated terribly, but for her and all the humans she knew, it was normal.
She may endure casual cruelties meted out by Voss and others and simply not realize what they are doing because she’s never seen the other side of the coin. ’
He sighs. ‘Do you…understand my meaning?’
I nod. ‘She’s not been here long enough to see what it truly is to be one of the freefolk. And Calder already said she’s perfect to be used because, unlike Tori and Soreno, she was a slave for so many years.’
My lip curls as I think about how they would use her. Catching Fiana isn’t worth Bryn’s life, at least not to me and Morgan.
But what about Locke?
The truth is, I can’t guess what he feels for her. He seems protective. It was his idea to have Bryn formally learning to be a healer with me. But his true motivations remain a mystery. Does he care about her, or is he simply ensuring that she’s ready to do her part to lure Fiana into the open?
‘We could go,’ I say quietly. ‘Leave. Escape into the Light. You and me with her. Build a home in some quiet village somewhere.’
He seems to seriously consider it for a moment but shakes his head.
‘Even if we can get out of Halsford, Calder will have us hunted down. He’ll send the best of the Underhill after us on the grounds that Bryn is the best chance of the mission being a success.
We’d have to keep moving from place to place.
That’s not what Bryn wants. She desires a quiet life, settled.
I believe she would like a family. Children one day. ’
‘Then we need a real plan.’
Morgan regards me. ‘We need to keep her close. Safe. When the mission happens, we don’t let her out of our sights. We catch that bitch, Fiana. We hold the Council, and Calder to the deal they made. After that, we have Dane dissolve the binding between us, and Bryn will truly be free.’
I give him a sharp look. ‘Do you want that?’
‘No. You?’
I shake my head.
‘Then, we must ensure she chooses us when this is over,’ he says simply, and I scoff.
‘That’s all?’ I mutter caustically.
He grins and shrugs. ‘Aye. I will feed her well, pleasure her. You will teach her your trade. We will keep her safe and show her we are worthy of her trust. She will choose us.’
I let out a sigh. ‘You make it sound very easy.’
‘It is. Now, she doesn’t like being kept in the dark. Show her the note and tell her what’s going to happen on the morrow. I will allow you that.’
‘My thanks,’ I say sarcastically. ‘You will make a hearty meal for her this evening, and for the morning meal before she goes?’
He looks at me like I’m a simpleton. ‘Of course!’
He turns away with a derisive noise in my general direction and starts trudging down the thoroughfare toward our cottage. I go back inside with the parchment and take a deep breath as I enter the healer’s rooms.
‘You were gone awhile. Who was it?’ she asks absently.
I show her the note. ‘Morgan just brought it.’
‘What does it say?’ she asks, but the color is already draining from her cheeks.
She knows what it must be about.
‘The training will take place here. They won’t allow you in the Underhill, not even for that.’ I sneer the parchment even though I’m glad Dane was right and she won’t have to leave the Light for it.
‘When?’
‘Tomorrow morning. We’ll meet them by the Hall and you’ll train with them all day. In the evening, they’ll bring you back there and one of us will retrieve you.’
She nods a little shakily. ‘Does it say how many days or weeks?’
‘No,’ I answer. ‘It’ll go on until the mission happens, I expect.’
‘When will that be?’
I sigh, wishing I had more to give her. ‘I don’t know, Bryn.’