Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Surrounded by the brothers, I looked at the place they’d found to be our home for the duration of our stay in Adele. The house looked no better than the inn. Chinking was missing between the boards. One of the upper windows was broken. And the front door hung askew.
“Did you purchase it outright or rent it?” I asked.
“We’ve rented it for a month, but we can repair whatever we wish,” Darian said.
“How generous of the landlord,” I said.
“It’s a widow with an infant,” Eadric said. “She would have sold the house if anyone were interested in it. It belonged to her deceased husband’s parents, who died almost eighteen years ago.”
Guilt wrapped around me, as it should. A restless night alone in a strange bed had left me with little rest, and the warning prickling under my skin was wearing on my nerves.
“I apologize,” I said. “I was being petty without considering another’s circumstance.”
“Which isn’t like you, Snow. What’s wrong?”
“Is there no other way to help Eloise than here?” I asked.
I felt Brandle’s concern grow. “Why? What is it?”
“A persistent whisper of danger. I felt it the moment I saw the white towers, which led me to believe it was grave to feel it from such a distance. Yet, the feeling hasn’t grown strong enough for that.”
Brandle shared a look with Edmund. I could feel their secret in that glance. Whatever it was, they still feared me learning of it. Was their secret tied to why I was feeling this warning?
“Are you lying to me?”
Brandle’s hurt and disbelief were real.
“Never. At least, not intentionally. What do you believe I’m lying about?”
“That we’re truly here to gain help for my sister.”
He took my hands in his and leaned down so our eyes were on equal ground.
“As we are now, we are powerless to stand against the person holding your sister. We are here to gain help.”
I let out a slow breath and nodded.
“Come inside,” he said. “You’ll feel better once we’re settled.”
He led me to the door, which Darian hurried to shoulder open.
“Liam and I will work on this,” he said as I passed.
I walked into the main living area of the home. To my right, a broken table sat in the middle of the neglected kitchen. Dust swirled in the sunlight streaming through the dirty window. My gaze swept through that room and the one to the left. No other furniture remained in the lower portion of the home, but I could see where there’d been a lounge and rug near the base of the stairs and how there would be plenty of room for all of us.
“I’ll start sorting the kitchen,” Eadric said, moving around me.
Garron joined him, and Brandle took my hand to lead the way to the second floor. The stairs creaked ominously under his weight.
“They’ve already held me,” he said with a grin at my worried glance.
We reached the top without falling through, and he showed me the four small bedrooms above the main living area.
“You can take this one,” he said, opening the door to a room with a broken windowpane. “The chimney will keep it warmer.”
I glanced back at him. “I’ll be sleeping alone?
“Not if we have a choice,” Edmund said, entering behind us. “Daemon and I will replace the glass.”
He started disassembling the window, and I left the room to look at the others. No beds. No furnishings of any kind. Likely, the owner had sold off what she could to support herself.
“Are the nearby homes occupied?” I asked.
“No. Only the ones at the entrance to the street. An old cobbler and woodcutter.”
“We can finally buy the wood we burn!” Daemon called with joy from my room.
I could feel Edmund’s growing irritation and hurried back to stop a cuffing.
“Think, Daemon,” I said as I entered the room. “How will it look if we buy wood when none of us are employed? Based on the weight of my bag, I would guess half the coins we possessed were used to rent this home. Garron said it would take a fortnight or more to obtain the help we need. Endless days in which we will need to feed ourselves. We’ll need our existing coin for that, assuming we’ll use other means to compensate for the help we acquire.”
Daemon’s playful expression turned contrite. “I apologize, Lamb. I promise I won’t waste any coin on things we can do ourselves. My words were merely meant to annoy Edmund.”
“They worked,” Edmund said, freeing the glass. “While we’re out to find a replacement for this, what else should we purchase?”
“A bed,” Brandle said.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “Get the rope we’ll need to make one ourselves and stop at the woodcutters for the timbers, or simply buy the bedding so we can sleep on the floor.”
Brandle spun me about to face him. “We didn’t bring you here so you would live like a com?—”
“Brandle!” Garron called from downstairs. “Have Edmund purchase a hammer along with the bedding.”
* * *
I scoured the hearthstone with the ragged remains of the bristled brush we’d found. The water ran black with years of soot.
“Here, let me do that,” Eadric said, plucking the brush from my hands.
“I can clean a hearth, Eadric.”
“So can I.”
Garron drew me to my feet and wiped my hands with his tunic.
“We know you can clean,” he said. “But there are other things you can do better that we can’t.”
Darian chortled from the other room.
“Braying ass,” Liam said under his breath.
“Casting,” Garron said forcefully.
“Brandle said it was dangerous to cast here. He made me promise never to do it again,” I said.
“I agree with him and am not asking you to break your promise. I—we—would like you to meet someone. Perhaps you’d like to change?”
I looked down at my torn mourning gown, which I’d deemed the best choice for the aggressive cleaning we’d needed to complete on the home.
“When are we expected?”
“Midday.”
“And you tell me now?”
“I apologize. I didn’t think you would clean the hearth.”
Eadric chuckled. “Nothing is above or beneath our Sparrow. She soars as she wills.”
“I’ll wash and be ready shortly,” I said.
Darian stepped aside for me to climb the freshly cleaned stairs. The air in the house already smelled fresher from all the open windows. Dust still danced in the light, but I knew that would go away with time and more effort.
In my room, a chipped washbowl waited for me. The water was cold from the well, and I heated it without thinking then silently berated myself. Surely, I hadn’t grown so accustomed to using my powers that it had already become a habit, had I?
After washing and changing into my blue gown, I descended the stairs with the still-warm water and handed it to Darian.
“I didn’t intentionally cast,” I said when he felt the bowl.
He nodded, but I felt his concern. Garron’s grew from behind me as well.
“And your well?” Garron asked. “Did you open it?”
“Not fully. It always remains just a touch open now. Nothing that other casters detected. I promise.”
“Good.” He offered me his arm.
“We’ll return in time for dinner,” he said to Darian.
“Oh sure. Have fun cleaning, lads,” Darian grumbled.
Eadric winked at me. He already had soot on his brow.
“Who am I to meet?” I asked as Garron and I left the house.
“A friend,” he said absently.
I followed his gaze to watch the patrol passing the end of our street. One of the guards turned his head and caught me looking. I demurely lowered my gaze and felt his curiosity shift from me to Garron.
Peeking up at Garron, I asked, “What if the suitor Father approves of is cruel? Or ugly? I don’t want to marry an ugly man, brother.”
Garron patted my hand. “Would you rather have a handsome, cruel husband or an ugly, kind one?”
The guard’s curiosity returned to me as I quickly scowled in Garron’s direction and tried to remove my hand from his arm. He caught it and held firm.
“Save your tantrums for your future husband, sister.”
The patrol continued out of sight, and we turned to walk in the opposite direction.
“Do we wish to arrive discreetly?” I asked.
“We do,” he said.
After that, I watched for groups of energy arranged in a precise formation like a patrol and warned Garron along our route. Since I hadn’t any notion where we were going, I couldn’t be sure we were wandering, but it felt like it.
“We need to turn onto the next street. Is it clear?” he asked quietly.
“Clear of a patrol,” I said.
As soon as we stepped onto the street, a tingle of warning swept through me, and I tugged on Garron’s arm.
“Something’s amiss,” I said.
“What is?”
“I’m not certain. I felt something.”
He nodded. “Look at the third home. That’s our destination.”
The energy within the home seemed normal yet not. It felt like the void that Maeve had created but with energy over it to disguise its presence.
“It’s dangerous,” I said.
“Not for us. I promise.”
Withholding the shiver that wanted to sweep through me, I waited beside Garron as he knocked on the door. It swung open forcefully, but no one was there.
“Enter,” a voice barked from within.
Garron held my hand as he entered first. The door slammed closed behind us, startling me. My gaze swept the cramped room; yet, other than a filthy narrow bed, an unlit hearth, and random herbs hung by the rafters, I saw no one.
“Is she the one?” the voice demanded.
“She is,” Garron said.
The voice made a dissatisfied sound. “There’s nothing there.”
“Garron, I would like an explanation,” I said.
“This is Pogwid, a very powerful caster. I would like her to teach you.”
“There’s nothing to teach,” Pogwid said.
With my gaze sweeping the room, I let myself feel instead of see. The energy was consistent, but the heat wasn’t. I glanced at the unlit hearth. The room should be cool. Why was it warm?
I released my hold on Garron’s arm and connected to the energy within my well. The room shimmered before my eyes and became cleaner. The bed was a lounge covered with a simple quilt, and the fire in the hearth crackled merrily. Some of the herbs hung from the rafters were for healing, and some, I’d never seen before. Shelves of items lined the walls. And on the opposite side of the room, an older woman stood in a doorway that hadn’t been visible before.
“Not a transfiguration but an altered perception, then,” I acknowledged. “How does the spell influence one’s perception when it was cast on the home rather than people who enter it?” Because I would have known if she’d tried casting on me.
She smiled slowly as I looked at her.
A log from beside the fire rose in the air and flew straight at Garron.
I didn’t think; I reacted. The log stopped midair, suspended motionless inches from Garron’s head.
Struggling to maintain my hold on my anger, I absorbed everything that the log was, grateful I hadn’t unleashed my anger as I had at the cottage.
“And now I see why you brought her to me,” the woman said.
Understanding it had been a test, I took a calming breath before speaking.
“Respectfully, I have no interest in learning whatever you have to teach.”
The woman chuckled and motioned for us to join her as she retreated to her back workroom.
“You might not have interest, but you need it, girl.”
“Please, Kellen,” Garron said.
“If I hadn’t stopped her, she would have hurt you.”
“Bah. I simply forced you to reveal what Garron claimed you were hiding. He’s right. You’re strong. And dangerous.”
Garron gave me an apologetic look.
“We know you won’t harm us, but your control poses a different kind of danger.”
“You’re worried that I’ll expose you.”
He nodded.
Containing a sigh, I entered her workroom and looked around at the unfamiliar objects.
“Let’s start with what you know,” the woman said. “Can you light a candle with a thought?” She motioned to a shelf filled with many candles.
I lit them all then put them out.
“And sensing the weather is easy?” she asked, unimpressed.
“It is. Today will be warm with a light breeze.”
“And you can remove memories?”
“I believe I can.” I glanced at Garron. “My only attempt was to hide a memory rather than remove and replace it.”
He smiled. “And it worked. I recalled what you’d helped me forget the moment the last tracker died. I told the others while you were bespelled. It’s no longer a secret but one of the many reasons we were worried when you disappeared.”
“Ah.”
“What else can you do?” the woman asked.
I spent an hour reviewing everything I’d learned under Garron’s guidance. Heating water, making something disappear by absorbing all of its energy, and transforming objects—something I hadn’t truly done outside of the briar barrier—didn’t impress Pogwid at all. What did was my lack of exhaustion.
“No dizziness?” she asked while making me turn in a slow circle so she could inspect me.
“None.”
“And your energy? Does it feel depleted?”
“No.”
“Hmm.” She sat in a chair and considered me.
“I want you to touch my well,” she said.
“I don’t understand.”
“You can see the energy I possess, yes? Connect with it. Feel it.”
Uneasy, I glanced at Garron.
“Don’t look to him for guidance, girl. Look at me. I’m telling you to touch my well.”
I shot an irritated glare at the grating woman and lashed out with my energy, touching it to hers. Her thoughts exploded in my head, and I realized I wasn’t simply touching her. She was using the connection to explore me. Not only my well but also my thoughts. All of them.
My promise never to again allow another’s will to impose mine swept through me, pushing away her touch as if blowing a leaf in the wind. I didn’t retreat from her, though. I pushed forward, exploring her well as her grip tightened on her chair. It was vast or had once been vast. It had cracks in it now, preventing her from storing the energy she’d once held. I could feel the attempts that had been made to patch it. Why? Who was she?
For a second, I hesitated.
“Do it,” the woman said. “Look and see for yourself.”
So I delved into her thoughts, and I saw things I wished never to see. A mountain of slain children. The execution of hundreds of people. A rebellion. A beautiful woman of vast power was at the center of it all. I felt Pogwid’s hate and fear toward that woman. But none of that explained the cracks in the well.
Sinking deeper and deeper still, I found Pogwid as a young woman standing at the edge of the Dark Forest. She was screaming someone’s name. A beast stepped forward. He had intelligent eyes.
“I will not lose you,” she said. Then she cast her energy into the man, attempting to lift the spell binding him. It was deep. Deeper than his bones. It was in the center of his being—his energy.
I felt her well fracturing even as she persisted through their combined screams of anguish until she lost consciousness.
When she regained it. It was nightfall. He was there, still a beast, pacing the confines of the forest. When she sat up, he paused and looked at her. Before her eyes, his form shimmered, and he became a handsome young man.
“Don’t return,” he said. “I will never again be the man I was.”
His form shimmered once more, returning him to his beast form, and he walked away. Pogwid sat at the edge of the forest, crying, for a long while. She’d given everything she’d had to save him, and it hadn’t been enough. Her hate for the curse and the Dark Forest became an obsession in that moment.
I withdrew from her, not daring to look further.
“Forgive my intrusion,” I said. “I shouldn’t have looked.”
“And why not? You have the power to do so.”
“Having power does not give one the right to use it against someone else,” I said.
She nodded and looked at Garron.
“When I touched her, I felt nothing dark. Only determination to save what remains of her family.” Her gaze found mine. “You were wise to bind your father to his memories rather than try to remove the curse. You’re not strong enough for that. I doubt anyone would be.”
I refused to believe that but didn’t say so.
“How do I stop a caster from looking into me while I look into them?” I asked.
She smiled.
“Just as you did to me. I only got that much because I surprised you. When you touch another caster’s energy, know that they can touch yours in return, and don’t allow it.
“Come. Try touching my energy again, and know that I will look to see how many of the brothers you’ve bedded.”
Pushing down my mortification, I touched her well once more. This time, I was ready and brushed her energy away from mine. Then, I focused my intent on a single question. How did she know Garron? What was she to the seven brothers?
I felt the branch of that memory—the day the beautiful woman rose to power. I followed it, seeing scared people, listening to a voice read about wrongdoings, and seeing a regal couple being led up a scaffolding.
Distantly, I heard her tell Garron to end it.
A second later, his lips were on mine, and he was kissing me hungrily.
As open as I was, I couldn’t close myself off to his desire for me and the sensations it stirred. The hunger for more consumed me. It crawled under my skin, a need that wouldn’t be silenced. I threaded my fingers in his hair and kissed him back with equal thirst. I drank in his desire, letting it fill me and feed my own.
“That’s interesting,” Pogwid said.
Shocked I’d forgotten our audience, I pulled back with a gasp and stared at Garron. His hand cupped the back of my head, comforting me and giving me an anchor as I struggled to collect myself. He struggled as well, based on the way he set his forehead to mine and closed his eyes.
“I didn’t know it was possible to take energy like that,” Pogwid said.
Flushing scarlet, I backed away from Garron and looked at the women.
“I can’t take his energy,” I said. “He’s safe.”
She chortled. “You don’t even know? His desire, girl. You were consuming it. I never thought of emotions as energy we could take. I’ll need to try that. Not desire, of course. That’s beyond me now. But I have a knack for making people angry. Come back tomorrow.”
Confused and dismissed, I closed myself off and followed Garron out of her workroom. The outer room appeared as it had before I’d opened myself. Filthy and unkempt. Unwelcoming to any guest.
As we left the caster’s home, I had more questions than answers and looked at Garron.
“I’m not certain I like her,” I said.
He laughed lightly.
“Henry felt the same about his mentor. But he vowed I could trust her with our lives, so I do.”
I nodded, and in necessary silence, we returned to our house before dinner as promised.
The door hung straight and opened easily. Embers glowed in the clean hearth, and a new pot hung over them. The tempting smells of rabbit stew filled the air.
Eadric, who was in the kitchen, looked up from setting the table and stepped back.
“What do you think?” he asked.
They’d procured enough tableware for the eight of us and seven logs for stools, which surrounded the repaired table in the now clean kitchen. A kettle and two pitchers waited on the counter.
“Milk,” Eadric said, catching my glance. “Brandle had it delivered.”
“He also arranged for us to work,” Daemon said, coming down the stairs. “Darian and I are to help the woodcutter tomorrow.” His expression turned pleading. “Will you comfort us tonight?”
I snorted. “Work is better than being idle.”
“But we’ll miss you.”
“And I’ll welcome you home enthusiastically when you return.”
A smile lit his face.
“That will make our labors worthwhile.”
The others came downstairs at the sound of our conversation.
“How did it go?” Brandle asked.
“Well,” Garron said at the same time I said, “Awful.”
“What was awful?” Liam asked.
“That woman is rude and very provoking.”
Daemon had the audacity to grin while Garron led me to Darian, who tugged me onto his lap so Eadric could feed me. I melted into his hold and wrapped his arm around my middle.
I could feel his desire for me as he briefly kissed my neck, and I wondered again about Pogwid’s unexpected comment about absorbing Garron’s desire.
Had I truly done that? It had felt like a simple kiss.
Well, not simple. Nothing about these brothers was simple, I thought as Darian’s thumb brushed the underside of my breast.