29. Aedon
29
That night as Harper washed the pots out of hearing in the stream, Aedon’s companions huddled around him in the dark woods. Doubt raged in him, but his instinct had never led him astray—and it told him that Harper was no threat to them. “If she lies, I cannot detect it,” Aedon said, rubbing a hand through his tousled hair and huffing. “She is either truly innocent, or a darkness beyond anything I have ever encountered.”
“I think she is the former,” Ragnar said.
“The latter,” Erika said in the next moment. They glared at each other.
“Why must you believe the worst of people?” asked Ragnar.
“When it is all you have known, why think otherwise? Why are you so na?ve?” she snapped back.
“I would hope that we are not lumped in with that,” Aedon said to Erika, raising an eyebrow.
She scowled, but subsided in silent, reluctant acquiescence. “Well, I’m not about to believe her word. What can be done about it? It’s not safe for her to stay with us. I vote we leave her.”
Brand stirred. “If she is dangerous, keeping her with us—in our line of sight at all times—would be the smarter move. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
“Or perhaps she is no enemy and you are all mistaken. This could be one giant misunderstanding,” Ragnar said.
Erika scoffed, but Aedon silenced her with a glare. “I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“How?” Erika pressed.
“By any means necessary.” He was not above weaponry, but charm was his greatest weapon, and he would use it to unlock her if it protected his sworn family.