Chapter 20 #2
“I am here to wave a white flag, Yarrow.” He gestured for Erinna to sit back down. She didn’t. She squared her shoulders, crossed her arms in defiance, but didn’t make a move to leave.
“There’s something else that brings you here. Spit it out plainly,” she said.
“Before Iprix was bedridden, he was looking into two things. The answer to mage burnout, and a way to remove curses.”
Erinna couldn’t stop the shock from rolling over her. She knew it was far too much of a coincidence, but to hear it confirmed by Afton was an entirely different story.
“You think they’re related?” She tried to make sense of it, but the two felt so far apart. How could the curse be related to burnout?
Afton shrugged. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. But the coincidence is far too close, don’t you think?”
Erinna was ready to snap at him again. The man liked to talk around his points, and it was growing old, quickly.
“What curse was he looking into?”
“What happened to you when he died?” The way he stared at her had her on edge.
She had enough. Erinna turned to leave, hands growing clammy, feeling the sudden shift in Afton’s attention—like she was some prized specimen to analyze. “We’re done here.”
Erinna would find answers on her own, or bargain with Kane for help. Both options were far more appealing than teaming with the Minor Apprentice.
Afton took a few steps back and held his hands up in surrender. “All right, all right. I’m just wondering if it would benefit the both of us to share any…related information. I think we could help each other—”
“I’m not making any more deals.”
“No deals, just a friendly exchange of information.” There it was. The crack in his arrogance as the slightest hint of desperation squeezed through. Erinna didn’t know if it was the tone in his voice or the look in his eyes, but she could feel it. Afton, like her, was desperate for answers.
“I still don’t like you,” was her reply. Not a yes, not a no.
Afton laughed. “I don’t expect you to, but I’d be happy to help.”
“Why?”
Afton turned his gaze to the ground, kicking loose stone with the tip of his boot. “I owe your family a debt.”
Unease churned in her stomach. “What debt?” Until she washed up on the island, she’d never crossed paths with the Minor Apprentice or anyone from his inner circle.
“My mother is the King’s Eye.”
Her blood chilled. The king favored diviners—those who cooperated.
The King’s Eye was a prized possession among his collection of reformed aberrants.
A nameless woman who provided visions and prophecy for the king in exchange for her own life.
But rumors had filtered beyond the castle that she was succumbing quickly to madness.
It was just another form of burnout, unique to seers.
Afton turned his attention back to her, green eyes boring into hers as he continued. “But she didn’t have to be.”
There was the secret that could damn them both. He knew what they did for aberrants. If the crown found out about the Yarrows and that Afton’s family had once contacted her parents for help…they would both pay dearly.
“I’m sorry,” she responded, but it felt entirely inadequate.
Afton shook his head, stray hairs falling around his face. “She made her choice. Decided not to go.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, tension building in the silence as Erinna tried to figure out what to say. “So, a truce?”
Afton’s eyes widened a fraction, most likely in shock. “Yes. And if you ever feel inclined to exchange information, I’d be happy to help.”
Erinna looked once more at the iron bars around the door. “Just find us a way in, and try not to kill us in the process.”
“Deal,” he chuckled and, as if sensing the end of Erinna’s patience, turned to leave. “It’s an open offer, by the way,” he called over his shoulder.
Erinna didn’t grace him with a response as he walked off toward the center of the courtyard and eventually disappeared back into the old guardstation. Erinna would do whatever she could to keep her secrets from that man, but a small knot in the pit of her stomach begged her to reconsider.
After another useless hour, Erinna gave up her meager investigation. Her head buzzed with fatigue, and there was little time left before the crack of dawn. Lila would be ready to scream her awake, and it would be ill-advised to work with witchstone on such a lack of sleep.
She crawled back onto her mat, hoping that her movement didn’t wake the slumbering Inez. She carefully tucked the items from home by her feet.
Talent prickled beneath her skin, and Erinna swallowed a gasp. The unwanted flare was a sign of slowly waning control, and Erinna had yet to decipher the cause.
She grabbed fitfully at the cup of tea she made earlier and downed the remaining sips.
The water was cold and herbs bitter without warmth, but she would stomach it as long as it kept the nightmares at bay and granted some level of normalcy.
Eventually sleep grabbed at her consciousness and Erinna prayed the tea would continue to work.