26. Kit
Kit
Our fragile truce was a relief after too many days spent at odds.
We didn’t linger on the couch long, opting instead to move to the bath and take our time there. Afterward, I made a second attempt at braiding Penny’s hair. This time I got it finished and tied off before he turned and his arms snaked around my waist to crush himself against me.
I was as desperate for the contact as he was, so I wasn’t about to complain.
It was fully dark by the time we made it to the kitchen and sat down to a makeshift dinner of day-old bread and the dregs of a jar of blackberry jam. We’d barely finished off the last slices before a knock sounded from the front door.
Penny and I shared a brief, nervous look as I rose from the table. He stood, too, trailing after me when I crossed to the entryway.
This time, the faces on the front stoop were welcome guests. I stepped back as Rosie, Isla, and Thoma barreled inside without so much as a greeting.
“We need to come up with a plan,” Rosie said as I closed the door behind them.
I came back around to stand next to Penny. “A plan for what?” I asked, though I had my suspicions already.
“Forstford is your home,” Isla said. “We can’t go through with this.”
The other two nodded along, but I shook my head.
“We don’t have a choice. Merrick said he’s sending people with us to make sure we do it.”
Rosie’s fists balled at her sides, and a flush of annoyance darkened her cheeks. “I’m not willing to give up—”
“No.” I held up a hand to stop further protest. “No more plans. No more schemes. We’re done. We should have been done after Millfield, and I will regret that I gave in on that until the day I die.”
Beside me, Penny’s shoulders curled in and he muttered, “That day’s going to come pretty damn quick if we do nothing.”
Heat flared in my chest, eating up my insides the same way it had when I’d discovered Penny’s altar to Eeus, edged in a fear I still couldn’t shake.
I whipped around to find Penny looking almost sheepish at his own outburst, but the words came out before I could stop them.
“You’re one to talk! You’re the one with the death wish!”
Across from us, Isla straightened with surprise, and Thoma’s brow crinkled as he darted a look between Penny and me.
Penny’s cheeks went red and his mouth opened to snap back, but I slid my hand into his and squeezed.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t want us to fight about it again.”
“What are you talking about?” Thoma asked, concern in his voice.
I sighed, gave Penny’s hand one last squeeze, and then gestured to our gathered friends.
“I’ll let you explain, Pen. I’ll go make coffee.”
While I filled the kettle and watched the coffee steep, I could hear every word as Penny explained what he’d learned from Sybil.
He’d given the three of them some of the details over the last few months, but he hadn’t just kept the rites from me.
When he revealed the worst of it—that he was the backup plan should we fail to stop Merrick from calling Eeus down—Rosie gasped.
“You’re saying Isla and I helped you with this? You didn’t tell us what you were planning with it!” I could hear her ragged breath even from the kitchen. “I never would have done that if I knew you planned to sacrifice yourself!”
“You should’ve told us,” Isla said, so quiet I almost missed it. “We could have figured out another way.”
“There has to be another way,” Rosie insisted, “something that doesn’t end with you dead.”
“If you have another way to make sure Merrick isn’t able to control Eeus when he calls him down, I’m open to ideas,” Penny said, but he was met with silence.
Because there was no other way. I’d put all my efforts into becoming Shroud Warden with the expectation that Levitt would be the Right Hand I served under.
My plans couldn’t work without him at my back, rooting out Merrick’s loyalists and telling me who I could trust. If I’d spent more time actively doing anything, if he’d told me any godsdamned details, maybe we wouldn’t have ended up here.
But it was too late now.
I gathered enough mugs for everyone and ferried them and the kettle out to the living room. Thoma and Isla were perched on the edge of the coffee table, and Rosie was huddled on the opposite end of the couch from Penny.
Once mugs were dispersed and filled, I settled next to Penny and slid my arm around his shoulders to tuck him in against my side.
I wasn’t willing to lose any more chances to have him close. Not when those chances felt like they were numbered.
We sat in silence for several long minutes, sipping coffee so we would have an excuse not to speak.
Eventually, Isla set her mug down on the table beside her and let out a heavy breath.
“This is it, then. We’re out of time. There’s really nothing else we can do?”
“Short of staging an uprising,” I said, “I think we’re out of options. And there’s no time to plan something like that. The people here aren’t soldiers, and no one has weapons, and we’re still outnumbered by the people who believe in what Merrick’s doing.”
“But we could still help Forstford,” Rosie insisted.
I shook my head. “Like I said, Merrick told me he’s sending guards with us to make sure we don’t have any opportunities to do anything. They’ll be armed, but I doubt they’ll let us keep anything to defend ourselves, so we’ll be outnumbered and outmatched on the road, too.”
Quiet descended again, heavy as a stone.
“Rosie and I could take your knives and smuggle them under our skirts,” Isla suggested after a moment.
We all turned to her in varying shades of surprise. It wasn’t a bad idea, and I set my coffee aside—and Penny’s, too, when he handed it to me—so I could tug my Penny-menacing knife off my belt and hold it out to her.
She took it and cradled it between her hands as if it was something precious. And when Penny handed his over too, she smiled weakly.
“At least we’ll be able to defend ourselves if we need to,” she said. “I’ll feel better having these along.”
She wasn’t the only one. I hadn’t relished the idea of being out on the road, outnumbered and unarmed. Even if there was nothing we could do for Forstford, we’d be able to fend off our guards if this turned out to be another one of Merrick’s attempts at murder.
“I know we can’t warn Forstford,” Penny said, “but I wish there was a way to get word to Eastcliff. To warn them.” He leaned heavily into my side.
“They have no idea what’s happening, and if we fail, what’s to stop Merrick from sending orders to the men on the farm to have everyone killed?
If they aren’t already dead.” The last words came out choked, and I tightened my arm around him, pressing a kiss into his hair.
Thoma leaned forward to catch Penny’s eye.
“I’ve needed to fetch fresh horses for some time, but I put it off.
Given the state of things, I thought it best to leave that door open in case there was a need to get out of Ashpoint quickly without being followed.
Now might be a good time. Do they have fine horses in Eastcliff, Pen? ”
The question was rhetorical, but Penny gave a hasty nod anyway.
Thoma nodded back. “I’ve been apprenticing Reimond’s brother, Liam, so I’ll take him with me.”
Penny slumped with relief.
“If you can get to Eastcliff and get word to the silversmith, Jensen Wright, I left the farm to his son, Warren,” he said, rushing through it.
“I’m almost certain Warren will be at the farm with my mother and sister, so it shouldn’t be hard to get Jensen and his other sons to help you get to them and overpower the men Merrick sent there. ”
“Otis is with them,” Isla said, “so be careful.”
Penny nodded vigorously. “They may even be able to rally the rest of Eastcliff should you need it. Neither of you have brands, so you should be safe if you need to do that. They don’t have to know you’re Bone Men.”
“At this point,” I broke in, “we should assume the farm is forfeit. We’re not worried about the land; just get our family to safety.”
I wasn’t sure anywhere was safe anymore.
Merrick knew too much about me, had too much leverage, and there were so few places left that I thought he wouldn’t know.
There was the mission outside Emberstead, but that was too far in the wrong direction.
Then there was Willowvale, but despite being close to Eastcliff, there were no favors there I could call in.
My cousin didn’t know me even when we came face to face, and he didn’t owe me or mine anything.
The only other option was a risk all its own, but I hoped misplaced favor might be enough to guarantee protection.
“Take them to Wendwood and ask for Elise and Margot. Tell them we sent you, and that this time we’ll find a way to pay them back for their help. We’ll meet you there if we can.”
Thoma nodded, his face solemn.
Penny tugged free of my grip and pitched forward to throw his arms around Thoma in a crushing embrace.
“Thank you,” Penny mumbled against his shoulder. “When you see them, tell them I love them and I hope we’ll be together soon.”
My throat tightened, and pressure built behind my eyes. This was what Penny’s mother had been afraid of, the thing I promised her I wouldn’t let happen. What I left him behind in Eastcliff to avoid.
I’d always accepted that this endeavor might end with my own death.
I resigned myself to it as soon as I decided to help Penny.
It felt fitting, then: a much-deserved punishment for what I’d been party to as a teenager.
But Penny wasn’t me, and he’d done nothing to warrant having to be the one to sacrifice everything in the end.
And he’d convinced me that I didn’t deserve that, either.
“As for the people here,” Rosie said, dragging my thoughts out of their downward spiral, “we’ll make sure they spread the word to be on their guard and be prepared should Merrick try to move against any of them.
There are too many for him to silence, but that means there are also too many to get out of town.
” She stared down into her coffee and sniffed.
“If it comes to it, they’ll have to make their stand here. ”
“Let’s hope they don’t have to,” I said.
There wasn’t much else to say after that. It was getting late, Penny and I were both exhausted, and I was aching at the prospect of taking him to bed with me for the first time in days. Our bed. In our room.
When the coffee was finished, Rosie and Isla helped cart all the mugs and the kettle back to the kitchen.
The three of us washed, dried, and put away the dishes while Penny huddled with Thoma over a page torn out of his sketchbook.
He wrote out meticulous directions, then walked Thoma through all of them.
When the women and I passed back through the living room, I detoured to steal a kiss from Penny and admire the map he was drawing.
I lingered there, fussing with the tail of his braid and watching his pencil scratch across the page.
I could have stayed all night if Rosie hadn’t called a farewell from the doorway.
“Wait, I’ll walk you home,” I said, pressing one last kiss to the top of Penny’s head before I headed for my boots. “I’ll feel better knowing you both got there safe.”
Safe. For what little time was left. So they could say their own goodbyes.
They might not get another chance.