Chapter 3 #2
Rhiannon’s gaze shifted away from mine, her head tilting slightly to one side.
A charming expression appeared on her face.
“Ember. Please. You know you can’t just lock that place up and expect for things to be okay.
That’s not how warding works and you know it.
” She was going to let me come with her.
There wasn’t a word about me in what she said to Ember.
“Let me go in and solve this. I can survive that place.”
She didn’t say “us” or “we,” but her eyes flicked to mine as she spoke. That was all I needed. I started to pick up a few of the bags she’d discarded. My brother was about to say something—he was staring at me too intently to stay quiet.
My words were for him, not for her. She’d already said yes, in her own way. “Not alone. You need a clairsentient, and I’m the best pick.”
Ares took a sharp breath in, and I had to wonder if he knew why Roman had been so adamant that I not be allowed to help exorcise the malefics in Oleander Cottage. Rhiannon spoke again before he had a chance to break in.
“Fine,” she said with an imperious roll of her eyes. She stepped forward, brushed an elegant kiss to Ember’s cheek, and said, “See you when spring comes. I’ll have this solved by then.”
Ember looked a little lost. But she was used to Rhiannon doing whatever she pleased, I presumed. “Do you… have your phone?”
Rhiannon shook her head. “No. It won’t work in there anyway. EMF and all that.”
It was a bit of a lie, but I nodded anyway. “She’s right. But there’s a landline. It’s connected to the house. We saw it yesterday.”
“We?” Ember demanded. “The two of you have been planning this?”
Rhiannon rolled her eyes again. “No. We just…” she glanced at me and frowned, probably remembering the heat between us last night. Or perhaps that was just me. “Keep ending up there together.”
Ember sighed. “Did you talk to Briony?”
Rhiannon nodded, and I wondered how she’d had time for that. I needed to get quicker if I was going to keep track of her in the cottage. It was a small place, but she was sneaky.
“She’s going to dig up some Cottage history for me. I gave her all my best Consulate hacks,” Rhiannon replied.
Ember groaned. “Rhi… she is a child.”
Rhiannon shrugged as she moved beyond the line of salt, stepping over it gracefully so as not to disturb the ward. “She is a genius. Let her be a genius.”
I followed, carrying the rest of Rhiannon’s luggage over the line of salt. Behind us, Ares poured out a bit more to reinforce the barrier. I heard him whisper to Ember, “They will be all right together. If anyone can solve Oleander Cottage’s problem, it’s them.”
“We can hear you,” Rhiannon said with a sigh. There was a hint of a smile on her lips. She was happy about this.
“Yes,” Ares replied. He sketched a door into the salt barrier, using an old sigil of our mother’s.
I wondered if he remembered that, or if those had just been Calypso’s directions.
“I know. This should allow you to take groceries in, but you’ll have to perform the ritual in reverse if you want out. ”
The four of us stood on opposite sides of the ward. I reached across the barrier to hug my brother before the barrier solidified. I was equal parts sorry I hadn’t run this by him first and relieved to have a brief respite from my duties.
I hadn’t realized until just now that when I’d heard Rhiannon whisper that she needed a break, something in me had echoed the sentiment.
I needed one too. Ares never asked if I was okay with my job.
It probably had never occurred to him that perhaps I might not like doing the Necroline Dynasty’s dirty work.
“See you soon,” I murmured, tacking on, “we’ll be okay.”
Ares nodded, clearly confident in that. It would have been nice if he appeared even a little concerned. He and Ember were cut from the same cloth though. They saw the big picture more often than the minutiae.
To them, we were both more than capable of solving the problem of Oleander Cottage. They loved us, but they only saw the endpoint, not what it would take either of us personally to get there. And that was what Rhiannon and I both needed a break from.
“Call as much as you can,” Ember said, her voice blissfully calm now that she’d accepted that we were going.
Rhiannon stood right next to me—she’d moved closer in the past few seconds.
She was close enough that I felt it in her shoulders as she tensed.
Perhaps it bothered her that Ember wasn’t worried.
That she’d barely fought her on going, or even asked a follow-up question as to why she wanted to go at all.
I got it. I’d spent centuries with my brother, and he was the same, but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow when Rhiannon replied, “Of course.”
Her voice was a little too bright, her expression far too smooth. How did Ember miss that she’d hurt her? Rhiannon picked up the handle to her suitcase and we turned at the same time. I nodded, gesturing with my head for her to go first, and the two of us disappeared through the garden gate.
As it shut behind us, the world went silent. The ward was complete. Rhiannon and I were alone within the bounds of Oleander Cottage’s garden. She turned to look at me, a faint smile on her face. “Sorry you got stuck with me,” she said, before turning back towards the cottage and heading in.
If we managed even one thing while we were here, it would be making Rhiannon understand that all I wanted from here on out was to be stuck with her. Somehow, that seemed like a harder task than solving the problem of the malefic spirits that waited for us inside.