Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Briar
To keep up pretenses, I went straight to the healer’s room when we returned to the castle. Knox didn’t say anything when we parted, but Gizzi hounded me with questions. I was still too busy processing what happened in the woods to fully answer him.
I was halfway through making the newest potion when I felt capable of revealing what happened. I didn’t know why I could talk to Archie; I’d never done anything like it before, and no other casters possessed such an ability.
While I communicated mentally with him, Gizzi didn’t speak; his nose didn’t even twitch.
“He can’t be left out there. I have to get him moved,” I told him.
Gizzi took a few minutes before responding. “How do you plan to do that?”
“I don’t know. Knox can’t know about any of this. He already sees me as something he can use and manipulate; I don’t know what he’d do with this information.”
“Shit,” Gizzi hissed out slowly.
“I have to get to the library.”
“What do you plan to find there?”
“I have no idea, but there must be something on eternals who can communicate with animals and the dead. Some demigods could speak to animals, but they were born with the ability; I wasn’t.”
“Do you think you’re part demigod?”
“I don’t know. I never met my father. My mother said he was a priest, but she could have—and most likely did—lied about that.”
Being part demigod might explain why I got through my Needing without any sexual release and why it didn’t take as long as it did for the other casters. The explanation fit, but I didn’t like it.
I wanted to believe the Needing had been as bad for me as it was for other casters and that I’d gotten through it on sheer will and determination. I wanted to believe I was truly different from the rest of my kind, and not because I was only half caster, but because I chose to be.
It was the only damn choice I’d made in ten years!
“Maybe, if you are only part caster and part demigod, your abilities wouldn’t have manifested since birth,” Gizzi suggested. “Maybe they only came out after you reached maturity.”
“Maybe,” I reluctantly agreed.
“Did you see anything about demigods communicating with the dead?”
“No.”
“Shit.”
“You keep saying exactly what I’m feeling.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page. What do you think is going on?” he asked.
“I have no idea. That’s why I’m hoping the library can help.”
Gizzi sat back on his haunches as Zephyr buzzed into the room.
“Oh goody, more!” Zephyr clapped his hands when he spotted the new potion brewing. “This stuff is working miracles.”
“You can’t give it to the same plants today that you did yesterday.”
He held up one hand and placed the other over his heart as he grinned at me. “I swear I won’t give it to the same plants. I plan on going outside the castle today.”
My heart yearned to go with him, but I knew Knox wouldn’t allow it. “There are some roses inside the meeting lodge that really need help. They’ve been overlooked.”
“I’m on it.” Zephyr floated over to me, grasped my cheeks, and planted a kiss on my forehead. “You’re a genius.”
I chuckled as he released me. “I’m not a genius. I just know how to work with plants and create potions. That’s part of being a caster.”
“I guess that’s true, but you’re sharing your gifts with us, and for that, you’re a genius.”
“I can’t argue with that… or at least I won’t.”
I’d be more of a genius if I could figure out how to escape Wildwood, but I was still coming up with nothing.
“Do you know where the cemetery is?” I asked Zephyr.
He flew over to settle on one of the counters. His crossed legs swung back and forth as he watched me. “Of course I do. Why?”
“We discovered a headstone while I was harvesting mushrooms today. It belongs to a young boy, and I was wondering if his family was in the cemetery.”
“It’s on the far edge of town, near the woods. It’s a beautiful place with a view of the forest and hundreds of flowering trees… or at least they used to flower.”
“They will again one day.”
“Especially if we keep using your potions on them.”
“It won’t be because of my potions; one day, the curse will break.”
He tilted his head to the side as he studied me. “What makes you say that?”
“Knox is determined to make it happen and won’t settle for anything less.”
“I hope you’re right about Sir Dickhead.”
I laughed. “He wouldn’t like hearing you say that.”
“No, he wouldn’t; that’s why we’ll keep it between us.”
“Yes, we will.”
“I saw the look on his face when you called him the worst part of a dick. Are you trying to get your head ripped off?”
“I don’t trust him not to lose his temper with me and do something he’d regret, but he won’t kill me.”
Zephyr raised an eyebrow as Gizzi issued an irritated squeak.
“So, you think he’d hit you instead of killing you?” Zephyr inquired.
I stopped sprinkling the hairs from the earth moss into the cauldron as I pondered Zephyr’s question. Yes, I believed Seth would never hurt me, and I didn’t know what to expect from Knox’s far more volatile personality, but Zephyr’s question made me realize I didn’t believe he’d ever hit me.
Knox was a total asshole, but I couldn’t see him unleashing his anger at me in such a way.
“Because you know, if he did hit you, he’d probably kill you,” Zephyr said. “That man is strong.”
“He’s right,” Gizzi agreed.
I sprinkled more hairs into the cauldron. “He wouldn’t hit me. He’d probably try locking me away again, or find some other way to punish me, but he wouldn’t hit me.”
“You know I think the alpha is a prick, but I agree with you,” Zephyr said. “He’d gladly kill every one of your kind, though.”
“Are they my kind?” I lifted my head to look at him. “I didn’t go through my Needing like them, and I’m not bound to any god; so am I one of them?”
I hadn’t told him about my newfound powers; I trusted Zephyr and believed he was a true friend, but I wasn’t willing to share that secret with anyone who could speak.
For now, that truth would stay between Gizzi and me, but I’d like to hear what he’d say about this.
The sprites were playful imps, but they were also wise creatures of nature.
“Very true,” Zephyr said. “Plus, the rest of the casters are all cunts, but you’re not.”
“Thanks,” I laughed.