Page 90 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

“Noted.”

She tipped back her drink with a flourish. Graves always had the best liquor. His eyes followed the movement, lingering on the bob of her throat as she swallowed.

“And how was your business?” he asked.

She lifted the drink to him and took another gulp.

“That good?”

“Bombed.”

“He wouldn’t let you see Ethan?” Graves asked, still as a statue in his crisp black suit. His gloves were on. His eyes ever watchful.

“Oh no. I saw Ethan. He’s fully brainwashed by the Druids.”

Graves sighed. “You thought he would be otherwise?”

She turned her back on him to refill her drink before saying, “He doesn’t trust me because we’re workingtogether.”

“Ah.”

“It’s stupid. He thinks they’re thegood guys.” She put as much disdain as she could into the words. “I don’t know how to disillusion him on that. There are no good guys.”

“It’s the Druid way,” Graves said with a sniff. “It’s not even his fault.”

She turned back to him. “What do you know of Druid training?”

His eyes met hers as he considered. “I went through it.”

“What? When?”

“I was young.” He set his book down and reached for the liquor. “It was before I met Kingston, even.”

“Really? Forgive me, but I simply cannot picture you as a Druid.”

He smirked. “No, I never fit the bill. But I came to Dublin as a teenager, eager to be reunited with my mother’s people after my father had sold me.” He took a drink. “Oisín introduced me to Lorcan.”

“Oisín!” I said in surprise. “Youhaveknown him a long time.”

“Indeed.”

“What happened? They let you join?”

“Not exactly,” he said bitterly. “They accepted my mother, my blood, my Druidic magic. They rejected…everything else.” He waved a gloved hand. “I was an anomaly, and military schools, no matter how progressive, don’t like anomalies.”

“But you trained with them.”

“Yes. I spent many years in Dublin and the Irish countryside learning their ways. Always just a bit of anoutsider. Except…”

He broke off and took another drink. She wasn’t sure if he was going to finish. She had heard so little of his past, and every bit had been fought for. She was shocked that he was even trusting her with this much information without some huge tug of war. Maybe this was also part of his “prove it.”

“Anyway,” he said, “I know what Ethan is going through. For someone who wants to belong, the bonding is a high like you’ve never experienced. It’s family. Until it isn’t.”

Kierse wanted to ask. Did this have something to do with Lorcan’s sister, Emilie? Lorcan had claimed that Graves had killed Emilie, and Graves hadn’t denied that fact. What had really happened to sever him from the Druids so long ago?

But she knew when he’d hit a subject he wasn’t ready to discuss. She saw it in herself as much as him.

“Lorcan said as much,” Kierse said.

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