Page 38 of Legacy of Thorns
Lorne had been her best hope for answers when her issue had come from her years spent outside Oakden. But her situation had changed. Each day brought an increasing number of naps, and she could no longer deny that the Legacy’s power had grown since she woke Archer. As far as she knew, Lorne had no experience with kissing awake a Sleeping Beauty.
The thing that would have kept Daphne awake at night—if she was capable of keeping her eyes open—was the way the Legacy’s power continued to strengthen. Her power over thorns had faded quickly, and she sometimes got hints that Archer’s infatuation was fading as well, and yet her naps only grew worse.
Daphne had centered the Legacy’s forces on herself, and she had no idea how to shake them loose. It was the shadow that hung over her daytime hours as she settled into the new rhythm of their days. Naps were her long-familiar companion, but each one now came with a new intensity, a feeling of desperation that grew more potent each day.
Where was it all leading? Would she sit down to nap one day and not wake up?
At least she had little time to dwell on her fears since she was rarely alone. Both brothers continued to join her during her morning training dance, and she grew accustomed to their presence. With Archer there, the dynamic had shifted. She no longer felt the frightening communion she had felt when she moved in perfect rhythm with Finley. Obedient to his brother’s command, Archer remained silent for the length of the exercises, but she could almost hear the strain of the words he kept locked inside.
She no longer found it irritating, however. Archer’s presence had become protection from any further moments alone with Finley. Because after the incident gathering kindling, it was obvious Daphne needed a buffer from Finley’s dangerous charm.
She had found his charismatic good looks unsettling from the moment she met him, but at first her instincts had placed a barrier between them. She had been certain something else lurked beneath his easy charm, and it made her wary. But ever since their conversation on the porch, her barriers had crumbled.
Finley had opened himself up and let her see the man beneath the facade—and there had been no sign of a conniving trickster. Beneath Finley’s outer layer, there lurked raw vulnerability, steely responsibility, and an overwhelming love and protective instinct toward his brother.
That knowledge gave a depth and an edge to every one of his charming smiles, making them dangerously potent. Neither had she overlooked the way his eyes always sought her out. His attention was far more subtle than his brother’s, but it made her heart race and her thoughts scatter in a way Archer’s presence never did.
But Daphne had come to Oakden with a mission—one that was so far failing spectacularly—and she couldn’t allow herself to be distracted by romance. She might be discovering who Finley truly was, but she was failing at discovering her own self—the Daphne she was always meant to be. The Daphne who didn’t nap constantly. For most of her life she had been the Oakdenian girl who napped everywhere she went, and nothing had really changed—now she was just the Glandorian girl who napped everywhere. Her old belief that returning to her first home would solve everything now seemed impossibly naive.
But she couldn’t avoid being alone with Finley when it came time for their first rostered patrol. It was an unavoidable difficulty, she told herself, even as she dressed with more care than usual, taking time to arrange her hair.
Finley seemed to be in an equally good mood, bolting down his breakfast and indicating his readiness to start patrolling. But out among the trees, with nothing to buffer the full force of his presence, the whole thing seemed like more and more of a bad idea. Daphne wasn’t usually prone to blurting things out unintentionally, but Finley had an effect on her she’d never experienced before. If they were truly alone for hours, she wasn’t sure what she might end up saying. She had seen men look at her friends the way Finley looked at her, but she hadn’t realized how intoxicating it was.
“Daphne,” Finley said as soon as the cabin was out of sight.
His voice was low and rough, and it sent a delicious shiver through her. Maybe she didn’t need to avoid romance. Maybe?—
“Wait!” Archer’s familiar voice shouted from behind them, and Daphne turned to see the youth chasing after them, a piece of toasted bread hanging from his mouth. “Wait!”
“Archie.” Finley drew the single word out, turning it from a greeting to a chastisement.
But Archer swallowed the last of the bread and grinned at them, his spirits undimmed. “I’m not rostered on until this evening, and I’m too restless to sit in the cabin all morning. Three eyes are better than two, and all that.”
“I think we have six eyes between us,” Daphne said with a suppressed laugh. She should have known she wouldn’t really be left alone with Finley for four whole hours. Not when Archer was around.
Archer inserted himself between them, slinging an arm around each of their shoulders. “We should circle to the west of town and go past the manor house. I’m convinced that’s where we’ll eventually find some sign of them. It’s where they first saw me, after all. And where we first saw them, too.”
“Thank you for that insight and wisdom, Archie,” Finley said in a tone of long-suffering. “Whatever would we do without you.” The last line sounded like it was spoken through his teeth.
“You’d all be a lot duller, that’s for sure.” Archer grinned at his brother, unabashed.
But a moment later, his expression turned dismayed, and he swiveled to look at Daphne. “But not you, of course, Daphne! You could never be dull!”
“You do know I frequently fall asleep in the middle of conversations, right?” Daphne’s lips twitched. “I think that’s the definition of dull.”
“Oh no,” Archie assured her earnestly. “You look too beautiful when you sleep to be dull.”
Daphne pressed her lips together, meeting Finley’s eyes across Archie. She had expected to share a moment of silent laughter with him, but the look he wore was one of complete agreement with his brother’s words. Looking quickly away, she decided Archer’s presence was a very good thing after all.
They fell into a settled rhythm as the weeks passed. Nisha’s roster continued in an endless loop as they waited for their pursuers to circle back to the area around Lord Castlerey’s storage barn.
Daphne would have been far more restless if not for the burgeoning spring. As the days warmed toward summer, the forest came to life around them, ensuring the time spent walking through the trees was always pleasant. After so many years among the endless roses of Glandore, Daphne loved spotting the various flowers that proliferated across the forest floor, and she soon made a game of learning all their names.
She and Nisha had taken over the job of visiting the market, purchasing cloaks in the local style for all of them on their second visit. So far they had attracted no undue attention, but Daphne worried what would happen when the weather warmed enough to make anyone wearing a cloak stand out.
At nights around the fire, the others looked to Daphne to tell them stories of Glandore and Sovar—her tales a source of fresh entertainment for the old friends. In return, they filled her in on the details of their last three years together, the five of them analyzing every memory as they tried to puzzle out the mystery of their pursuers. But that was a game the others had been playing for three years, and the answers continued to elude them.
Daphne continued to monitor her naps, grateful that the rate of increase had slowed down, even if it did continue to creep up. She still worried daily, however, and she debated internally about whether she should raise it with the others.
