Page 24 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
‘You seem to be in some discomfort,’ he observed, ignoring my question.
‘I’m fine,’ I lied. No matter the discomfort. I didn’t want to go back into the dark of that room. Not to sleep. Not to see all the things I couldn’t change. ‘Thank you for your concern.’
He considered me with mild irritation. As if he was tired with my presence but didn’t have the energy to dismiss me. However, he was mistaken in thinking his annoyance was the worst I’d experienced. ‘I see from Thean’sirritatingobservations you’ve a habit of causing trouble. I wonder what great offence my brother committed to be burdened with such a problematic partner mage.’
‘I received my partnership on merit, Master Swift,’ I corrected. No matter how much I doubted the truth in my own words.
‘Of course.’ He smiled, eyes falling to the stone around my neck that had tumbled free of my dressing gown.
My hand itched to move and hide the gift, but I curled my fingers into the fabric of my dressing gown instead. Refusing to be goaded. Ignoring the pounding of my heart, and the flutter of something in my stomach at the memories of Emrys giving it to me. Seeing its light reflected in his eyes as he’d kissed me in that bed.
‘That stone once belonged to Asterin Everard. She was the first witch of the Blackthorn. The one whose soul created this very house to keep those of her blood safe.’
A flush of embarrassment came to my cheeks. At the importance of it, and why Emrys had given it to me, but I swallowed down the emotion, refusing to be lulled into more foolishness.
‘Some records refer to it as the Blackthorn star. Quite an impressive gift to bestow on a simplepartner mage. Wouldn’t you say, Miss Woodrow?’
‘You can call me Kat.’ I tipped my chin, refusing to be provoked. ‘Emrys decided I needed all the help I could get.’
A humourless laugh slipped from his lips. ‘You’ll find most protections fickle in the presence of my brother. You can take me as an example.’
Brother? Only it didn’t seem real. Especially since this man looked nothing like Emrys, acted nothing like him and neither did his magic. It was uncomfortable, sharp and prodding. Demanding to know things with its irritable pinching.
He dropped into the only chair in the room not cluttered. ‘How do you feel? Magic madness is said to have consequential effects, especially on the mind and control of blood magic.’
‘Fine,’ I answered. Not trusting myself to say more.
His frown deepened with his frustration. ‘Surely a woman as intelligent as yourself knows not to lie to a healer, Miss Woodrow.’
‘Kat,’ I corrected again, getting the sense he was using the formality to annoy me.
Gideon muttered to himself, and began to tidy the table before him. ‘Refrain from using your summoning flame for theforeseeable. We’re uncertain of the limits of the venom, or if your blood will fully accept the healing.’
‘If it doesn’t?’
‘As Emrys and yourviciouslittle companion say, we’ll find something else.’ There was a heavy weight of exhaustion to his words. He held out two vials he uncovered from beneath a stack of papers. They looked like the ones Emrys had given me for Alma.
‘What are these for?’ I frowned, letting the warm vials roll across my palm.
‘Miss Darcy – Emrys did a fine job of complicating the incantation Emmaline wrote. That should settle Miss Darcy’s changes more efficiently and make them easier to recover from. Also … it should speed up the recovery of her arm.’
Her arm. I almost flinched thinking of how much pain she must have been in. Pain she’d endured for me.
‘Thank you.’ Shame made my voice thick. At all the trouble I’d caused. ‘Thank you for helping her.’
‘If you wish to repay me, go back to bed.’ He rubbed his jaw with his gloved hand and leant back in his chair. ‘You’re troublesome enough without wandering the house. Emrys is due to return from another futile attempt to distract the Council. I don’t think I can face another evening of his scolding … especially fuckingsober.’
How easily I’d forgotten what had passed, lost within my own nightmares. The Council, Lord Percy and Fairfax. My stomach plummeted with dread. ‘Distract the Council from what?’
‘You.’ His reply was so matter of fact. So simple and yet it was like a sharp slap to cold skin. Unease straightened myback as I reached for my magic inside myself but instead found nothing but that endless silence. It saw no threat here and I wasn’t in a rush to rouse it from its slumber.
‘Gideon!’ William’s voice shrieked into the room. Spinning me towards it with such speed I almost tripped over my own feet. Gideon lunged from his chair, reaching across the table to grab my bicep just as the stricken boy came skidding into the room, panting for breath with rosy cheeks and knocking a small stack of papers off the sideboard with his hurry. ‘Kat’s gone mis—’
His wide brown eyes landed on me, going impossibly wider as he straightened. Pressing a hand over his heart and sucking in a deep, relieved breath.
‘I appear to have located her,’ Gideon answered wryly, releasing my arm. ‘Against my will.’
I don’t think William heard him.
