Page 35 of Thorn Season
My chest twinged, bruised from what I’d learned about Father. But I said tightly, “My father is the ruling lord of Vereen.”
“And in aiding Briar’s deception for seven years, the lord of Vereen committed treason. If we don’t recover the compass and fix the mess we’ve made, what’s to stop Erik from punishing your father with the rest of us? You saw what happened at the Opal.”
My specter jerked as the four-year-old memory slammed into me, stealing my breath:the beating sun and the baking cobblestones, roses shedding into the blood.
“You know nothing about the Opal,” I said weakly, struggling to bury the image.
“I know Erik’s guards tortured a sympathizer to death in the city streets,” Garret said, with enough harsh certainty that I recoiled. “I know you stayed in your chambers for months and made yourself ill from not eating. I know you still won’t let them plant roses at yourestate. Now imagine,” he pressed, “if Erik got his hands on your father. Can you be sure his title will save him?”
The scene shifted in my mind’s eye: my father’s face superimposed onto that man’s bleeding body. Shrinking from Erik’s cruel laughter. Shrieking under the blade.
My vision narrowed, thethrob-throb-throbof my heart slamming between my breasts.
In finally agreeing to do business with the Hunters, had Father signed his own death warrant?
“These copycats aren’t like us,” Garret said, more gently. He approached cautiously, glass crunching beneath him. “With them, there is no balance. They leave behind blood. Fingernails.Teeth.” I squeezed my eyes shut against the bloodied memory of Marge’s tooth. “They take pleasure from their kills,” Garret continued. “And I don’t think they’ll stop until they find every last Wielder in Daradon.”
I opened glassy eyes to find Garret standing before me, his brows drawn. “You’ve been safe for a long time,” he said. “You’re not safe anymore. You won’t be safe until we take the compass out of their hands.”
“And put it inBriar’s?” I whispered.
Garret shook his head. “Wray was the last keeper. As his heir, I’m meant to be the next. If I find it, I’ll keep it.” He swallowed, then said quietly, “I’ll keep it safe.”
I heard the unspoken promise beneath his words:I’ll keepyousafe.
Garret slipped one hand into his pocket. With the slowness of a huntsman trying not to spook a rabbit, he stretched his other hand toward mine. “I meant what I said,” he murmured. Our fingers met, our bandages grazing. “You don’t have to end up like her.”
Carefully, he withdrew my mother’s coin and set it in my palm.
A hot tear slid down my cheek.
I’d left the coin in the parlor tonight, not wanting to bring it withme to death. But already, I sensed my time spilling like sand between my fingers. I felt myself hurtling toward the bottom of my own hourglass to join the mother I’d never met.
Because my safety had been an illusion, my greatest enemies no longer composed of the people I’d known from birth—the Hunters whose negligence had first turned their eyes away from me, and whose trust in Garret had apparentlykepttheir eyes away.
With these copycats targeting Wielders indiscriminately, picking us off at a faster rate than ever... my days were truly running out.
My specter curled itself tight as I acknowledged, for the second time tonight, the truth I hadn’t wanted to admit:
That I wasn’t ready to die.
And if I found the compass... maybe I didn’t have to.
I looked to Garret’s hand—still holding mine, his thumb stamping a blood-print onto my bandage. In this very room, he’d leaped upon Briar to stop her from hitting me. At thirteen, he’d shackled himself to the task of ensuring she never touched me again. The burden had calcified him into someone hard and unfamiliar; I’d lost that boy long ago.
But perhaps he hadn’t completely lost himself.
So, it was to that boy I spoke now, slow and even, ignoring the ache in my chest. “You won’t tell Briar we’re working together. We’ll find the compass before she does.” I hesitated, then added, because it was for the best, “And then you’ll stay away from me. Forever.”
Pain flashed across Garret’s face, but I refused to interpret it. I slammed familiar walls against him and held his stare with cool contempt.
He released my hand, stepped back, and said, “You have my word.”
11
Stale air rushed past me as I barreled into Father’s study.
Amarie shot from the sofa with a cry of relief; Father staggered around his desk, his bloodshot eyes widening to take me in.
