Page 146 of House of Roots and Ruin
He sighed. “There must be a way we can find out what she knows before they…before they tell everyone.” His gaze lingered on Viktor uneasily.
“We could get her away from the house. Talk with her. We’re supposed to go into town tomorrow,” I mentioned slowly. My hands twisted into a tangle so tight my fingers tingled. “My last dress fitting.”
Alex’s eyebrows rose hopefully. “Do you think…do you think you could try to see what she knows? What she’ll admitto?”
“Don’t you want to confront her yourself? Hear what she has to say?”
“Father would think it odd if I were to come with you for a dress fitting…and she might be more open, more honest with you.” He took my hands in his, rubbing the feeling back into my fingers. “Please, Verity.”
I paused, unsure of how to go about uncovering such a well-kept secret, but Alex looked so painfully vulnerable, I couldn’t say no. “I…I’ll try.”
For a long, silent moment, we watched the waves dance across the pond.
“Brothers,” he finally said with wonder. “I have brothers.”
“Perhaps we should go over and get to know them more.”
Alex nodded but didn’t move. I stayed in place, willing to wait for as long as he needed.
“I feel as if I’m on the precipice of a cliff,” he murmured, keeping a careful eye on them. “The ground is starting to give way and it’s already too late to do anything. If I push myself back, it will just cause the plunge to happen sooner. But staying in place won’t save me either.”
“Then we fall together,” I promised.
“I’m sorry about before. I didn’t mean to suggest there’s something wrong with you. I just…This has caught me so completely unaware. I wish you had told me about it sooner. I don’t want us to ever keep secrets from one another.”
“I was worried what you’d think. It sounds mad.”
“The world is full of madness,” he responded, his eyes resting uneasily on his pair of brothers. “And if what they say is true…it’s far worse than I ever would have guessed.” He glanced at me. “It must be terrifying to see.”
“It is,” I said, recalling Kosamaras, her black tears, her gray fangs. Then I thought of Hanna, her cups of tea, her warm embraces. “And it isn’t. I’ll tell you more about it. I’ll tell you everything, I promise. Just…”
“After,” he supplied, then let out a laugh absent of amusement.
I brought his hand up to press a kiss across his knuckles. From his spot down the hill, Viktor watched on with dark, hooded eyes.
Alex was watching too. “I suppose we shouldn’t keep them waiting any longer. Shall we?”
Nodding, I followed after him.
“You’re going to talk to Dauphine?” Julien summarized after Alex and I had told the brothers our plan.
We were on the banks of the pond, Julien and Viktor still sitting on the fallen log while I stood next to Alex and his chair. A horse creature towered over us, its mane made up of fiery swirls. Gigantic scorpion-like pinchers jutted from its chest and a forked tongue slithered down, just feet above Viktor’s head.
I nodded. “We need to find out how much she knows. What exactly it is she’s culpable of.”
“And then?” Alex asked, looking back and forth between the two boys for a plan.
“And then we make them pay,” Viktor snarled.
“And then we go to the authorities,” Julien said, overriding his brother’s theatrical bloodlust. “We go into Bloem. We show them the evidence. They’ll have to search the house. They’ll find the jars. And whatever remains in the hedge maze.”
“And what comes after that?” Alex persisted. “If Father is imprisoned…whenhe is…he’ll no longer be duke. Will you stay here?”
“I doubt it,” Julien said.
“But you’re the oldest, apparently,” Alex murmured.
I’d never seen him look so uncertain. His entire life had just been upended, his place in the world—once so sure and planned out—gone.
