Page 118 of The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
Harper leaned closer and whispered, “Are you the same Bristol Keats who took a huge chance for the sake of her sisters? Take a chance, Bri. Take a chance on yourself.”
She punched a key on the cash drawer and tossed the timemark in with the quarters, like the matter was settled and forgotten.
Rían saw her throw it in. “Can’t I keep it, Mommy?” he called.
“It’s only a useless coin, Rían. It even has a hole in it. I’ll give you a better one.” She gave him a quarter instead.
“Hey, Ri,” Harper said, “want to come back to the house with me? Uncle Jake is making pancakes for dinner tonight.” Then she shot Bristol a knowing glance.Do it for him—and yourself.
Rían was rushing to the door with his aunt before Bristol could say a word. Harper looked slyly over her shoulder as she left. Sometimes her older little sister was infuriating.
But as Bristol closed up the shop for the evening, she wondered about Tyghan, wondered about the years that had passed, and wondered about chance and a timemark that surfaced after all this time. She heard Tyghan’s voice like he was right in the room with her.A million chances happen every day. The difference is what we make of them. She opened the cash drawer and pulled out the timemark, slipping it into her pocket. Just for safekeeping.
CHAPTER 89
Tyghan heard the sound of galloping hooves and looked out his window. It was Eris approaching on horseback. Not his usual day to come to the farm, so that meant there was some problem Tyghan needed to fix. He mostly stayed at his farm now, only going to the palace and garrison for monthly check-ins. Cael had been right. With Elphame at peace, his duties were now light. Cael was king again, and Tyghan and his brother had fallen into a rhythm, Tyghan taking care of kingdom business, and Cael mostly acting as Danu’s ambassador—which was what he was best at. The division of duties worked out well, and Cael became the kind of king he could have been all along, a good one, something settling inside him at last. Melizan and Cosette had a baby girl now, and he and Cael were dutiful uncles, spoiling her at every turn.Babies, adventures, and dreams—
He snuffed the words from his mind. It was easy to do. He had years of practice.
The front door of the farmhouse flew open.
“My boy.”
“Father.”
It was a tradition they had. Their new names for each other were awkward at first, but only on the tongue, not the way they felt inside.
“You’re a day early,” Tyghan said.
Eris shrugged off his jacket and went to the larder for a pastry. “I received a message for you.”
Tyghan poured some sweet milk for Eris to go with his apple muffin that Ahbriya had baked that morning. “It couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”
Eris settled in at the kitchen table, taking a bite, and gave an approving nod. “The message came special delivery from an outlier. It’s from the queen of Elphame. She’s asked—”
Tyghan sighed. He didn’t care who had delivered it. Whenever Julia asked him for something, it always led to other topics or needing him to come to court. Eris spent a lot of time with Julia these days and Tyghan doubted it was only because of kingdom business. “Tell Julia she can put her asks on hold. I’m in the middle of harvesting a field. I have a farm to—”
“It’s not from the steward.”
Tyghan angled his head, not understanding.
“It’s from the actual queen of Elphame.”
A sick feeling spread through Tyghan’s stomach. Impossible.
“It’s a message from Bristol,” Eris went on. “She says she releases you from your promise and requests that you come to Bowskeep. She has something she wishes to show you.”
At the mention of Bristol’s name, Tyghan’s breath turned leaden in his chest. For eight years, no one had mentioned her name in his presence. It conjured up feelings he had worked to forget. And now, after eight years, he was supposed to drop everything and run to Bowskeep so she could show him something? She released him from his promise?
He felt something inside him splitting in two, one part that wanted to guard his heart, and the other part that was already racing to Bowskeep. He leaned forward to brace himself against the table, the dead weight in his chest igniting to fire. She could wait another eight years for his answer.
He walked out of the farmhouse with no reply, which was his answer. But for the rest of the day he was in a foul mood. He hacked away at the ripe wheat like he was battling a monster.
For grueling weeks, months, and years, he had waited for her to forgive him, to come back, to send him a message like this one. Her silence had pounded the guilt in him into a sharp blade, until there was nothing left inside of him to bleed.Eight years?
When he went back to the farmhouse at dusk, his hands blistered and his face streaked with sweat, the message still ate through him. He burst into Eris’s room. “She has shirked her duties here in Elphame for years. And now she summons me like I’m a minion in her court? All this time I have waited—Seewhat? She wants me to see what?”
Eris took his time marking his place in his book before setting it aside. “I don’t know.”
