“I hate to break it to you, butterfly, but you going to Mordren won’t stop him from killing people,” my brother said. “He’ll just find a different excuse to do so.”
“But it will dosomething,” she insisted, eyes flashing. “And if I go with him, then I…I’ll learn how to use this power I have. That’s what the Circle wants, isn’t it? To teach me how to use my power. Then I won’t be so…sohelplessanymore. Once I know how to use it, then I can leave them and I can helpyou.”
“The Circle’s ‘gifts’ always have a price,” Rad said, shaking his head. “If they teach you, it will be with their own aims in mind. And their lessons will go far beyond the physical scope of your power. They will manipulate you, mold you to their will, and you won’t even realize what they’re doing until it’s too late.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?” she demanded, and despite the fire in her voice I saw the glisten of tears in her eyes. “Just sit around and wait for one of the Circle to come after me again? I’m tired of things happeningtome. I’m tired of beinguseless.” She looked down at her hands, which were visibly shaking. “And I can’t… I can’t go on like this. I know my body is supposed to adapt eventually, but I can’t…” She looked up again, and her eyes found and locked on mine. “I feel like it’s going to break me apart.”
The desperation in her voice carved away at something inside me. My visions from ten years ago had suggested one thing, and yet…I’d misinterpreted my visions before.
I prayed I was wrong about this, about her.
“The answer is obvious,” I said. “All we have to do is send you home.”
45
Unfinished Business
RADVEN
Sendherhome.
Alastor was right—getting Marigold out of Therador would solve many of our problems. It was almost worth the risks.
But I wasn’t eager to let her go—or give up the carnal distraction she provided.
Pluck off the petals
Slice off the wing
I pressed my finger against the edge of my blade, using the pain to cut off the voice in my head before it could dig its claws in too deep. If I would no longer have physical pleasure to distract me from my impending madness, there were other ways. They were just slightly less satisfying.
Yes, we needed to let Marigold go. She was a liability. A wild card. And, if I was being especially ungenerous, a burden. I recognized all that, even as my body throbbed with the unfinished business between us, loath to let her go.
My thoughts on the matter were clear to me. What confused me, in this moment, was Alastor.
My brother had always been tricky to read, even for me. On the surface, he was all about Therador, for obvious reasons. But he’d been strange about Marigold from the start. At first I’d written it off as frustration at his own attraction—because hewasattracted to her, despite his denial. I’d seen the way his eyes lingered on her. Alastor liked to pretend he was above such things, even to Oak and me, but he was still a man, however nobly he pretended otherwise.
But it was more than that. There was something he wasn’t telling me about Marigold, something that went beyond his notice of her big eyes and soft lips.
My brother pulled his eyes away from her, turning to me.
“She should be able to open a bridge from this side,” he said. “If we get her back to her own world then all of our problems will be solved.”
Pluck off the petals
Slice off the wing
The voice in my head was trying to wriggle back in, but I pressed my finger down on the blade again, hard enough to draw blood.
My gaze slid to Marigold. She’d been desperate to create a bridge when we were back at the inn in Far Meadow, but she looked rather stricken by the idea now, despite the fact she was still visibly trembling from being exposed to so much essence tonight. Even with the pearls around her wrist, this world was still toxic to her.
Was it fear that made her hesitate now, or something else?
“What’s the matter, butterfly?” I asked. “Isn’t that what you want? To go home?”
She looked at me. “I thought you said that attempting something so big would draw the Circle right to us.”
“It doesn’t really matter now, does it?” I said with a shrug. “Mordren clearly has some other means of tracking you.” Yet another mystery to add to the tangle I was attempting to unravel. I hesitated, then added, “And after tonight, I’d say it’s worth the risk.” Better to remove the liability. If I needed a distraction, there were plenty of other women around here who would have been happy to warm my bed. Plenty of other pleasures of the flesh.
