She raised a brow, then looked down at her cleavage.
Nicholas spluttered. “Really?”
“You’re the one who started it.”
“So I did, but I didn’t expect you to continue it. The answer is still no, though. We are not encouraging a demon to attack you. I have no idea how well the charm can protect you from a demon.”
“We also have my amulet, if you strengthen the glyph.”
“I’ll make a new charm based on that to trap the demon once we find it, but that won’t protect you.”
Sadie crossed her arms. “Finding the demon is the issue, though. I tried last night and didn’t hear so much as a whisper from it.”
“You said you focused on Abigail, though. We know the demon can jump hosts if it was also in Jane in the brewing room. What if it was in someone else throughout supper?”
Sadie made a sound of frustration. “I don’t even know how easily a demon can change hosts. Will it even help if I can hear it, or will it simply move from person to person, always a step ahead of us?”
“We need more information, but I don’t know any demonology experts.”
“What about Beatrice? She was the one who pointed out it would have to be a demon haunting the entirety of the Gloaming Forest rather than a spirit. She may not be an expert, but she probably knows more than either of us.”
“We’d have to tell her why we’re asking. She’s unlikely to accept an excuse that we are just curious.”
“Then we tell her. She won’t panic.”
Nicholas swallowed his final sip of tea and stood. “Agreed, but we need to prepare first. Since there is a chance the demon has possessed her, I want to have a few charms on hand before we talk to her. Let’s go to my workroom.”
He walked over to the side table and scooped Sadie’s necklace into his palm. Making a fresh charm using that glyph wasn’t the only thing he wanted to work on this morning. Now that he knew what form her power took, he had an idea of how to help her while she was still mastering control of her magic. A glyph that would help her instead of restricting her power.
Sadie rose and stared at the agate in his hand. “You won’t—”
“I won’t tell anyone about your power. It is your secret, Sadie.” One she had learned needed to be kept. He didn’t doubt those lessons had been painful. “But you might want to consider admitting to being a water-witch. That way we can at least explain how you recognized what Jane was brewing. But it is up to you.”
She pressed her lips together and didn’t answer as she walked to the door. She had plenty to weigh and consider before making her decision.
Nicholas cast a ward over the door, needing to make sure she understood one more thing. He waited until she turned to face him and took her hands in his. “Before we go out there, I want to remind you of something, Sadie.” He leaned close, touching his nose to hers, staring into her brown eyes with all the intensity he could muster. “Nothing about you is demonic. Nothing.”
???
Sadie hadn’t realizedshe needed to hear those words until Nicholas spoke.
Nothing about you is demonic.
Of course she knew that, but she had also internalized that her power was evil. After all, the only thing that blocked it was a glyph meant to trap demons. Sadie had lived with that knowledge most of her life. Her parents and brother hadn’t helped, treating her as a pariah no better than a demon. She might not have described her magic as demonic, but she had felt it all the same.
Staring into Nicholas’s hazel eyes, for the first time she felt almost at peace with her power. He was proof that people could accept her even when they knew her secret. He was hope that she could learn to control her magic. He was… everything she hadn’t let herself dream of.
Instead of agreeing or saying she understood, Sadie responded with the only words that felt right. “Thank you.”Thank you for always protecting me, even when the threat is my own mind,she added telepathically.
“Always, Sadie.”
Nicholas dropped the ward, his hand landing at the small of her back as she opened the door. They walked out into the hallway together, and Sadie wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed that they made it all the way to her room, where she quickly changed, then to his workroom without passing a single person. There was no one raising a brow at seeing her step out of his rooms. No one smiling at the tender way he escorted her through the manor.
It felt like she had replaced one secret with a new one, this one shared between her and Nicholas. Not that their night together was truly a secret. Pippa must have figured it out, alongwith most of the servants at the manor. But was it supposed to stay a secret from Madeleine and her other guests?
He had joked earlier that it wouldn’t make a difference if they saw her coming out of his room, but that didn’t mean he was actually prepared for it to become common gossip.
“Nicholas?”
