He wouldn’t be sad if she never kissed him again, healing powers be damned. The infirmary was slower but just as effective, and healer magic didn’t have the unfortunate effect of unlocking memories better left forgotten.
Autumn bounded to his side. “Want to go for a walk?”
He shook his head. “Can’t. Need to shower off the aura of that woman and meet Anna in the library.”
She faux pouted. “How can you stand to spend all your time in a library? What are you even doing in there?”
“Um. Reading.” He cocked his head. “As one usually does in a library.”
Her smiley scowl was obnoxiously adorable, so he disregarded it. She fell into step beside him as he turned back toward the Tree. “I wanted to warn you…”
He side-eyed her.
“Your mother has already sent word that she’s returning as soon as she can.” Her arm threaded around his, like she feared his escape if she didn’t chain him to her side.
He let the information sit a moment, then ultimately rejected it. “I don’t need to meet her.”
“David,” Autumn chided, though the smile on her face rather detracted from the dire tone of her words. “You will need training.”
“No, I don’t.” He tried to extricate himself from her grasp.
“Morgan’s magic requires finesse. She is the only one who can teach you…”
“Can you release my arm, you harpy? I’m not training for anything. I’m fine.”
She let go. “I’m serious, David.”
“So am I.” Freed, he took off in the opposite direction. Autumn followed, continuing to pester him with questions he was neither willing nor wanting to answer.
He ignored her. If left to her own devices, David was sure Autumn could talk to a brick wall while sleeping.
Meanwhile, panic crept up his arms and legs. He could take being the progeny of a madman, could even stomach being the son of a sadist.
What he didn’t know how to manage was a family member whocared. Easier to write it off, pretend it didn’t exist.
He didn’t need a mother.
“You’re in denial.”
David sucked in a breath, freezing the panic in ice. “Please get out of my head.”
Autumn slowed, allowing him to flee toward the Tree in solitude.
CHAPTER 21
SEAN
As days passed, Sean learned that the natives called the first month of fall Septinia and celebrated the equinox with nightly bonfires praising the Great Mother for her bounty. The air caressed him each morning with notes of decaying leaves and woodsmoke. Cool air curled its fingers around his neck as he watched Anna beat the shit out of David on the other side of the clearing. He’d have thought the sight would be supremely satisfying, but instead, he cringed.
Why didn’t David ever bother to protect himself? At first, Sean thought he was hiding his true nature, the better to fool people into trusting him, but he was wiser now. Being in this place, regularly exposed to this man who’d always hated him, Sean recognized he didn’t actually know David Berkeley. For years, David had been a mere villain in his mind. Motiveless evil.
There was a lot more to it than that, wasn’t there?
Was it penance or something, this refusal to defend himself from pain? Or perhaps it was simply that, like other sylphs, he loathed violence. Given everything Sean knew about David, the notion had never occurred to him, but it slapped him in the face now. Anundercurrent of revulsion radiated from David’s bare body language. He hated taking part in this and was forced to do it anyway.
The idea was painfully sobering.
“So are you in love yet?” Autumn asked, drawing his attention from David. She’d snuck her way from the sidelines to stand beside him as Cathaire instructed Anna and David. Isobel remained sitting near the water table, watching David fight with narrowed eyes.
