Page 190 of A Bond in Blood

“Bring me that.”

I turned my head, following her direction to a long box. Glancing back at her, I cocked my head. “What is it?”

“Get off this bed and go and grab it, child. I cannot.”

I bit my lip at her sternness, my body flooding with love at the familiarity to it.

Once again I was climbing off the bed, fetching her something. When I returned, I held the box out to her. She stared at it, not reaching for it.

“Open it.”

“What?” I asked.

“Open it, Brenna.”

I did as I was told, lifting the lid and finding one black candle and a glint of gold beneath it. I lifted the candle from the velvet fabric, finding a gold coin underneath.

“What are these?” I asked.

She held out her hands, finally asking for her items. “I’ve kept our family’s most hidden secret. Every woman in our lineage has.”

“What?”

She hushed me, holding up the black candle with her frail hands, studying it.

“There is a woman’s mark on these. A kind of magic I have never experienced. A knowing, the only kind that comes from a woman’s mind. And this coin?” She held it up. “Gods, do I wish to know where it came from. The weight of it, the markings. Again, a woman’s marking on it as well.”

I sat on the bed once more, holding out my hands.

“My secret,” she paused, “the secret of the women, the one I was to give to Frey before that cursed night.”

I choked at the mention of my mother.

“An ancient, mortal woman in our family was given these. A gift to honor her new marriage to a fae king. The gifter has been lost to history, but she was told to hold them until the time was right. That the women of our family would know that moment; when a warmth and buzz of a deal being completed would settle over them.”

“Grandmother,” I whispered.

“A deal once made,” she muttered. “Brenna, take them.”

I shook my head. “What am I supposed to do with them?”

She shrugged, “I do not know. I only know that warmth is around me now, my child. Confirming my years of keeping it secret are done. That no other woman in our family will need to carry this burden.”

I gripped the candlestick and the coin, noticing a warm hum from the gold. Not knowing what it meant but understanding the finality of this moment. That it was this stern, quiet woman’s goodbye. Passing yet another thing to me, marking another part of my soul with a part of her.

“Tell me more,” she patted her shoulder. “Tell me of howyouhave changed.”

I returned to my spot by her, placing the candle and coin on the table before wrapping my hands around her cold grip.

I told her everything.

I told her of the dungeons, the clock room, the hallways. I told her of the parties and the openly, moving bodies.

She had gasped, begging for more details.

I told her of the Rite, of that horrible night when I had been a fool. Of the sacrifice I had unintentionally stopped.

I told her of Olen, my beastly, irritating companion.

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