Page 90 of Desire

“Kitten, what’s wrong?” Brandle asked.

“She said they’ll attack again,” Garron said.

“It’s nothing to worry about?—”

“Whatever magic I sensed a moment ago has hardened their resolve. Theywill notfail again. What means will they use to ensure that if they were willing to burn Liam and eviscerate Edmund previously? I would prefer we not underestimate them.”

“All right. What do you have in mind?”

“They’ve chosen not to fight fair. I see no reason to do so either.”

While Garron and I brewed the healing tea as a precaution, Eadric, Edmund, Liam, and Brandle scattered pieces of bramble around the glade’s perimeter, and Daemon and Darian placed the pea seeds around the cottage and fire.

“You said you sensed magic. Was it from the coins they hold?” Garron asked as we worked.

“No. It came from a nearby puddle…not from it but through it.”

“Through it?”

“Like the coins. I can feel the magic in them and how they connect to the trackers and through the trackers to someone in Drisdall.”

“Is it the same person?”

“Yes.” I stared down at the tea leaves, struggling to maintain calm.

What did it mean that Maeve was communicating with the trackers now? Had something happened to Eloise? Was she in danger, or was my twin acting out, forcing Maeve to need my presence to control her?

Returning with the trackers, willing or otherwise, would not protect my sister.

“Everything is ready,” Brandle said from the door. “I’ve also put out the cooking fire. Do you know when they intend to attack?”

“Once the light fades.”

“I know you feel safer when you’re near us, but I would prefer you somewhere out of reach.”

“Not the cliff,” Darian said, appearing beside him.

“I will go to the roof at dusk then and help as I am able.”

Brandle considered my dark dress and nodded. “Lie low and you should remain hidden.”

At the appointed time, I left Garron to store the tea in the cellar and asked Edmund to boost me to the roof. He kissed my forehead and told me to stay until he fetched me. Then he took the ladder away to stow by the garden fence.

The seven of them returned to their normal places, lounging in their swinging beds and idling around the table to converse as the moon rose higher and the remaining daylight faded from the sky.

Crouched low against the thatching, I followed the trackers’ movements in my mind as they quietly approached. I could feel their concern that the fire wasn’t lit. They’d hoped to use it like last time to distract and disable so they could work as a group to kill one brother at a time. They were determined to take me at all costs.

However, my determination to protect the men of this glade was stronger.

Once they entered the glade, I touched my energy to the hidden bramble, silently growing it in their wake and cutting off their chance to escape.

Edmund started arguing with Daemon and flipped him out of his bed. Daemon came up swinging. The ruse worked todistract the trackers from the wall encircling the glade as they drew closer to their quarry.

The first tracker moved past a patch of pea seeds. I waited as, one by one, they moved forward, unaware of the danger. When the final tracker stepped over the patch, I touched the peas with my intent. Strong thick vines silently erupted from the ground and ensnared his legs, twining upward toward his torso. His muffled grunt of shock had his group spinning back toward him.

The brothers used the distraction to run toward the trackers.

Unaware, the trackers withdrew their blades. Metal glinted in the moonlight, and I felt their rage-filled intent to gut whoever had their companion.

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