Page 35 of Desire

“Your brothers kissed meat the same time, Brandle. Do you know what type of woman allows that?”

His hand left my hair to nudge my head. I reluctantly met his gaze.

“The type of woman who we will forever protect and never betray,” he said.

I studied his sincere expression and nodded. It mattered little if they would betray me or not. Without their help, I would never reach Turre.

“I see the despair and hopelessness hiding in your gaze, Kitten. We will prove ourselves to you and earn your trust, starting with Garron. His abilities are rudimentary compared to Henry’s, but he will do what he can to help guide you when you’re ready.”

Hope ignited within my well.

“I’m ready now,” I said, withdrawing from Brandle’s embrace.

The corners of his eyes crinkled with his smile.

“Then go find him.”

“Thank you.”

I turned and found Edmund watching us from his place by the woodpile. His gaze tracked me as I retreated to the front of the house where the others watched me as well. No one spoke to me, though, or attempted to stop me on my way to Garron.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I approached.

“Watching the men in the woods,” he said. “They gathered more wood. I’m not sure how. The beasts are waiting in the shadows.”

“How are you watching them?” I asked.

“The same way you saw the weather. It’s more like feeling than seeing.”

Standing beside him, I looked out at the trees and opened myself to what was around me while keeping the lid firmly covering the well. I felt the weather first—a mist would come tomorrow with warmer temperatures—then attempted to feel the men.

“I don’t feel them, only the weather.”

“The weather is bigger and easier to feel. They’re smaller, like the trees. Can you feel those?”

I focused on the tree in front of me and attempted to feel it.

“No.”

“Can you feel me?”

I knew I could…if I opened the well a little. His concern wrapped around me an instant later. I focused on the tree andfeltit. Its age. Its energy. It had no emotions; it simplywas. Moving beyond it, I found more trees. Then the beasts.

Nudging the lid a bit more, I let myself feel them like the day I’d felt my father. Each beast’s energy resonated differently from the one before it, like variations in shades of color rather than different colors.

Then I felt the men. Their anger. Their fear. Their determination.

“They will try again soon,” I said. “Likely with the mist tomorrow morning. The one I unmanned is angry. He wants to hurt me for what I did.”

“We won’t let him,” Garron said.

I tilted my head, staring at the trees but not focused on them. The vibrations of the men were like those of the beast. They varied slightly. But they had something with them. Something that was exactly the same yet separate.

“I feel something wrong.”

I turned and focused on the brothers. Similar vibrations like the beasts. And something that was exactly the same.

Without thinking, I reached out to Garron and set my hand on his amulet hidden under his shirt. It pulsed under my palm in time with my heartbeat. I could feel the same pulse in the other amulets.

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