Page 48 of Beyond the Cottage

“I do. Her name’s Isobel.”

“How do you know her?”

“She helped me once, years ago. We became friends.” She was also his dust broker, but he didn’t think it wise to mention it.

“You’ll really take me to her? Why should I believe you?”

“Why would I lie about that?”

She shrugged.

Ansel ran his hands over his hair, then flattened them on his thighs. “I don’t have any way to prove it until we get there. I can only ask that you use your considerable powers of deduction to recognize that I willnothurt you again.”

“Hm.” She tapped her lips. “You have been rather defanged since discovering who I am.”

He had no defense, so he waited out her answer.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go.”

A log popped in the fireplace. Ansel agitatedly rubbed his hands together. “Here’s the caveat. If I bring you to her, it will come with conditions. You won’t care for them, but they’re non-negotiable.”

“Oh, really.” Her flippant tone and loose posture suggested indifference, but he could see how badly she wanted this. “What are they?”

“First, you’ll need to treat her with a degree of respect. She can hold her own where insults are concerned, but I don’t want you threatening her.”

“I don’tthreaten, Ansel.” She sifted the braids on her belt.

“Right. Which brings me to condition two. There will be no physical violence of any kind. None, Gretta, do you understand? No stabbing, no throat slitting, no—”

She put a hand up. “I get it. I’ll be a good little girl on my very best behavior at grandma’s.”

Now for the part that would really piss her off.

Ansel reached into his pocket and pulled out a bracelet. It was a smooth, pewter cuff with a hinge on one side and a tiny lock on the other. “I’m afraid I can’t take your word on that. I’ll need you to wear this.”

She took the bracelet. When it touched her fingertips, she dropped it like it scorched her. “Are you fucking serious?”

“It’s only an aggression inhibitor,” he said, retrieving the bracelet. “I got it secondhand, there’s barely any magic left in it.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m wearing that thing. Get it away from me.”

“Gretta, I wish I could trust you, but I don’t. I’m not taking you there without it, so consider it my final and most important condition.”

“I’ll control myself! You can’t seriously expect me to wear magic all day.”

Every instinct in him resisted exposing her to something she feared so profoundly, but he couldn’t waver on this. Isobel needed protecting, too.

He put the bracelet away for the time being. “As I said, my conditions are non-negotiable. You need to decide how badly you want to meet her.”

Gretta stared at the fire. After a minute, she looked at him, her fingers digging into the chair’s armrests. “Okay. I’ll wear it. But I have a condition of my own.”

The tension that had drained from him returned threefold. Naturally, she’d see this as an opportunity to debase him somehow.

“Fair enough,” he sighed. “What is it?”

“I want you to come to the capital with me.”

“I’m sorry…what?”

---