Page 58 of Enchanted Heir
“She doesn’t,” Keir confirmed. “Just the Iron Will.”
My eyes darted to Owen, who had been the one who requested we didn’t let the rest of these people know about our little ongoing experiments, before settling on Anderson. “It’s my blood.” I could see out of my peripheral vision Krew grip the back of my chair slightly harder. “I wanted to see if it would heal the lake. And it obviously did not. But it is the reason the bloom is there, that’s where my blood dropped when I was trying to heal the lake. And I went as a tree to the ball because being a wolf seemed too assuming and expected, and I didn’t wish to make Krew uncomfortable. Not because I was intending to send any sort of message.” I paused and cocked my head toward him. “I wish to heal that forest. So if you are thinking of slicing my throat now and spilling my blood all over, please do me the courtesy of waiting until we have figured out what exactly is in my blood that is causing this. Because at this rate it might take more than just my blood.”
“I—” Anderson shook his head. “I do not wish to slice your throat, Jorah. I am angry I was not aware and brought in on this sooner.”
“We weren’t sure what was going on,” Keir offered diplomatically. “It could have been coincidence. Granted a strange coincidence, yes. We could not be certain until the second experiment worked. There was no need to get everyone’s hopes up until we knew for sure.”
Also, we didn’t trust them with it. He was forgetting that part.
Emric burst out laughing.
“Em,” Krew groaned. “This is not funny.”
“How is it not?!” Emric said as he kept on laughing. “She just took Wells to town. Sans magic.” He switched his attention to me. “Honey, where is your mother’s bakery? I wish to throw in my hat as well.” Either Krew or Keir or both must have glared at him because Emric grinned at me wider. “Or not.”
“Do you know how tonotflirt, Emric?” I said with a squint. “Because I do not need any more of it in my life. So stop it.”
And then there was laughter, even from Anderson.
After everyone settled down, I had to ask a question. I didn’t know if they weren’t mentioning it because I was there and they didn’t want to makemeuncomfortable, but it still needed to be said. “Uhh, this should be obvious, so I’ll just say it. If Krew and I are going to the Harvest Festival, shouldn’t Gwen, Nara, and Keir do something similar in Rallis? If you are really wanting to calm things down for a bit in the lower levels. It’s not like there are many of us left in the Assemblages from the lower levels. Two from Rallis and me. Since the Savaryn consorts get to see their loved ones frequently, it’s only fair.”
“Also not a horrible idea,” Hatcher agreed.
They discussed a certain disloyal in Rallis for twenty minutes more, what trouble this person could stir with Keir, Gwen, and Nara showing up, and then they got on a huge tangent and sat around laughing and chatting. They were The Six original disloyals plus the princes. The eight people positioned to take down their king. But I realized they were also friends. Friends who would lose it all or gain it alltogether.
A few hours later, some tea and biscuits were delivered. The only people who remained were Owen, Keir, Krew, and Hatcher.
As Hatcher stood, he turned back to me. “Do you wish me to take your blood to my trusted scientist?”
Krew shook his head. “No, Hatchet. You may trust him, but I do not.”
“I could say it was the blood from something else. Not hers. I would say I was wanting to know if it was an Enchanted’s blood or not.”
Krew again shook his head. “I know. But until we know more, I won’t bring any outsiders in on this. In case something blatant should pop up in the results.”
Hatcher shuffled toward the fireplace, warming his hands. “Well, you could always bribe someone. Money talks, and coincidentally, money also helps keep secrets.”
“We will think on it,” Krew said with a sigh. “I truly didn’t think anyone would notice the bloom for at least a few weeks.”
“Anderson has never given up on the forest.” Hatcher’s eyes went to mine. “He won’t hurt you, dear. He just realizes that you are somehow going to help fix it and is frustrated he didn’t know. That he couldn’t be in on it. Feeling left out is all.”
“Good night, you old brute,” Krew called out affectionately. “Don’t fall asleep in parliament joint session tomorrow.”
“No promises,” he deadpanned while hitting the switch near the fireplace for the passage out.
I sat back in my chair. What a day. I definitely did not expect to have had that happen. I was now somewhat in with The Six. I had always had definite ties to them, I guessed, but this was different.
Now I was scheming right alongside them.
Maybe I could be of help with this rebellion. My focus had been on how to heal the forest before Krew kicked me out. It was an honorable yet lofty goal. But maybe I had been thinking too narrowly.
For the first time ever, I felt like maybe I could belong at this castle. Not for Krew. Not for Keir. But for Nerede. I didn’t want the paradigm shifted, I wanted it obliterated entirely. I wanted the walls to crumble.
But the only way that could ever happen was if we took down the king.
CHAPTER15
With the exception of one day to rest, I had been training with Owen for more than a week. I was still sore. Often. But I was also able to start walking normally again. Or so I thought. I might have just gotten used to the waddle. The training was possibly starting to get less hard though. We still ran a mile and walked a mile as a warmup every day.
