Page 63 of Drawn in Blood
Ember sucked in a breath.
“You mean there are more?” she whispered, as if the trees might report back to their creator.
Odette simply shrugged. “More? Perhaps,” she replied, “or perhaps they’re one in the same. Perhaps the gods that bestowed us our magic are the same ones who bestowed it upon the island—the Fae, Merrow, and dryads. Perhaps we all aren’t so different after all.”
Ember felt a cold chill run down her spine, but it had nothing to do with the wind whipping through Sigurvik that afternoon.
“I feel him there the most,” Odette almost whispered, her voice catching as she spoke. “My Da’. In the trees and the wind and the way the moonlight filters through the canopy if you know where to look. Sometimes I go to talk to him or just to feel him near me. I didn’t know him well, not for long. The uprising took him before I was even old enough to learn to read, but sometimes I like to tell him about myself while I’m out there. I like to think he would be proud of me… of everything I’ve overcome.”
Ember didn’t even realize she had begun crying until the tears were sliding down her cheeks. Maybe they were more alike than she ever could’ve imagined. “I think he would be too,” she replied quietly.
Ember quickly brushed the tears away as Killian and Theo ran up to them, both covered in sand and laughing so hard their cheeks were red.
“Ready to go, Starshine?” Killian asked, as he brushed the sand off his trousers.
Ember smiled as she nodded. “Can we run into the Bookwyrm first? I need to see if Nessa has that copy of…” But Ember realized Killian wasn’t listening anymore.
“Well, what do we have here,” he said, as he narrowed his eyes across the street.
“Is that the Warden from Heksheim?” Ember asked, as she squinted toward the end of the street where Killian stared. Blondhair flashed in the sun, and Ember could just make out his gold-plated leather bracelet wrapped tightly around his wrist.
“Aye.” Killian nodded; his usual joking manner replaced with a seriousness that gave her chills. “What do you suppose he’s up to?”
Ember shrugged as she scrunched her brow. “Completing his weekend errands perhaps?”
The Warden looked over his shoulder several times and quietly slipped away behind a building, hiding him from sight.
Killian cocked his brow, stuffing a hand in his trouser pocket. “I don’t know, Starshine,” he replied. “Shall we find out?”
Theo looked up at Ember with a grin.“Follow,”he signed, nodding in the direction the Warden had snuck away to. Both boys looked at her with pleading eyes, and she couldn’t fight the grin that was threatening to take over.
“Oh, alright,” she replied, as she rolled her eyes. Theo grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, and the four of them made their way down the street, toward the building he had slipped behind.
“We will see what he’s doing and then we’re leaving,” Ember whispered, as she pressed herself up against the brick wall. “I don’t have any desire to get roped into whatever he’s up to.”
“You don’t have anything to worry about, Starshine,” Killian whispered, his breath hot against the back of her neck. “I’ll protect you.”
Ember felt her cheeks burn as she swallowed dryly, inching closer to the edge of the building. She could hear two voices mumbling back and forth to each other but still couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“He’s talking to someone,” Ember whispered. “What’s he up to?”
The voice grew louder as they reached the end of the building, and Ember could see the two men standing just a fewfeet away from them now. Theo’s grip on her hand tightened as they stopped, and she put a finger to her lips.
“Either, you have something, or you don’t,” a gruff voice said, coming from the man standing opposite the Warden. “He won’t wait much longer, Collum.”
“Aye, I know,” the Warden—Collum—replied. “I’ll have it soon. I just need a few more days.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Killian whispered. “Uncle Malcom is having shady business meetings in dark alleys now it seems.”
“That’s your uncle?” Ember asked, wide-eyed.
“Aye,” Killian nodded, “and if Collum has anything to do with my kin, he can’t have good intentions.”
“He’s red,” Odette whispered.
“Red?” Killian scrunched his brow as he stared at the girl. Odette nodded.
“Collum. His aura.”
