Page 82 of Drawn in Blood
Rowan didn’t respond, her mouth set in a straight line, arms stiff at her side. Her eyes were hollow, dark circles underneath like she hadn’t slept in weeks. Her face was almost grey, lighter than Ember remembered, like she never got out in the sun.
“I know it’s a bit of a change,” Helvig interjected, “but I hope you will grow to love Tórsvik.”
“How will I get to Heksheim every day?” Ember asked.
Rowan snickered, and it took all her energy not to try to hex her again.
“Love,” Aoife cooed, as she walked next to Ember, stroking her hair, “you won’t be going back to Heksheim.”
Ember felt like she had been shot in the chest, all of the air sucked out of her lungs. The thought of never walking to class flanked by Fen and Killian, sitting mesmerized by Professor Bjorn, or studying on the lawn with Odette made her feel like a part of her had died.
“How will I learn magic?” she asked, her bottom lip quivering. “How will I finish my education?”
“I’ve hired a tutor to come work with you during the day,” Aoife replied, “and you’ll work with your granda’ when the time comes.”
When the time comes.
The thought of working under him, the man who had turned Rowan against her family and friends, made her stomach sour.
But what choice did she have?
“So, I’ll never get to go home then?” she said quietly, thinking about never riding her AirWave through the orchards again with Fen, never seeing Maia, never getting another hug from Eira or hearing Otto’s laugh from the den. Never seeing Killian grin at her from across the room. Never going home.
Home.
“Mo Stór,” Aoife whispered, as she kissed her on the head, “you are home.”
Gaelen silently showedEmber and Theo to their respective bedrooms, a look of pity shadowing her face. Ember closed the door and sucked in a breath.
The room washuge.
It resembled a room she imagined a princess would grow up in. Floor to ceiling windows lined the walls, maroon curtains draping them on each side. A king size, four poster bed sat in the middle, a plush rug underneath it and a table on each side. An armoire sat to the right, next to a walk-in closet, and a door leading to her own bathroom sat on the wall to her left. But despite all the lavish comfort, the room felt cold.
Ember threw her bag on the desk underneath one of the windows and tapped lightly on the oak. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket, ready to call Fen and Killian and tell them what had happened, when her world shattered all over again. When her spell bounced off Helvig’s shield and knocked her backwards, her phone had been in her back pocket.
It was crushed.
She pushed the button repeatedly, willing it to turn on, but it wouldn’t. She felt her last bit of hope slip from her fingers as she dropped it on the desk. She wiped away the silent tears and slipped into her bed when she heard the door creak slowly open. Theo shuffled in the room; eyes rimmed red as he climbed in bed beside her.
“Together?”he signed.
“Together.”
Chapter 26
Light is Coming
The Winter Solstice was anything but cheerful that year, but Ember tried to keep her spirits up for Theo’s sake. The day after their arrival Gaelen decorated the chateau in greens and reds and silvers and golds, and sparkling tinsel hung in between lit candles on a beautifully decorated tree in the corner of the large sitting room.
As lovely as it was, she felt her heart shatter every time she looked at the posh decorations. There was no popcorn strung haphazardly around the room, no colored paper turned into chains or mismatched ornaments that had been collected over the years. Everything matched—everything had its own special place—and something about that made her feel like she was standing on the moon instead of her sitting room.
Her sitting room.
The words still tasted sour in her mouth. She had spent the first week in the chateau looking for a traveling room and finally came upon it on the sixth day. She tapped on the runes carved into the brass handle, waiting for the tree to begin to glow, but nothing happened. She learned later, from one of the other Merrow, that it required a special key to use, and even then, it only took you to the town center in Torsvik. Ember found outquickly that it was the case for all the Echopoints scattered about the city trapped behind the mountains, and the information did nothing but sour her mood. There was no way out, no way back home.
She was trapped.
A little hand wrapped around her own and tugged, and she looked down to see big green eyes looking expectantly up at her. Theo hadn’t left Ember’s side for more than a few minutes since they had arrived—the only time she could get any time to herself to think was if she slipped away while he was working with Gaelen or in the middle of the night after he had finally fallen asleep.
