On the Edge, page 21
“I didn’t say you were doing a poor job, but you can’t teach them everything.”
“Before I throw you out, answer one question,” she squeezed out through clenched teeth. “Why us? Why me? Why the whole marrying ruse?”
“The hounds are attracted to magic. I followed their trail to a house,” he said. “And then a beautiful girl came out, leveled a crossbow at me, and declared she wouldn’t sleep with me. I played along.”
“You played along.” Bitterness dripped from her words. “Do you have any idea how scared I was? How much I worried that you might drag me off, leaving the kids behind, or that you might kill them? Do you know how much anxiety your playing along has cost me? Get out.”
He sat on the porch and smiled, showing her his teeth like a flash of a sword blade in the scabbard. “I don’t think so.”
“What?”
“We had an agreement. I haven’t breached it, so the fault lies with you. Therefore, you must issue a refund, and you can’t. You spent the money.”
She opened her mouth and clamped it shut. “You’ll get your money,” she managed finally.
“Until then, I’ll remain here. Like it or not, I’ll protect you, and I’ll use any excuse to do it. More, you’re bound by our oath. We both swore to go through the three challenges, and I expect you to issue a second one.”
“I’m through playing,” she said.
“I’m not. The world doesn’t revolve around your whims.”
“Leave!” she demanded.
“Hell no. I would be a fool to walk away. You’re one of a kind, Rose. I want you, and I’ll fight to have you.”
“Well, I don’t want you.”
“Be that as it may, you have to continue with the challenges. If you don’t, there will be a magic flashback, and neither of us knows what form it will take. You and I could both die, and where would that leave your brothers?”
Once again she was backed into a corner. “I hate you,” she said.
He offered her a pleasant smile. “I’ll take that over indifference. Although I do find you much more attractive when you don’t scream and throw a tantrum like a child.”
“If I don’t scream, I’ll fry you.”
He jumped off the porch and loomed before her. “Do it. You want to take it to the next step, then let’s go. But you won’t like it. I’m not one of your local boys. I know how to defend myself.”
Magic shimmered around her. His power flared around him. She clenched her teeth.
The screen door banged, and Jack’s voice recited, “Grandma said to tell you to please fight quieter. You’ll wake Georgie.”
Rose closed her eyes and forced herself to exhale slowly. She heard Declan releasing his breath and felt the pressure of his magic ease.
“You’ll have your challenge as soon as Georgie wakes up,” she said calmly when she could speak.
“I look forward to it, my Lady Camarine,” he said.
She marched past him into the house and very carefully closed the door.
EIGHTEEN
GEORGIE woke up the next morning around ten. Rose had checked on him three times by then, and when she finally saw his blue eyes looking back at her, her knees went weak and she had to lean against the door frame.
“Well, there you are,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay,” he said.
She came closer, sat on his bed, and touched her lips to his forehead. He felt dry and warm. No trace of a fever. “Declan told me you called him.”
“He was closer,” Georgie murmured. “I couldn’t find you. You were too far.”
Guilt clutched at her. “I’m sorry.”
“What happened?” he asked.
She told him.
“I tried to tell you about the wolf and Casshorn,” he said. “But you had to hurry to work, and then I forgot.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “The next time you have something important to tell me, I’ll listen, no matter what. I tell you what—I’ll go and get us some tea and funnel cake, and you can tell me all about it.”
“There is funnel cake?” Georgie’s eyes lit up.
“I made some especially for you. You’re the hero. Heroes always get funnel cake.”
She came back, and he told her the whole story between bites of funnel cake and sips of raspberry tea. The more he talked, the clearer the picture became in her head.
“I see,” she said finally. She saw quite well now. Declan following her into the Broken. His stubborn insistence on staying in her house. She was still angry at him. Very, very angry. But certain aspects of his behavior finally made sense.
She regretted her loss of temper. A lot had happened in the last few days: Declan’s presence, the hounds, losing her job, the attack on Georgie. Any event by itself was enough to upset her, but together they turned her into an emotional pressure cooker. All of it had to come out somehow. She just wished it hadn’t come out quite the way it did, in front of Declan, who no doubt thought she was throwing a tantrum. It’s hard to convince someone to listen to you and leave your house when you’re raving too loud to be taken seriously.
“So what happens now?” Georgie asked.
“Now I need your help for my second challenge to Declan.” She hesitated. “Do you think you’re strong enough to walk?”
Georgie nodded.
“I’m sorry to ask this of you, but I need you to come to the porch.”
“I need the bathroom first,” he said.
“Do you need help getting there?”
Georgie gave her a long look. She sighed and left him to it. When she finally got married, if she ever got married, she hoped her first child would be a cute little girl. A cute, sweet, harmless little girl.
ÉLÉONORE stepped into the kitchen, mentally steeling herself. She had only a few minutes before Rose would return from Georgie’s room.
Declan rose at her approach with a polite shallow bow and a narrow smile. “Bonjour, Madame.”
“Bonjour, Monsieur.” She sat into a chair and continued in French. “I would like to speak about my granddaughter.”
His face turned cold. The smile remained, but it gained that polite, icy tint the bluebloods adopted when they wanted to strangle the conversation with courtesy.
“I want there to be no misunderstandings,” she continued. “This isn’t an attempt on my part to broker some sort of tryst between the two of you. On the contrary.”
His eyebrows crept up a fraction of an inch. He really was a blindingly handsome boy. “Do you find me unworthy of your granddaughter, Madame?”
Inwardly Éléonore groaned. She was out of practice. “I have no doubt as to your pedigree. I merely wish you to understand the situation clearly. If you’re willing to listen, of course.”
“I’m all ears, Madame,” he assured her.
Éléonore took a deep breath. “My husband abandoned me a number of times during our marriage. I say this not to gain some sympathy for myself. It’s simply a fact. He loved me passionately, but he loved the sea more. Because I suffered without him, I did my best to raise my son with a sense of responsibility for his family. Unfortunately, I failed miserably. Just like his father, John abandoned his wife and children frequently. Growing up, Rose had learned that ‘father’ is a temporary presence in one’s life.”
She fell silent. Finding the words proved harder than she realized. “Pardon. This is difficult for me. Rose’s mother was traumatized by the untimely death of her parents, and in her final years she sought to stave off her mortality by any means necessary, usually by finding solace in the arms of any man who would have her. Eventually even that remedy failed and she died. Rose was an adolescent and the boys were mere babies. Thus, my grandchildren were abandoned both by their mother and by their father.”
She glanced at Declan, but his face was earnestly polite and about as transparent as a cement block.
“Then Rose flashed white. You must understand, my lord, it’s been over a century since an Edger flashed white. She was just a child, barely eighteen, and not at all equipped to either anticipate or deal with the consequences. Due to her mother’s loose behavior, it was assumed that Rose was the child of an out-of-wedlock liaison. Overnight she became a valuable commodity. First, her flash made her desirable as a powerful addition to any family; second, her magic hinted at the possibility of blueblood ancestry; and third . . . my granddaughter is lovely, as I’m sure you haven’t failed to notice.”
“Indeed, Madame.”
His tone was perfectly neutral and pleasant. If he Madame ’d her one more time, she would have to throw something at him.
“Rose had a terrible life,” Éléonore said bluntly. “For almost a year, she was literally hunted. The Edger families wanted her for her power, the borderland blueblood families wanted her for breeding, and those who didn’t want her, hated her. Envy can be a terrible thing. Her mother’s exploits already made her a pariah, and her flash only exacerbated the problem. What few friends she had abandoned her. Her boyfriend—who is a terrible creature—betrayed her. We had weathered a siege and arson and being shunned. The slaver was by far the worst. He had arrived under the pretense of courting Rose, promised her the security and acceptance she so desperately wanted, and nearly won, if not her heart, then at least her mind. Fortunately his identity was discovered, but the damage was done. She has learned the lesson again and again: people, men in particular, cannot be trusted. I watched this damage happen, and I was powerless to stop it. Finally after a year of this chaos, things have calmed. My son was there for her during that year. Even he understood that his family couldn’t survive this storm without him. That is the longest he had ever spent with his family. However, as soon as pressure lessened, he escaped. He ran away from his own children in the middle of the night, once again abandoning the boys to Rose’s care.”
She took a deep breath. “It was the final betrayal, my lord. It wounded Rose very badly, and she’s determined to spare her brothers this hurt at all costs. She put her life on hold, so her brothers would never know what it’s like to be abandoned. A young girl is a creature of dreams, my lord. A woman with one foot in the world of fantasy, searching for the face of true love in every handsome boy she sees. Rose has no fantasies. One would expect a woman who has gone through her trials to be bitter and angry, but she isn’t. She’s kind, sweet, selfless, and generous, and I thank my lucky stars for this every day.”
Éléonore rose, buoyed by her anger. He got up as well.
“I’m sure that you’re successful in your pursuits of female attention,” she said. “I’m sure that there is a trail of broken hearts in your wake, and you probably look at it fondly, remembering your past conquests. For some young women, being swept off her feet by a man such as you might be thrilling. It might even be a good lesson in the nature of the male species. However, Rose has no illusions to soothe her and no parents to reassure her. If you break her heart, it will shatter my granddaughter. It will destroy her utterly, turning her into a bitter wreck. So I implore you, my lord, to leave her in peace. You don’t need her as your trophy. And if you won’t, I swear to you that I’ll curse you with my dying breath. We both know the power such a curse carries.”
Declan bowed. “I’ll take it under advisement.”
She growled under her breath and stomped into the depths of the house, not sure if she had accomplished more harm than good.
ROSE stuck her head into the kitchen. Declan sat at the table, his eyes lost in thought. A smile curved his lips.
“Come outside,” she said. “We need to be in the yard for the next challenge.”
He followed her to the porch, where she sat in a chair and he leaned against the rail. She stared at the trees shrouded in morning fog.
Declan cleared his throat. They had managed to keep from saying a single word to each other during breakfast, but now he looked as if he had something to say.
“I lost my temper yesterday,” he said. “My sincerest apologies. It won’t happen in the future.”
“I’m also sorry. I shouldn’t have been quite so . . . dramatic.”
They looked at each other.
“My behavior aside,” he continued, “I meant everything I said.”
She stuck her chin in the air. “So did I.”
“Very well.”
“Indeed.”
He sat back down, and she picked a spot as far from him as the porch steps would allow.
“Also,” he said after a small pause, “your funeral cake was delicious.”
“Funnel. Funnel cake. I’ll get you the recipe. It’s similar to pancakes.”
“Thank you.”
They sat in silence. She broke it first. “Don’t you think it’s dangerous to do this challenge, with Casshorn waiting for the right opportunity?”
“We’ve destroyed a large number of his hounds,” Declan said. “Since I’m his primary target, he’ll need to build up his forces before he attacks again. We’re safe for two days, maybe three.”
Probably longer than that, Rose thought with a small sense of satisfaction. Yesterday, after the fight with Declan, she’d spent nearly all of the minutes remaining on her cell phone. Her words didn’t carry much weight in the Edge, but Grandma’s did, and now they knew the name of their menace and what he wanted. It would be difficult for Casshorn to find prey in East Laporte come nightfall.
“So he’s vulnerable now,” she said. “Why don’t we go after him?”
Icy green eyes fixed her. “I would go after him. But I have no idea where he is, and your brother was unable to find the scent trail during our last excursion.”
“Of course. Blame the child for your failure.”
“I blame no one. How would you feel about a side bet on this challenge?”
“No more deals, Lord Camarine. You can’t be trusted.”
He seemed unfazed by her snippy remark. “If I win this challenge, I’ll remain in your house and your family will assist me in my efforts to dispatch Casshorn. If I lose, I’ll sign writs of citizenship for the three of you. The writs would make you legal citizens of the Weird. You could seek employment there. The children could attend school.”
She clamped her mouth shut, biting a caustic reply. Her mind spun through the possibilities. “That will just put us in a place where you have the most power.”
“On the contrary. First, I have sworn to leave you alone if I fail. Second, the laws of the Weird will protect you, given that you’ll be a citizen, and you can have me arrested on stalking charges if I show up on your doorstep. Think about it, Rose. You’ve lost your job, and you aren’t likely to find another. And no matter how much you force the boys to pretend that they have no magic, they do. They can’t live in the Broken; they would slowly suffocate without magic. Look behind you.” He raised his arms, encompassing the house. “This is what you’ve settled for. Do you actually want to make something of yourself?”
He pushed all the right buttons. “What guarantee do I have that this writ isn’t a worthless piece of paper?”
“I’ll affix the Camarine seal to it. As an earl, I have the authority to do so.”
“You’re not a real earl. The Earl of Camarine is a courtesy title.”
He stared at her. “And where did you come by that little tidbit?”
“I read it in a book,” she said, trying to freeze him with her voice. “Even us ignorant types do read occasionally.”
“Apparently not very well,” he said. “A courtesy title is awarded for meritorious service and a couple of other things. A peer titled by courtesy has the same executive peer powers as a full peer. Check your book.”
“Don’t move.”
She stomped into the house and almost ran over her grandmother.
“Is everything all right?” Grandma asked.
“Everything is perfect.” Rose climbed to the attic, grabbed the enormous Encyclopedia, and wrestled it down. If he was lying, she would rub his nose in it.
She dragged the dusty tome onto the porch and dropped it on the boards.
For the first time this morning, Declan displayed some emotion besides stony determination. “Good God, where did you find that antique?”
“None of your business.” She had traded a Rand McNally Atlas, two jars of saffron, and a three-liter bottle of Pepsi for it. Rose flipped the pages to the index and found “Writ of Citizenship, Adrianglia, 1745.”
“It looks over two centuries old,” Declan said.
Rose turned to page 1745 and read out loud. “ ‘ Writ of Citizenship—a document legally conferring all rights and obligations of Adrianglian citizenship. A Writ of Citizenship may be issued by the following authorities: the Office of Census, secured by the Seal of the Minister of Population; the Office of Domestic Affairs, secured by the Seal of the Minister of the Realm; or a Peer of the Realm, secured by that Peer’s House Crest. Only peers of rank Earl or above have the right to issue a Writ of Citizenship. The following is the list of peers possessing such authority as known to the publisher on the date of publication of this volume.’ ” She scanned the list and ran into “Earl Camarine.”
“Satisfied?” Declan asked dryly.
If she passed on this chance, she would be forever kicking herself. Was there a downside to this?
“Do we have a deal?” he asked.
“We have a deal.” It nearly killed her to say it. Rose forced herself to smile. “You’ll never win this one.”
Georgie chose that moment to step out onto the porch. He saw Declan, walked over, and simply hugged him without saying a word. Declan’s eyes went wide. Slowly he put his arms around the boy.
It was an odd moment, a thin, fragile, blond child in the arms of a much larger, stronger blond man. A vision of the future that could have been Georgie’s if his magic didn’t betray him.
Rose sighed and headed to the shed. “Georgie, tell the blueblood about Grandpa Cletus.”
