A Thief of Nightshade (12 page)

“You weren’t tired, you were drugged,” Aislinn grumbled.

“Hardly by choice!” she yelled. She went around to the other side of the tree and rummaged around the satchel for her clothes, changing into them quickly once she brushed off as much dirt as she could.

Aislinn was reliving their evening for Lipsey and now that she knew, his voice haunted her. If she closed her eyes and suspended her exhaustion and pain, she could imagine it was Jullian. And then something else struck her, perhaps much like the revelation of where she’d come from had first struck Aislinn; even if she did free Jullian, she was dying. Her mind ran through a multitude of hushed confessions, tender embraces and deep, soul-mending laughs ... and it felt like she was losing him all over again.

She sat down with her back against the tree, remembering the endless nights Jullian had woken screaming from nightmares she had never understood, remembering the days she felt unworthy of life itself and how ironic it was that now ... now that life was being taken from her, she’d give anything in her power to get it back.

Appearances aren’t everything.

She closed her eyes, remaining motionless and silent and prayed for tears that would not come. She didn’t flinch when the cool wet cloth touched her neck, wiping dried blood from where she’d been too drugged to clean herself up the night before. The cold air against her damp skin, despite the pain she was in, told her in some small way that she was still alive.

“I’ve brought food for you.” The voice startled Aubrey as she’d expected Aislinn but instead saw the quiet girl from the Crimson Stair, damp rag in hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overhear you but when your friend scared us last night, I ran into the room where you spoke with Madame Crimson. I thought you might need this.” She held up a satchel, stuffed to the brim with things that smelled so good they reminded Aubrey that it had been a while since she’d eaten anything.

“Thank you. Won’t you get in trouble?” Aubrey took the satchel.

The girl turned her face downward as she answered, “The madame was angry when she found me in her room and turned me out, so I took what I could.” She shivered and Aubrey reached into her own bag to look for extra clothing, something to give the girl, but came up empty-handed.

“Where will you go?” Aubrey asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’ll be all right.” She wore a pale green dress, far less provocative than what Aubrey and the other two girls had worn the night before. It was actually quite pretty, but thin and her arms were bare but for a leather bracelet she wore on her left wrist.

Aubrey was cold and was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, pants and the boots that she’d worn to Jullian’s funeral. The girl had to be freezing.

“No, you’ll come with us. We got you into trouble, though I won’t say I regret it. Someone as sweet as you doesn’t belong somewhere like that.” Aubrey stood. “What’s your name?”

“Given.”

Aubrey opened her mouth to speak, but Aislinn, from the other side of the tree, beat her to it. “If you are so intent on this journey of yours, I suggest we get moving.

You can pout on the way.”

Aubrey grabbed Given’s hand and pulled her around the giant tree to where Lipsey and Aislinn waited. “My name is Aubrey, the little one over there is Lipsey and this,” she shoved the bag of food at Aislinn, “ungrateful ass is Aislinn.”

Aislinn looked at them from where he sat with his back against the tree, stunned. “She can’t come with us,” he groaned. “One female is enough. I can’t handle watching over two of you.”

Given bit her lower lip, pulled her hand from Aubrey’s and shrank back from them. “It’s okay. I can take care of myself.

I just wanted to give you this for your journey.”

Aubrey scowled. “Uh-uh, no way! I am to blame for your getting put into the streets. You’re coming with us, or me if Aislinn chooses to walk away.” She turned back to Aislinn. “Which he is welcome to do any time he chooses.”

“Seems she was already in the streets, as I recall.” Aislinn turned away from them and started to rummage in the satchel.

Aubrey wanted to throttle Aislinn.

“He doesn’t mean it.” The poor girl had been tossed out of the only home she had, given them everything she had to her name and this was how her hospitality was repaid. Given’s face had appeared downtrodden the night before, but now she looked drawn-in, as though she’d been so hurt that she couldn’t even register the sting.

Lipsey had moved to a branch that hung near Given. He leaned out. “Oh my, what are you doing so far south?” Aubrey thought it an odd question.

Aislinn stopped his agitated rustling and looked up, half an apple sticking out of his mouth. He didn’t say anything but listened intently to the conversation.

Given held out her arm for Lipsey.

She seemed nervous. “It’s a boring story.

I’m sure it wouldn’t interest you in the least. You three are quite a ways from home; I overheard that you were on your way to the Winter Court. I could take you there.”

Aislinn spit out his last bite, wiping his mouth as though the fruit had been spoiled. “We have no need for your kind or what you offer.” He tossed the bag back at Given, his dark eyes seething.

“Aislinn, what is wrong with—”

Aislinn snatched Given by her arm.

“She’s a Shade,” he spat. “A half-breed Fae.”

Lipsey had leaped to Aubrey’s shoulder in the tousle. “But she’s part human,” he said innocently. Given whimpered as Aislinn’s hold tightened.

“It doesn’t matter. We have no way of knowing where her allegiances lie. She could have easily been sent by Saralia to stop us.” He looked at Aubrey, “Don’t forget, sweetheart, the Wraith’s poison that you have coursing through you right now is just one small example of their cruelty. Don’t be gullible.”

Aubrey pried his paws from Given, who was shaking like a leaf. “And if you’re wrong?”

“I’m willing to take that chance.”

Aislinn kept his eyes trained on Given.

Aubrey rubbed Given’s arm where Aislinn had grabbed it. “Jullian would be horrified if he could see you now, or were you always so lacking in compassion?”

“Please, I don’t mean to be trouble, really.” Given looked at Aislinn with a shocking amount of kindness in her eyes.

“You’ve been hurt more than I can imagine. You are Ellohim. I knew it when I saw you. I guess that’s why I brought the food. I knew you’d been marked. The journey from here won’t be easy for any of you, considering.”

Aislinn eased off a little. “I can handle myself just fine.”

“Marked?” Aubrey asked. She’d forgotten that the Wraith had called him Ellohim.

He whipped around to her. “Do you ever stop asking questions?”

She frowned. “Do you ever use your manners?”

A long pause ensued before he answered her. “To be marked means to bear the punishment of what her Majesty calls treason. Fae and Shade alike can see through the curse. Ellohim means ‘cursed one,’” he huffed. He was still angry but seemed to have been swayed a little by her comments. “If you so much as consider turning on us, you’d better make sure you kill me or you won’t live to try it again.”

Given

looked

at

Aubrey

questioningly. “I don’t want to be a burden.”

Lipsey smiled. “No, no. He’s just hungry. He gets like this when he hasn’t eaten.”

Aislinn scooped him up from the ground. “I haven’t had squirrel in a while,” he said nonchalantly.

Lipsey giggled, unmoved by the threat.

Aubrey sighed, “We do need to get going. Besides, we’ll have plenty of time to talk about all of this on the way.”

“Fine,” Aislinn growled. “But keep up, Shade, or we’re leaving you behind.”

“Are you all right back there?” Given yelled from beyond the marshes. The fog was so dense that Aubrey couldn’t see a thing and she had progressively felt less and less lucid as the day wore on. She’d expected the drug to wear off by now but its effects seemed only to intensify. Lipsey clung to her shoulders as she mucked her way through the mud and mire. Aislinn wasn’t too far behind them.

“Yes,” Aubrey called. “Have you found dry land yet?”

When she didn’t answer, Aislinn came up beside her, his fur caked with mud, and said, “Maybe she got lost or changed her mind and went back to Rheavon or got eaten by a Tylas tree.”

Aubrey ignored his attitude. “Who is Rustin? You knew him, I gathered.”

Aislinn lost the slight trace of humor that he’d carried for the last half hour.

“Rustin was a friend of Jullian’s. He apparently turned on him or else he wouldn’t still be breathing. Doesn’t shock me in the least, but it would kill Jullian to know it. They were close.”

“Jullian had a lot of friends when he was here?”

Aislinn

smirked.

“Let’s

see,

extremely wealthy, smart and not entirely dreadful in appearance and then there is always the whole royalty thing. Please tell me his popularity doesn’t surprise you.

Did he not in your world?”

“No, he didn’t. He was somewhat reclusive. You’re telling me that you were social at some point?”

“Sweetheart, I was a lot of things at some point that I’m not now.”

“I’m hoping one of those things you’re referring to is a gentleman.” She rubbed the soreness from her neck. “And stop calling me ‘sweetheart’ with such acid in your voice, it ruins the pleasant memories of when Jullian would say it with sincerity.”

“I haven’t had much human contact in a while. Sorry if my manners leave a little to be desired,” he said sorely.

“He had friends but they were few,”

Aubrey said. “He rarely let anyone in, even me. After all, if he really had opened up to me I would have known about his past, his real past.” Aubrey stepped where she thought a root would provide a solid step but suddenly submerged to her waist.

“Ugh.” Lipsey jumped from Aubrey to Aislinn.

“Fair-weather

friend,”

she

grumbled.

Aislinn laughed at her, but stopped when she doubled over. Her heart was racing and her throat felt strange.

“Something’s wrong,” she choked.

“It’s not the Wraith wound. I can’t breathe.”

“ALICE CAN’T BE THAT BAD,” JULLIAN

SAID
casually as he drove them to her house for an engagement party.

“She’s a portrait of loveliness,”

Aubrey quipped.

He laughed, his deep voice forcing her to smile despite her best efforts at keeping a scowl on her face. He reached over with his right hand, keeping his eyes on the road, and barely touched her chin with his fingertips. “You’ve far too sweet a face to ruin it with such a sour pout.”

“You might not think that once you meet her. It’s hard to believe she mothered such a gorgeous lot of children. You’d never know they’re spoiled rotten. And don’t call her Alice, she goes by her middle name—Brooke. Too many ‘A’

names in the family.” Her stomach dropped as they pulled into the driveway.

“Can’t we just elope? This house is full of people I can’t stand.”

“Is Grant a middle name?”

“Harrington, too. It’s a societal thing —name your children with no intention whatsoever to address them by their first names. Grant’s name is Alexander, Harrington is Aaron, and then, of course, there’s Alice.”

“Did you always go by Aubrielle?”

Her stomach lurched again; she could still hear her middle name, whispered, in a context that would come to haunt her for years. “No. I changed things up at boarding school. My middle name is Elana.”

He parked Aubrey’s Land Cruiser.

“You have a family, sweetheart, for better or worse. I know it feels like you would rather be without them but I promise you if they weren’t here you would miss them.

Besides, Harry is here.”

She stayed put while he went around to open her door for her. She’d initially taken offense to his chivalry, insisting that it was archaic and meant he thought her the weaker sex. When she finally gathered the guts to confront him about it, he corrected her and stated sincerely that his actions were based solely out of respect for her and his want to show her in everything he did that she was his first priority. Had it come from anyone else, she would have said he were full of it.