Our mugs of ale landed on a nearby table, and I bolted through the patrons toward the entrance. I came to an abrupt halt when I collided with a drunken man regaling a group of sailors with a story. My hands inadvertently clamped around his arms while I tried to keep my balance.
The stranger laughed, turning his head back to the sailors. “Look what I caught, boys. Have you ever seen—” He paused as a vacant look filtered over his face. Eyes clouding, he shook his head in confusion. I jerked my hands away in horror as I felt the pulse of magic leave my palms.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, darting out of his reach. But he didn’t go after me. He rubbed his temple looking at his friends as if he’d never seen them before.
My whole body trembled as I burst through the door and out into the daylight. The street teemed with people, their heads low against the bracing wind.
“Hendrik!” I shouted his name, searching the passing faces.
At the corner, a man stopped. I caught the same flash of blond hair curling around the nape of his neck. He angled his head, and his profile made my breath catch.
It was him.
“Hendrik, wait!”
He was still for another moment, then he stepped around the corner. By the time I arrived, he was gone.
Chapter 12
Liana
Papers scrawled with Bowen’s design crinkled beneath my elbows as I massaged the bridge of my nose. My eyes felt grainy, and my head pounded from lack of sleep. The multitude of hanging lanterns cast a warm glow over the workshop, but even their soft light made me squint in discomfort.
I’d tossed and turned for the past few nights, unable to get the chilling tune out of my head. Hendrik’s distinctive whistle followed me everywhere. After I left the tavern, Bowen had chased me out into the street and found me leaning against a building, almost in shock. He’d questioned me, but I made up some lame excuse about the walls in the tavern feeling too close and I needed fresh air. He didn’t look as if he believed me, but he let it go for the time being.
Was it really Hendrik, or was it all in my head?
Being back in the kingdom walking the same streets we did when we were younger might be causing old memories to surface, but it felt different this time. I was certain it had been Hendrik, though I wasn’t sure why he’d walked away. Unless he didn’t recognize me—or worse, he wanted me to know he was alive but didn’t want to talk to me.
And wasn’t that my greatest fear? That he might hate me? That I didn’t do enough?
After a few years of searching, Sarah and Thomas had tried to help me forget and move on with my life. We’d channeled my ability into something useful, and it gave me strength. It was the right thing to do, but it didn’t heal the pain because I never truly let it go.
Maybe it was time to face the truth. Bowen’s story had made me realize bad things happened to people who didn’t deserve it, and it was so easy to let tragedy infect our lives and make us feel as if we had nothing left. I needed to know if the man I saw was my brother, not to absolve myself of guilt—after all, the only person who could do that was me—but to make sure he was okay.
Because the truth was I couldn’t shake the queasy feeling that had washed over me when we made contact. The dull thud of magic filling my veins, then spilling into the stranger as I tried to leave the tavern. My throat closed as the unspeakable thought I’d attempted to deny forced its way to the center of my mind.
What if he hadn’t recognized me because he was still under the influence of the witch?
If that were the case, it made my purpose clear. I wasn’t able to save him in the past, but maybe I could do something now?
I groaned and dropped my head in my hands. I should show Bowen the same courtesy he’d shown me and tell him about my past. But there was still a part of me that wanted to hold back. It was laughable! I hadn’t known him for long, and yet my conscience was berating me for not handing him my problems on a silver platter. What did I expect him to do? Release me from our bargain and drop everything to help me find my missing brother?
Worse still, why did my heart tell me he’d do exactly that?
I pressed the heel of my hand against my chest, staring absently at his meticulous drawings. He might be exactly what I needed. Bowen was good at finding things; had made a career out of it, and had a chamber full of treasure to show for it. But this was more than that. I felt connected to him in a way I’d never experienced with anyone else, and a part of me thought he might feel the same. What if we could help each other find a way out of our collective darkness?
A pair of footsteps thudded down the hall, and I straightened, smoothing the wrinkles from my dress. I pushed the hair out of my eyes and finger-combed the ends, doing my best to appear presentable. The footsteps slowed near the entrance. I pretended to work while darting glances toward the door.
Gavin poked his head into the room. He scrubbed a hand over his groggy features, going all the way through his tangled hair. “You started early this morning,” he grumbled.
I sighed and shuffled a stack of drawings, fully aware of my disappointment at it being Gavin who darkened my doorway and not a certain master of the manor.
The man was pleasant enough, always appearing rumpled and put out that the sun was shining. I was surprised to learn he lived here too. Even more so to realize MacKenzie Manor seemed to be a haven for the wounded and lost.
“It’s not that early. Back home, I start before dawn.”
Gavin cringed. “People like you frighten me. You’re always ready to get on with the day.”
