And Briony. The Consulate offered again and again to find her a different family. But when we presented that idea to Briony herself, she’d thrown a very mundane teenage fit, screaming at us that we couldn’t get rid of her so easily. It took two days to convince her that we didn’t want to get rid of her, just to respect her choices. And, ofcourse, both of us had told the Consulate to fuck off with their offers.
If Briony wanted us, then she was already ours.
I didn’t like that they were coming after Rhiannon next. I glanced back at the house. My brother wasn’t going to like it either. He was hooked on the assassin in a way I feared would end in him getting hurt. I’d never seen him so interested in a woman. Typically, he had short flings with people who understood that he wasn’t in it for the long haul. I’d never once seen him pine for anyone, but all that had changed.
I took another long drink of my coffee then set it down outside the circle of salt, taking Ember’s mug from her fingers. “Let’s get this done, and then we can go sort Rhiannon out.”
“No one needs to sort me out,” the assassin in question said.
Both Ember and I nearly jumped out of our skin, twisting to find that Rhiannon had appeared behind us, as though by magic, a pile of luggage at her feet. It was still a complete mystery to me how she did that, and it had only gotten worse since she got her sword back.
“What are you doing?” Ember shouted, panic edging her voice. Her eyes were locked on the luggage.
“Eight weeks,” Rhiannon said. “They’ve called every day for eight weeks. I’ve told themand told themthat I quit, thatthisis my job, but they insist I can do both. I can’t. And more importantly, I don’t want to.”
My brother came barreling out the back door of Hemlock House, an overnight bag slung over his shoulders. “You don’t have to,” he said.
Rhiannon stared at him. “What are youdoing?”
He grinned. Eryx Necrolinegrinned. My brother was such a goner. “You’re going to have them lock you in when they ward, right?”
Rhiannon blinked a few times, as though she couldn’t believe he’d ferreted out her brilliant plan so easily. “Yes.”
“Then I’m coming with you. The spirits like me.”
It was true. The whispers from the house were still whispering, but they were more pleasant now, sweetly beckoning, rather ominously so, but still… less threatening. The difference was subtle, but it was there.
“No,” Ember replied, looking at Rhiannon. Then she glared at my brother, rather more severely. “No.”
Rhiannon tilted her head to one side. “Ember. Please. You can’t just lock that monstrosity up and expect for things to be okay. That’s not how warding works and you know it.”
Ember’s jaw clenched. We’d talked about this, and that’s why the warding was to be temporary. There was, technically, a risk that we could make things worse by trapping the malefic entities inside the wards.
“Let me go in and solve this. I can survive that place.” Rhiannon’s tone and words were so reasonable, so calm. It was easy to forget that she was talking about going into the most deadly, haunted place in Orphium. Immortal as she was, there were things worse than death, and I was fairly certain all of them were possible inside Oleander Cottage.
Eryx picked up several of her bags. “Not alone. You need a clairsentient, and I’m the best pick.”
Rhiannon rolled her eyes. And then, to my surprise, shrugged. “Fine.” She brushed a kiss to Ember’s cheek. “See you when spring comes. I’ll have this solved by then.”
“Do you… have your phone?” Ember asked.
Rhiannon shook her head. “No. It won’t work in there anyway. EMF and all that.”
Eryx, who was still piling luggage onto his back, nodded. “She’s right. But there’s a landline. It’s connected to the house. We tried it yesterday.”
“We?” Ember demanded. “The two of you have been planning this?”
Rhiannon rolled her eyes again. “No. We just…” she glanced at Eryx and frowned, almost as though she were a bit confused, “keep ending up there together.”
“Absolutely not,” Ember said, shaking her head. “No. And no again a trillion times over in eight dead languages.”
“Technically there are only—” my brother began.
Ember interrupted him. “Kindly shut the fuck up.”
Rhi pulled on Ember’s sleeve. “I’ll be okay. I need some time to process everything. Some space.”
“Great,” Ember said. “Take a vacation to Aradios, visit the beach.”
