I grin. She’s taking on the role of Ronan’s mother, giving me a warning of my own. “Lead the way.”
Quinn leads me back into the woods along the same path, her cane in one hand, a flame in the other to see in the dusk.
She turns to me, her face serious. “Sylvie, as Ronan’s guardian, I must be certain you understand your obligations to him. You must honor him, but donotobey him. He has enough people obeying him. Make him obey you.”
“Done.” My mind jumps to the incident in which we put out all the lights in the palace.
“And you must swear to always keep him in his place—” She stops abruptly. “Did you hear that?”
I listen to the night-quiet woods, my body on high alert. There are a few crickets chirping and the hooting of an owl in the clearing where we held the ceremony, but no snapping of branches.
Still, I prepare my shadows. I have no weapon on me, but I am weapon enough.
“Tell me to stop,” comes a voice from far away.
It’s coming from off the path somewhere in the woods.
“Quinn,” I say.
“Shh. I’m trying to hear them.”
“Tell me to stop,” says the voice again, and my stomach sinks when I recognize it. “Tell me you don’t want this.”
Seth.
“Oh, hell no.” I am not standing here listening to my brother and Taran do…whatever it is that they’re doing.
Or not doing. Preferably not doing.
I start walking back to the reception.
“Stop, they’ll hear you,” says Quinn.
“Good!”
“Sylvie, come on. Close your ears for a minute. Just let me have this. I have to know what’s going on with them.”
“You know what I want,” says Taran, his voice low and frustrated.
“No, no, no, no,” I say, jamming my fingers into my ears. “You stay if you want to. I’m going back.”
“You cannot leave a handicapped woman on her own in the woods. Don’t make me restrain you.”
“You wouldn’t. Wait, are you arguing that I can’t leave you because you’re handicapped while simultaneously threatening to overpower me?”
“Would either of those work?”
“No!”
“Tell me this isn’t enough for you,” says Seth, his voice closer, calling after Taran.
Good, they’ll hear us soon.
I open my mouth to yell, and Quinn puts her hand over it. “I’m begging you. Taran will never tell me what happened.”
“You need more than this?” says Seth, and I hear him push Taran into a tree.
Taranmoans.
