“Come in,” I said, voice even. I didn’t know how to feel about his haggard expression. Tension riddled his frame as he swiftly crossed the room in a handful of strides. He gestured toward the open space on the sofa beside me, and I nodded.
“How are you feeling? Vora tells me the wounds are healing well.”
“She’s right.” I rested my hands in my lap as I angled my body toward him. “I’m mostly fine.”
“Mostly?” His brows scrunched together.
“I’m having a difficult time grappling with my thoughts,” I said. “Do you have blight?” I looked at him without flinching, letting the full weight of my inquiry settle against him. It was a question, and yet it wasn’t. And Orin knew. A moment of panic flickered through his stare, but it was quickly replaced with a deep sadness that affected all his features. His lips downturned, and he braided his fingers together as he spoke to the floor.
“Yes.”
“And everyone else here?”
“The same.”
“And your land? This whole estate? It’s glamoured to hide the blight, isn’t it?” I asked.
He finally met my gaze. “Yes.”
For a moment, nothing was said. Anger rose in me with a fury unlike any I’d known. I struggled to keep myself sitting, to not storm out of the room and barricade myself in my brothers’ quarters. But that would’ve solved nothing, and technically, Orinhadn’t broken our agreement. I’d entered into his employment in exchange for my brothers’ lives. There hadn’t been time to hash out details, to truly understand what he’d needed from me.
“This changes nothing,” he said quietly.
My answer was sharper than a blade. “Doesn’t it? What were your words, exactly?Just say you’ll work with me? For how long, Orin? Who do I have to cure to get out of this mess?”
“Mavis.” He clasped his hands together. “Just Mavis, and I’ll consider your work done.”
I wasn’t sure I could believe him. “Why not tell me the truth, then?”
At that, he raised a brow. “That all Evers are infected with blight?” A dry, unexpected laugh rushed from his lips. “Edira, your distaste for my kind is obvious. If I told you that we were all slated to die, would you still help us? Or would you be thrilled to rid the world of our existence?”
Not the answer I was expecting. I blinked as I stared at him, which only acknowledged that everything he’d said was truth. I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest had my brothers not been involved.
“You can speak freely, you know.” His words were soft. Too soft. I hated it.
I blew out a breath. “It’s hard not to feel like I’ve been tricked into losing while you stand to gain everything.”
“No.” His hands shot out to clasp mine. “I admit not telling you about the gravity of our situation was an egregious misstep, but the trade in my mind was always Mavis for your brothers. Not the rest of us.”
“You’d forsake your own kin for mine?” I asked. “Why?”
Orin’s stare bored into me. “We have time. Mavis does not. If you were to find a way to save her, we could document it. Learn from it. And, hopefully, find a way to use our magic to cure the rest of our family and, eventually, our kind.” He inched closer so ourknees grazed each other. “I never meant for this to happen. I never wanted you to carry my burden.”
What was happening? My pulse climbed higher as I stared into the endless depths of his green eyes. I wore their crest, but I was hardly their family. They needed my powers. Not me specifically. They could’ve found another threadmender, gone through the same motions again and again. I didn’t know what to take as truth, which meant the only person I could trust was myself.
Trust no one.
“I’ll clarify my evervow if it will give you solace. Trust me, Edira. Please.”
Trust...
And then he dropped his glamour. All of it. Every layer, every woven thread of magic. He was completely bare before me, and yet somehow, in spite of the blight creeping across his form and the stench of decay clinging to his aura, he was resplendent. Perhaps because this was the true version of him—and he believed in me enough to share it.
“I promise the extent of your duty as a threadmender to the Fernglove house extends only to curing Mavis of her blight. No one else.”
Power throbbed outward with every syllable he uttered, clashing into me in rhythmic waves until it was almost too much to bear. It cracked the foundation of my resolve. Evers were self-absorbed. Vain. Arrogant. Orin was none of those things.
Silence wrapped around us as he waited for me to speak. A small, indignant flicker of warmth sparked in my chest—the same one he’d ignited and doused, only to rouse again. I didn’t know what to do with him, but the magic of his promise couldn’t be denied. His words, his vows, were a security I couldn’t get anywhere else.
