Resigned, I asked, “Where is he?” somewhat afraid to hear the answer.
“He’s unavailable right now,” Victor replied.
“When will he be available?” I asked, jutting my chin up to brace myself.
Victor fixed an earnest blue gaze on me, as if pressing me to understand. “After sundown.”
“After sundown,” I echoed.
The words settled deep inside my chest. I would have to seek help from the terrifying gargoyle who’d imprisoned me.
CHAPTER 9
LILIA
The last thing I wanted to do was deal with that imposing gargoyle, so I avoided it and went to my room before sundown, retreating there with a book. While I tried to read, my mind kept wandering. I tried not to let my imagination drive me mad with worry over Henri.
At least Genevieve and Victor were warm. Genevieve was an amazing cook and made incredible meals over the next couple of days, which I’d only dreamed about back home with our meager means. Victor appreciated my help in the garden, as it freed him to take on more tasks around the castle. I did so gladly, making myself useful even if I couldn’t figure out how to fulfill the deal I’d made with the gargoyle.
I’d sensed energy along the wards, but it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t read it enough to understand how to work with it. Green magic dealt with living things, but what was woven here felt like some sort of ancient power well beyond mycomprehension. I might as well be attempting to mend a cloak I couldn’t see with thread I couldn’t feel.
Victor and Genevieve were nurturing and kind, but whenever I asked about Hadrien, they shut down.
“It’s not our place to reveal such things,” Genevieve said at dinner the next evening as she cut the freshly baked bread she’d made earlier that day, and the delicious scent wafted over, stirring my appetite. We sat in the dining room that night as the earlier rain had left the air cool.
I clenched the stem of my wineglass, the frustration from the last few days building. “But how can I do anything to help these wards if I don’t even understand the story behind them?”
Victor paused his raising a spoonful of the beef stew to his mouth and glanced at me from his clear blue eyes. “I told you where to get those answers. We cannot provide them for you.”
I’d tried on my own for a few days already and had nothing to show for it.
I groaned. “But will he?” I took a spoonful of the fragrant stew, and the flavors of rich, spicy sauce danced on my tongue. As delicious and hearty as this meal was, it wasn’t enough to distract me from the grumbling hulk of granite who loomed like a surly shadow over this castle.
Genevieve leaned back in the chair, wiping her hands on her apron. “Why do you say that?”
I pictured Hadrien’s cool gray eyes and how they’d fixed on me that first night. “Because he imprisoned me and my family and only let them go if I can manage some impossible task. So how can I trust that he’d cooperate with me to doanything?”
As the words left my mouth, I winced. I was the one who’d suggested that I could help with the wards, out of a desperate attempt to save my family. Now I regretted those words as I was trapped here in a castle with a monster.
No. No regrets. I’d done so for Henri. His health was worth it.
Genevieve placed her hand on mine and squeezed, her touch warm. “He isn’t as unkind as you may believe.”
I snorted. “You could’ve fooled me. What with the imprisoning and threats, he seems absolutely delightful!” I mocked.
“There are things that happened here,” Victor said quietly as he put down his spoon. The evening light slanting through the dining room window caught the gray in his hair. “Bad things. And Hadrien is responding the only way he knows how.”
“What things?” I leaned forward, my pulse jolting up as I sensed I was getting closer to an actual answer. “What happened? If I could only understand, then maybe I could do something…”
Genevieve and Victor exchanged a long look across the table, one I tried to read but failed.
Victor set down his spoon and looked at me directly. “You’re asking the right questions,” he said. “But to the wrong people. That’s all.”
She turned back to me with a small smile. “We really shouldn’t talk about this anymore.”
Shut down. Again.
I kicked my foot out in frustration beneath the long oak table.
