“You want to keep Varian here, Reagan?” Finn asked. “Isn’t it too risky?”
“He will only be allowed in the estate during meetings,” Reagan said, the weight of the decision in his tone. “And no longer. His residence is still in Ashenagth.”
Barracus was already arranging measures to ensure that his degenerate of a cousin would only enter the Hall at set times. Reagan planned to reiterate the rules and the consequences if Varian dared to step out of line.
Part of him wished Varian would defy them, giving him the excuse for a thorough punishment. He could almost taste thecinders of Varian’s blood boiling beneath his skin. Almost see the blisters forming.
It was a dangerous game he decided to play.
“Were you waiting to tell us when he first appeared here?” Cerridwen’s gaze shot daggers. “He’ll seize any opportunity to undermine you.”
“Let him,” Reagan said sharply, swirling the tea in his mug, wishing he could pour a measure of the liquor beside his bed into it. "If I were afraid of what Varian mightsay, I wouldn’t want me ruling either. He will not be present for sensitive matters, and that is final."
“I am not attending these meetings,” Gwinifer muttered, crossing her arms. “Unless you want me to kill him, I can’t.”
“You will,” he said firmly. “Unless you want Heil to replace you in staff meetings from now on.”
Her eyes snapped to his, narrow with anger. He treated Gwin like his equal, yes, but she understood hierarchy. He wasn’t asking as her brother, and her seat on the staff could be given to the captain of battle mages without a second thought.
“Is this the man who took Jane against her will?” Joy asked coolly, not really looking at Reagan.
He knew Joy despised him, but that wasn’t why she averted her eyes or why Jan was so fiercely protective of her.
Cerridwen shook her head in disapproval.
“Varian will be watched at all times while he is here,” Reagan said. “And your sister doesn’t have a thing to worry about.”
Jane’s eyes narrowed sceptically.
When he met her gaze, the well of his power surged.
Since the curse broke, he wasn't used to the strength coursing through him. It was one thing to struggle with it sometimes. It was another for it to surge so often, so violently. The effort of reining it in left Reagan undone in ways he knew were pathetic.
It wasn't only that he was accessing the full breadth of his access. It washer.
“He deceived me,” she admitted, stirring her fork absently. “And I fell for it, even though I should have sensed the glamour.”
“A glamour is not easy to identify,” Reagan cut in, a flicker of annoyance bleeding through his words. “It’s rooted in a relic, different from compulsion. If he’d used compulsion on you, you would have recognised it immediately. But Varian already knew I’d warded you.”
Reagan had tried. She was likely the only person in the Hall that night protected by something as paranoid as a ward. He’d taken precautions, but how could he have prepared for everything?
He studied the distress in every gaze around the table, lingering on a pair of hazel eyes.
“We will keep him close,” he said. “But you don’t need to stay in those meetings. He is cunning, yes, but also weak. And if I do this right, Varian will no longer pose a threat to Mountheim."
Jane stared at him, a furrow drawn between her brows.
He was sure she would be safe, and not only because he would be there. He'd seen her learn from her mistakes. That unbending defiance of hers and her sharp mind were her best weapons, and she wielded them well. So well that they struck straight through his heart until she burrowed there completely.
He'd seen the way she had outsmarted whoever had interfered with the curse, the way she had survived the cabin, survived the Northern Forest. Each survival only accelerating the process.
Reluctantly, the table nodded, and Reagan hoped he was doing the right thing.
Chapter 6
Jane
Hildegard was already in the bright infirmary when we arrived that morning, her hands pressed against Father’s chest.
