Morgan nods. ‘Still don’t want her away from us, though. We can train her well enough. We have been.’
‘As you said,’ I murmur softly, ‘it’s not about the training. It’s about making sure she knows her place, that we know ours. It’s about us knowing that Calder pulls the strings on both councils. He didn’t like that we were willing to claim her, that Dane was able to thwart his true plan… to take her from Merediea once she was cast out. This is the price of his disappointment.’
Morgan lets out a sound of derision. ‘At least the binding is done, and part of the claiming as well.’
I raise a brow. ‘Part of the claiming? Really?’ I ask innocently.
His cheeks color but his grin is wicked.
‘Don’t play games, Jak. I know you heard us. You and Locke both.’
‘Aye, we heard, you cunt.’
I glance back at Bryn again and lower my voice. ‘She was happy? After?’
My friend straightens, puffing out his broad chest. ‘Of course. I pleasured her well. She was thoroughly sated in my bed.’
I give him a long-suffering look. ‘I don’t mean bodily. I mean…’ I tap my chest. ‘In here.’
He sobers. ‘Being at home with us makes her happy. Good food and a full belly. Spending her days here with you as well. She enjoys our company, though she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t trust us, still. She doesn’t speak to Locke much.’
‘Do any of us speak to Locke unless we have to?’ I sniff.
‘True enough,’ he grunts. ‘Anyway, she sees this place as her only chance to have a life as one of the freefolk. Because of that, she’s willing to overlook much.’
‘Like being attacked in an alley?’ I mutter, my fists clenching.
‘Aye. Like that.’
I step outside, closing the door behind me. ‘I thought she might be more afraid here afterward, that it might have tainted this place for her, but she barely mentioned what happened. Though it scared her, she simply…put her efforts into the good, ignoring the bad.’
Morgan nods. ‘But that’s why I don’t want her out there without us, especially not with Voss. She spent her life being treated terribly, but for her and all the humans she knew, it was normal. She may endure casual cruelties meted out by Voss and others and simply not realize what they are doing because she’s never seen the other side of the coin.’
He sighs. ‘Do you…understand my meaning?’
I nod. ‘She’s not been here long enough to see what it truly is to be one of the freefolk. And Calder already said she’s perfect to be used because, unlike Tori and Soreno,she was a slave for so many years.’
My lip curls as I think about how they would use her. Catching Fiana isn’t worth Bryn’s life, at least not to me and Morgan.
But what about Locke?
The truth is, I can’t guess what he feels for her. He seems protective. It was his idea to have Bryn formally learning to be a healer with me. But his true motivations remain a mystery. Does he care about her, or is he simply ensuring that she’s ready to do her part to lure Fiana into the open?
‘We could go,’ I say quietly. ‘Leave. Escape into the Light. You and me with her. Build a home in some quiet village somewhere.’
He seems to seriously consider it for a moment but shakes his head. ‘Even if we can get out of Halsford, Calder will have us hunted down. He’ll send the best of the Underhill after us on the grounds that Bryn is the best chance of the mission being a success. We’d have to keep moving from place to place. That’s not what Bryn wants. She desires a quiet life, settled. I believe she would like a family. Children one day.’
‘Then we need a real plan.’
Morgan regards me. ‘Weneedto keep her close. Safe. When the mission happens, we don’t let her out of our sights. We catch that bitch, Fiana. We hold the Council, and Calder to the deal they made. After that, we have Dane dissolve the binding between us, and Bryn will truly be free.’
I give him a sharp look. ‘Do you want that?’
‘No. You?’
I shake my head.
‘Then, we must ensure she chooses us when this is over,’ he says simply, and I scoff.
