His burnished bronze eyes find his sister’s of the same hue.
“They lovedme.Thatis why they died. If you need absolution, you have it. I deserve the guilt—it’s not yours to hold,” he murmurs, barely above a whisper.
Rubi’s eyes are glassy, throat bobbing.
“I was meant to be on watch, Teddy. There is no one else to blame, no matter how you look at it,” Rubi admits, hanging her head, pestle clattering to the work bench.
Teddy strides across the room, dragging his hands through his hair and down the harsh lines of his face.
“It is done,” he says with finality, and the words offer no comfort at all.
Rubi doesn’t move. Doesn’t speak. There is nothing to say about such a tragedy.
“We do our duty,” Teddy says. “So one day, vigilance and penance won’t be the price of survival.”
Because if the world requires constant watchfulness, then the world itself is already broken.
He expects Rubi to pick up her flask, but she simply nods. Tight and resistant, but she nods. And he hopes that he can hold the weight of the guilt so his sister doesn’t have to.
Rubi returns to her mortar, grinding the herbs into a fine powder. Teddy follows Rubi’s eyes as they flick—briefly, involuntarily—toward him. Then back to the table.
“What is it?” he asks.
Her eyes snap back to the herb. “Something isn’t right,” she mutters, more to herself than either of them. “It should be binding by now.”
Teddy straightens slightly. “The threvenar?”
Rubi nods once, irritation flashing across her face. “I’ve tried purging herbs, blood cleansers, absorbent minerals, solvents. But look…” she trails off, gesturing to Teddy to move closer.
She takes the sage green powder she’s been working in the pestle, and pinches some between her fingers. She drags another mortar close by. “This is threvenar. Watch…”
She sprinkles the pinch of sage green powder atop the mortar of fine black threvenar powder, and…
It separates.Not in some messy, unstructured way. Just…cleanly.
She tries again with another ground herb. Same reaction.
“I’m looking for a chelating agent—something that binds to the threvenar more strongly than the body does, so it can be dragged out.”
Makes sense.
Teddy nods. “But?”
“But the threvenar repels every potent binder I try.”
She finally reaches for the flask she’s been resisting, pours a measured amount into a chipped cup, and takes a swallow that’s too practiced to be casual. Like she knows exactly how far to go without falling apart in front of him. Exactly how far to go before her work suffers.
“And I’m guessing that’s odd?” Teddy clarifies.
Rubi purses her lips, furrows her brow. “Very. It shouldn’t happen. Scientifically, itcan’thappen.”
Teddy lifts his head. “You sure?”
“I’m always sure,” Rubi snaps, then exhales, shoulders dropping. “I’ve worked with this plant my entire life. It doesn’t behave like this unless…”
Therion feels the room tighten.
“Unless what?” he asks.
