Page 56 of A Treason of Thorns

I’ve never wanted so badly to say yes to Wyn, and to leave this all behind me, but I can’t.

So I turn to him, too. We face each other until I bridge the gap between us. I run a thumb along the line of his jaw, my fingers in the unkempt hair at the back of his neck. Wyn’s skin against mine feels like magic without the mortar. It feels like electricity and possibility, and because of what I’m about to say, like the beginning of our end.

Wyn draws in a ragged breath and looks at me, and I can see everything he wants written plain across his face.

Me, alone, away from Burleigh House. The two of us together.

And the truth is, sometimes I want that, too.

“Who would I be if I left, Wyn?” I ask, ruthlessly tamping my own wanting down. “Who would I be?”

Alone in my room, I settle myself on the window seat. I feel bruised on the inside, but I take the binding rhyme from my pocket and spread it out on the cushion in front of me.

“Burleigh,” I whisper. “I know you’ve had a hard day. I know you’re tired. But will you show me what you can about this?”

Everything grows dim, until darkness falls around me.

Papa’s room wavers to life as the dark fades. My father stands beside the bed looking very young—no more than a few years older than I am now—and there’s someone else lying under the covers. An older gentleman, who I recognize after a moment. I’ve seen hisportrait before, in what is now the ruins of the dining hall. My grandfather, Henry Sterling, who died years before I was born. He looks ill, and presses a sheet of folded paper into Papa’s hand.

“This is for you, boy,” my grandfather says. “You’ll have the key soon enough. And I hope you’ll live a long life and be an admirable Caretaker. But should things go badly in your time—should the House begin to fail, as some have done on the Continent, and as the Sixth House did—know there’s always something that can be done, if you have the courage for it.”

Papa’s young self opens the page and scans the lines of verse. “What is it?”

“A reminder,” my grandfather tells him. “That just as William the Deedwinner and all his heirs have bound the Great Houses to themselves with blood and mortar, so you can bind yourself to Burleigh House.”

“Bind myself to the House?” Papa frowns. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

Henry Sterling struggles to sit up in bed, and Papa moves to help him.

“It’s not often spoken of,” my grandfather says. “Most Caretakers have chosen to forget such a thing can be done. They’ve let the memory of it fade from their families. But we remember.”

“Alright. If you want me to do it, and it’s for Burleigh’s good, then tell me what must be done,” Papa says without hesitation.

“No.” My grandfather places a warning hand on his arm. “It’s only for the very end of things, George. If Burleigh falls into dire straits and the House itself should begin to fail, then you, as Caretaker, can be bound to it—given in service to the House, to be usedas a vessel to carry Burleigh elsewhere, so that it can begin again, away from its own ruins.”

“And then?”

Henry Sterling, the grandfather I never knew, shakes his head. “There is noand then, George. The House would consume you entirely, in order to start anew. It would take you over, and leave you lifeless when it goes back into the earth.”

Papa is pale and wide-eyed, and I know exactly how he feels. Exactly how the reality and responsibility of life as a Caretaker must have weighed upon him in that moment.

“How is it done,” Papa asks after a moment, “should I have need of it?”

“It’s quite a simple matter. Speak your intent—of giving yourself up for Burleigh—and let your blood mingle with its mortar. You’ll be able to feel everything the House feels then, even without a key. Burleigh will bend to you. It is like... a union of souls, or so my great-grandfather said he’d been told. Should you lose your nerve, you’ll have one last chance to walk away, because you must work House magic after the binding, if you’re to absorb what Burleigh is. Anytime you take in Burleigh’s power, it will eclipse you a little more, until it finally reaches your very heart. Then you’ll be overshadowed, the last true servant of our House, who allows it to be reborn, free and unbound.”

Papa takes his father’s hands in his own. “I swear to you I’ll do it, should Burleigh require it of me.”

Henry Sterling nods, and smiles, and a little of the tension drains from his face.

“You’re very certain, my boy. And certainty is what’s required.A willingness to give of yourself. Make sure you’re just as certain if the time comes when a binding is needed, because once bound to a House, you cannot be freed unless someone else takes your place. Even then, you’d have to be absent from the House entirely, in order for it to accept a new bearer and to set you free.”

The memory fades, leaving me sitting cross-legged on the window seat, staring down at my grandfather’s handwriting in the moonlight. But his words are still ringing in my ears.

You will be able to feel everything the House feels, even without a key. It will bend to you. It is like a union of souls.

It will eclipse you.

You will be overshadowed.