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“I’ll take my chances,” Rhia said softly. I glanced up at her and she was smiling. “I’m here to help you see her die. She took my mother, you know.”
Slowly nodding, I slipped into a chair and spooned my cereal into my mouth. What would Rhia say if she knew I was planning on rescuing Grieve? Would she help me? Leo would be furious and might tell Geoffrey. Kaylin . . . who knew what Kaylin would do? He seemed to have returned to his old self, but I knew that wasn’t true. I could feel his demon, just below the surface. He looked at the world through eyes we recognized, but behind there . . . inside . . . he had changed. And Peyton . . . hmm, what about Peyton?
“What’s going on in there, Cicely? I know something’s up.” Rhiannon sat down beside me, espresso in hand. She handed me a homemade latte and I gratefully sipped at the steaming caffeine. “What are you thinking?”
“I want to tell you something, but I’m afraid you’ll try to stop me.” I shook my head. “Maybe it’s best if you don’t know.”
“We’re family, Cicely. I’ve got your back. It’s something about Grieve, isn’t it? I know you were with him last night and I know that it helped ease your pain. I promise, I won’t say anything to anybody else.” Her eyes were wide as she crossed her heart. “Cross my heart and—”
“Don’t finish the rhyme,” I said softly. “Grieve told me that long ago. Never promise your life away.”
“Then what is it?”
I bit my lip. “If I tell you, you cannot tell Leo or Kaylin. At least not until I give you the okay. It’s important.”
“I promise.”
Taking a deep breath, I let it whistle slowly between my teeth. “I’m planning on how to rescue Grieve. Myst is tormenting him, and unless we sever the connection, I’ll just keep taking on his pain every time she hurts him. And I refuse to break the bond. Grieve and I . . . there is no life without the other. I never used to believe in soul mates or twin souls until . . . until I came home and realized how tightly we are linked.”
“How can you rescue him, though?” And then she stopped. “The antidote . . . you plan on getting hold of the antidote that Geoffrey and Lainule are making and you’re going to give it to Grieve, aren’t you?”
I blinked. Rhiannon was more astute than I’d thought. “Yeah. That’s what I’m thinking. But I have to figure out a way to get into Geoffrey’s house, and then to find the damned thing.”
“That’s not going to be easy. And if Geoffrey finds out, he might take it out on Leo.” At the expression on my face, she hurried to add, “Don’t worry—I’m not going to tell him. But we’ll have to think carefully.”
“We? I’m not asking you to help me, Rhia. It’s going to be dangerous.”
“And our lives aren’t dangerous now? Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’ll help you. I wish you could walk away from him, but I understand.” She paused, then slowly added, “You have something with Grieve that I don’t know if I’ll ever have with Leo. I love him dearly, and he loves me. And I’ll be happy to spend the rest of my life with him but . . . but we weren’t destined for each other. I know that in my heart. I always thought there was someone out there waiting for me until he came along and then I . . . I wasn’t sure, anymore. And we grew close and then I fell for him and now . . . we mesh. We aren’t a complete fit, but we mesh.”
“Maybe that’s all we can hope for and anything else is gravy. In my case, painful gravy.” I cupped the latte with my hands, feeling the warmth of the mug seep into my body. A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.
Rhiannon motioned for me to stay seated. “I’ll get it.”
She returned with Peyton in tow.
“Sorry I showed up early, but I was just too excited about getting things moving and I figured you’d be up.” She slid into a chair and put her purse on the table, looking dour.
“Are you sure that’s the reason? I mean, it’s fine but you don’t look very happy.”
She shrugged. “I had an argument with my mother and needed to get out of the house.”
“What about?” Anadey and her daughter were both strong willed. It wasn’t hard to imagine them getting into a spat.
“I got a letter.” Peyton let out a long sigh and opened her purse, pulling out a thin envelope. “Mother wasn’t happy about it.” She tossed the letter on the table and shrugged. “It’s from my father.”
“Your father? But I thought he ran off and left you years ago!” I stared at the note and then at Peyton’s face. “This is the first time you’ve heard from him since then, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Yeah. He wants to be a part of my life now. He’s sobered up, been in AA for three years, and he wants to get to know me. He’s got himself a job in Seattle and he’s pulling his life together. I didn’t know he’d been an alcoholic when Mother kicked him out. She never told me.” And then she promptly burst into tears. “I don’t know what to think. I don’t know if I want to see him—he left us. He left us high and dry. But now . . . what if he’s changed?”
She leaned forward, resting her face on her hands, crying softly.
Rhiannon scurried around to give her a hug, and I leaped up to get her a glass of water and the tissue box. Peyton fumbled for a Puffs tissue and blew her nose, then looked up, her face red.
“Mother tells me not to trust him. That he’ll just skip out again on me. She won’t allow him in the house and says that if I want to see him, it’s up to me but she doesn’t want to hear about it.” She bit her lip. “I know he hurt her, and left her with a baby and no money. I know what he did was horrible . . .”
“But he’s your father and you want to see him. You want to know if he loves you.” I whipped up a quick latte and slid it in front of her. “Drink this. It’s okay. Rhiannon and I understand. We’ve never even met our fathers. I know the name of mine but nothing more than he’s Cambyra Fae.”
“That’s more than I know. I used to ask Heather about my father when I was little,” Rhia said, sliding into the chair next to Peyton. “She wouldn’t tell me anything. I used to get so mad at her.” She paused, then added, “I’d almost forgotten—I set a fire once when that happened. I didn’t mean to but I was so angry that one day I stomped outside and was sitting on the back porch and my mother’s rosemary bush went up in flames. I know it was my doing because I felt the fire shoot out from my heart. But I hurried to put it out with the hose and she never asked me what happened.”
