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My muscles twitched for her loss, and my arms pulled her closer, wanting to take away the pain of knowing she could never ease her mother’s suffering. I couldn’t imagine that kind of devastation, but leaving the child alone with a father like Barney Madison baffled me.
The woman was not in her right mind, understandably.
“It isn’t your fault,” I told her softly. “This world… it’s not hospitable for children. That’s why there are so few.”
Briar tipped her head back and looked at me.
“I know that,” she agreed softly. “I wish my mother could have understood that, too.”
She cleared her throat. “That’s unfair of me,” she added quickly. “I’ve never endured a loss like that. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for her to lose baby after baby…”
She trailed off and dropped her eyes.
“My father did the best he could with me,” she said wistfully.
I stiffened at the mention of Barney, even though I’d only just been thinking of him.
“No matter what he’s done, he has managed to keep me safe after my mother died.”
Did she think this was safe? Being hocked off to a demon? She truly was sheltered.
I swallowed my thoughts.
“What about you?” she said, again raising her chin to meet my gaze.
“What about me?”
“Do you have any siblings?”
I frowned, a fleeting image of a boy and a girl rushing through my mind in tandem. Instantly, I shoved them away, bristling at the foreign invasion. I shrugged Briar out of my arms.
“What? What’s wrong?” Briar asked, instantly alarmed by my changing stature.
“Nothing,” I answered stiffly. “I’m hungry. Let’s go get something to eat.”
“No! Not yet!” she begged, reaching for me. “I like this.”
I eyed her, wanting to wrap her back into my arms but not liking the way the conversation was going.
“I want to learn about you too, Ash,” she murmured, kissing my bare shoulder.
I remained stone still, and she sighed deeply, sensing that I wasn’t about to budge on my stance.
“All right,” she conceded, falling back onto the sheets, her dark hair fanning behind her like a peacock’s tail. She looked like a painting, naked, perfect, exquisite.
Licking my lips, I turned away and lay beside her again.
“I’m not going to pressure you to talk about your family,” she promised. “But it doesn’t seem fair that you know everything about mine.”
“I don’t know everything about yours,” I countered. “I don’t understand how you haven’t seen through your father if you’ve lived with him as long as you have.”
She paled at the reminder and narrowed her eyes. “He must have had a good reason for doing this,” she muttered, a slight anger touching her words. “He must have known I wouldn’t be harmed while here.”
I scoffed loudly and sprang up again, shaking my head. “You’re still defending him?”
Briar put a hand on my arm. “I’m not defending him,” she answered quietly. “But I know that he’s done a lot of good for a lot of women over the years. Maybe you haven’t seen that side of him, but he’s not all bad.”
I didn’t want to do this with her, not after what we’d just shared.
