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Steadying her shaking body, she took a huge breath in and centered herself before moving to grab her candles when the door swung open, hitting the wall, and leaving a dent in it.
“You attacked my mother?” Jace asked from the doorway, his eyes shining as his world fell apart just as much as her own.
Staring at him, she really looked at him. He almost seemed taller since taking his power back, his eyes alight in gold, and she wondered if that was what Mallory saw when she called her a “demon” earlier.
“My mother is alive, Jace, and she kept that from me!” Her face was wet. When had she started crying? Maybe she had been crying the whole time.
“My mother!” Bryn’s voice broke, and she wiped the tears that dared to leave her eyes. “She has been alive this whole time, and your mother helped my father leave with me. They took me from someone who could have loved me after my father’s death.” She ended on a sob.
Bryn would need to unpack all she felt toward her father on that matter, but that would have to wait. She had too much happening now, and she wasn’t sure she had anything left in her tank.
“Still, antagonizing her puts a larger target on your back!”
“Exactly, Jace!” She stepped to her cousin, face-to-face, and noticed the true differences between her and her father. Between her and her cousin. Where they had blond hair, hers was a deep red. Their bright-blue eyes to her mixed green and blue. Tan skin to pale.
She must resemble her mother.
“Exactly. It doesn’t matter anymore. They planned to kill me before I even showed any potential power, and you know it. This was all the catalyst to put their plans into action.”
“Even so, Danu said we have to fight here. On Ifreann’s soil. It’s all a part of the prophecy. If you leave, then we are doomed to fail.”
Without looking at Jace, Bryn left the room and moved to the pantry of the kitchen they shared.
She needed to find enough food to make it to the closest town, but who knew what state Tanwen was in or how she would even get there.
Anxiety built in her chest as she put her head against the pantry shelf and slammed her fist into the wall. Tears of frustration leaking too fast for her to bother with wiping them away.
Bryn let herself have a moment to fall apart before she wiped her face with her sleeve.
She was sodamntired.
Steadying herself again, she grabbed a few more jars of preserves and turned only to run into Jace.
His eyes were red, his jaw clenched, and she feared he had come for a fight that would end with her leaving her cousin here on bad terms.
When he reached forward, she flinched, but he pulled her into his arms, wrapping her in a tight hug.
“I am so sorry for all the pain she has caused you, Bryn. So, so sorry.”
Tears leaked from her eyes as she hugged Jace back with everything she had left in her.
“If you are determined to leave against my advice, then I am going with you to find your mom. I owe it to you to help you find yours after what my own did.”
“Jace, no.” She stepped out of his hold, but his hands gripped her shoulders, tightening his fingers into her shirt.
“I am not letting you go out into the wild desert without me at your back. What will you do if you get injured?”
Bryn kept her eyes focused on his, moving between them as if she could pull his thoughts to the surface and see if this was all simply guilt or his own desire to leave town.
“Probably help to have backup and someone who can find food,” Declan’s voice interrupted them, and Jace turned them to face Declan. “Seems the town has no need of me or my father any longer. Arioch is the interim governor.”
“Worse yet”—Justin followed Declan in— “Daran is the new town sheriff.”
Bile rose in Bryn’s throat.
Sage ran into the clinic, standing at the top of the stairs, her eyes wild. She ignored the men as she stared at Bryn.
“They are gathering wood. They made a pyre in the middle of Saints’ Road.”
