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The Warsword snorted. ‘A likely story. Glad you’re both still alive. The fortress would be a dull place without you.’
‘Thank you, Sir.’
Thea sought Hawthorne’s gaze, but he was no longer there.
The longest night of Thea’s life at last bled into day and she stayed by her friends’ sides, helping Wren and Farissa where she could. They treated the rope burns with a healing salve and monitored them closely for fever and signs of internal injury.
Farissa had questioned them about how long they thought they had hung there, but neither shieldbearer could tell. Kipp was almost his usual self, but Cal… Cal seemed distant to Thea, but she said nothing in front of the others. She would wait until the three of them were alone, and then she’d beg for their forgiveness.
In the meantime, she was determined to talk to her sister and when both Cal and Kipp had drifted off to sleep again, she got her chance. With Farissa in deep conversation with Torj and Hawthorne nowhere to be found, Thea pulled Wren outside.
Even in the midst of day, the sun didn’t pierce the grey clouds that loomed overhead. A thin mist had settled at the foot of the trees and everything was damp and icy in the winter chill.
Thea didn’t let Wren go until they were well out of earshot.
‘What is it?’ Wren folded her arms over her chest against the cold. ‘What’s got into you?’
They stood on the porch, where only hours before she had been tangled in Hawthorne’s arms… Thea shoved the thought from her head.
‘I wanted to ask you something…’ she ventured slowly, suddenly not sure where to start, and not wanting to ambush her sister.
‘Is it something to do with why you looked so… flustered… when we arrived?’
Thea flushed. ‘No.’
Wren smirked. ‘You’re not half as sly as you think you are, Althea Nine Lives. And how typical. I tell you to stay away from someone and you go and —’
‘I don’t think I’m sly,’ Thea cut her off, cheeks heating.
Wren paused and took in her worried expression. ‘What is it then?’
‘You have magic,’came the echo in her mind.
‘I…’ Thea stammered, searching for the right words, but there were no right words for this. It was plain and simple. ‘What do you remember, from before Thezmarr?’
Whatever Wren had been expecting her to ask, it clearly wasn’t that. ‘Before our parents left us here?’
Thea nodded.
‘Why?’ Wren demanded.
Thea pushed the loose hair from her face and sat on the top step of the porch, chewing the inside of her cheek. Wren sat next to her, trying to peer into her eyes, into her soul. She always knew when Thea was holding something back, it was an infuriating trait.
Thea rubbed her aching temples. ‘Please, Wren.’
Her sister’s brows crinkled in surprise. ‘I don’t remember the last time you said “please”...’
Thea gave her a warning look.
‘I’ve told you before, I don’t remember much…’ Wren started with a shrug. ‘Sounds, colours… And even those I’m not sure if they’re memories or figments of my imagination, based on what Audra told us later on. All I know is what we were told: that we were left at the fortress gates, bundled in a couple of blankets and not much more. No sign of where we’d come from, no note, nothing.’ She seemed to mull over her next words, chewing on her lower lip. ‘When we were younger and in lessons, sometimes I’d get a strange eerie feeling wash over me, like I’d heard a particular fact or phrase before, or when some piece of imagery looked familiar. Or I’d smell something and a surreal recognition would surface… But it’s all so blurry, Thea. I was an infant. We both were. How can we remember anything from back then?’
‘I don’t know,’ Thea admitted. ‘My sole memory is the seer giving me this.’ She drew her fate stone from beneath her shirt. ‘And even that… It’s distant, you know? When I dream of her, she has no face, no discernible words beyond “Remember me” – as if I could forget the woman who told me my life would be cut short.’
Wren reached across and took the fate stone between her fingers, her brows furrowing as she studied it. ‘What is this really about, Thea?’
The ache behind Thea’s eyes was growing worse and a pit of dread yawned inside her. The shieldbearer initiation test was the day after next. Her friends were still recovering and had no idea, she’d had little to no sleep and her body was taut with tension. Who knew what sort of drills and training they were all missing out on today that might better prepare them for the trial? Did she really need to be having this discussion with Wren now? Could it not wait until she faced the bigger, more immediate hurdles?
‘You have magic,’Hawthorne’s genuine shock was what resonated most as his voice whispered against her mind again.
