Snakeroot

  “This was Shay’s room.” Adne spoke aloud without intending to and instantly regretted her words.

  “I take it you never visited him here.” Sarah’s reply had a cold edge to it.

  Adne bristled, feeling she hadn’t earned a reproach from Shay’s mother. Of course she hadn’t visited Shay at Rowan Estate; she was a Searcher, not one of his classmates from Vail.

  “No,” Adne answered slowly, reminding herself that Sarah wasn’t trying to give offense, she was grieving her son. “I never came to Rowan Estate while Shay lived here. I think only Calla did.”

  “The wolf girl.”

  Sarah’s words were so rough with anger that Adne could only nod.

  “She had no right . . .” Sarah’s voice trailed off as her eyes closed. Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks.

  Edging closer to Sarah, Adne whispered, “Had no right?”

  “To take him.” Sarah broke down into a fresh round of sobs.

  Adne wanted to defend Calla but wondered if that might make things worse. She didn’t know what to do. Had Sarah and Tristan requested that Shay’s room be left intact so they might have a chance to get to know their son through the artifacts of his life at Rowan Estate?

  “I don’t understand,” Sarah continued raggedly. “No one does. I’ve spent hours with the Scribes, with Anika. No one can explain to me why my son is gone.”

  “He’s not exactly gone.” No matter the circumstance, Adne didn’t want to just leave the poor woman. She had to offer Sarah some sort of hope. “He’s with the pack. And Calla loves him. I think they’ll be happy together.”

  Apparently that was the wrong thing to say.

  Sarah drew a hissing breath and glared at Adne. “I am his mother. Do you think some girl he’d known a few months could ever care for him as much as I do?”

  “I just meant . . .”

  “He was three years old.” Sarah’s voice was thick. “And I would have been able to accept those lost years if he were here now. We could have been a family again, but we had only moments before—”

  Unable to continue, Sarah bowed her head. She didn’t make a sound, but her shoulders shook violently and somehow her silent weeping was much more terrible.

  Sarah’s right. It shouldn’t have happened. It goes against everything we know about Guardians. Shay’s mother had been human, a Searcher. Yet somehow Shay had willed himself to remain a wolf even after he’d closed the Rift, thereby returning Guardians to their natural state. According to those rules, Shay should have remained human. He hadn’t.

  Adne thought of what she’d discovered about the Scion’s lineage. To have the power of the Nether coursing through his veins must have affected his ability to control the outcome of his transformation, even if subconsciously.

  A murmur caught Adne’s attention. At first she thought it was simply a return of audible evidence of Sarah’s weeping, but then she realized Sarah was speaking.

  “I’m sorry?” Adne took a step forward, daring to rest her hand on Sarah’s shoulder. She drew a quick breath of relief when Sarah looked up at her with pleading, not hateful, eyes.

  Sarah grasped Adne’s fingers, crushing them in a desperate grip. “No one will listen to me. Not Anika. Not even Tristan. No one understands how wrong this is. I can’t bear it.”

  Adne returned Sarah’s grip, hoping to provide some reassurance that someone was listening to her . . . even if grief had driven Sarah to ranting.

  “I know how hard it is to lose family,” Adne said quietly. “I lost everyone. The war took my mother first. Then my father. And finally my brother.”

  The image of Ren’s wolf lurking in the shadows of Rowan Estate flashed through Adne’s mind, but she quickly pushed it away. Her mind had proven untrustworthy of late, but a comforting idea formed in Adne’s thoughts. Maybe her nightmares and visions weren’t the corruption of insanity but merely a side effect of her grief.

  “Forgive me, dear,” Sarah said. “I mean no harm in this. Of course I’m sorry for your losses, but don’t you see that it’s not the same?”

  Adne withdrew her hand from Sarah’s, which took some effort.

  “Don’t be angry.” Sarah stood up and faced Adne. There was a wild resolve in her eyes that Adne found unsettling. “I don’t mean that my grief is more than yours, only that your family was killed in the war. My Seamus isn’t dead. He was taken. And it was wrong. I know he wants to come back to us . . . I saw him.”

  Her tone became accusing. “I saw him with you.”

  “With me?” Adne’s mind filled with the memory of wolves’ howls. “Shay was the wolf who saved me?”

  Sarah’s eyes widened and Adne held her breath, regretting the slip.

  “You remember?” Sarah asked. “You remember that Shay came to you?”

  Adne shook her head. “I don’t remember Shay—I just remember hearing wolves.”

  I thought I remembered Ren.

  “Surely you understand why I have to help Shay.” Twisting the blanket in her hands, Sarah continued, “All that Tristan and I sacrificed for the cause, and this is our reward? I won’t abide it.”

  Adne inched back toward the door as the implications of Sarah’s words sank in. If Adne had feared for her own sanity, in this moment she was much more worried about the fragility of Sarah’s mind.

  “Maybe I should take you back to the Academy,” Adne offered.

  Sarah’s lip curled in disgust. “To my so-called friends? The ones who offer embraces and condolences but won’t help me?”

  “Help you do what?” Adne didn’t want to ask but felt she had to. Whatever mad road Sarah was determined to walk down, Adne thought it best that someone knew about it.

  “Get my son back.”

  That’s impossible.

  Adne didn’t say it. It wouldn’t help anything, and from the way Sarah had been going on, Adne figured other Searchers had already tried to tell Sarah the same. All Adne could do was find someone who was close to Sarah and hope they could help her get over this delusion.

  “Who are you?” Sarah asked sharply. She was looking past Adne into the hall.

  Adne turned to see a tall, slender girl with pointed features and silken hair the shade of mink.

  “I’m sorry, I think I’m lost. I was with the tour,” the girl answered.

  Adne frowned, knowing the tour should have reached the opposite end of the mansion by now. This girl was clearly one of those visitors who thought it clever to slip away from the group and snap pictures of the off-limits sections of the estate.

  Glancing at Sarah, Adne said, “I should take her back. Will you be okay?”

  “Sarah!” A man’s voice sounded farther down the hall. “Sarah!”

  Adne watched Sarah stiffen. Her mouth drew into a thin line of resolve as a man with golden brown hair pushed past the wayward tourist and into the bedroom. Tristan threw an apologetic glance at Adne, and took Sarah by the shoulders.

  “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t come here alone,” Tristan said in a low voice. “It isn’t good for you. Anika and I both think—”

  Sarah pushed Tristan’s hands away. “I’m tired of you and Anika telling me what to do, Tristan.”

  “He’s my son too,” Tristan told her.

  “Then act like you care,” Sarah shot back. “Believe what I’ve told you instead of looking at me like I’m insane. Help me instead of standing in my way.”

  Adne winced at Sarah’s lashing words and then the lines of grief that tightened around Tristan’s eyes.

  Tristan turned to Adne. “Could you please excuse us?”

  Adne nodded, relieved to get out of the room and away from that horrible scene. She grabbed the girl from the tour group by the elbow and towed her down the hall.

  “What was wrong with that woman?” the girl asked.

  Ignoring her question, Adne said, “Let’s just get you back to the tour, okay?”

  “I was just curious.” The girl pouted. “All that history in the tour was bori
ng. I prefer the drama of the present. It seemed like a good story was developing back there.”

  “That’s not a story,” Adne replied. “That was a private conversation that you had no business overhearing.”

  “You don’t have to get in a snit about it,” the girl said.

  Adne wondered if she had the authority to kick this girl off the tour and send her on her way to wherever she’d come from. But that probably wouldn’t go over very well with Sabine. So Adne settled for reprimanding the vagrant.

  “You shouldn’t wander away from the group,” Adne told the girl. “It’s not safe.”

  “So the stories about this place are true?” The girl gave a nervous laugh. “Ghosts in the closets and monsters under the stairs?”

  “Something like that,” Adne muttered. She heard Sabine’s voice in one of the rooms ahead and quickened her pace.

  Adne had already seen a ghost and she didn’t want to think about it. As for the monsters, they were supposed to be gone, but Adne was beginning to fear they’d only been slumbering.

  LOGAN KNEW HE must have felt elation at some point in the not too distant past, but it seemed like that kind of joy had eluded him for years. The giddiness that suffused his being now was intoxicating. After three days in Colorado, Chase and Audrey had returned with news. Good news. At last.

  Chase popped the cork and Audrey held out her glass. Champagne foamed up and spilled over the rim.

  “Be careful!” Audrey shook droplets from her fingers.

  “One does not take care when one celebrates with abandon,” Chase replied, filling his glass, then Logan’s.

  “That’s easy for you to say,” Audrey replied. “You’re not wearing silk.”

  “I had my doubts about this plan of yours,” Logan told them, raising his glass in a toast. “But I have to admit, you were brilliant.”

  Logan didn’t add that he’d spent the seventy-two hours of the twins’ absence second-guessing the wisdom of their trip to Rowan Estate. He hadn’t slept for the past two nights, his mind too full of all the ways that the excursion into hostile territory could go horribly wrong. In all of Logan’s imagined worst-case scenarios he ended up dead with self-righteous Searchers gloating over his corpse.

  Audrey flashed her perfectly white teeth at him. “Of course I was.” She rewarded herself with a sip of champagne.

  “You mean we,” Chase added. “We were brilliant.”

  After sticking her tongue out at her brother, Audrey said, “I don’t mean we. I’m the one who found her.”

  “And I’m the one who came up with the plan in the first place,” Chase replied.

  “Let’s just all agree that we make a good team,” Logan cut in, hoping to avoid a round of bickering between brother and sister.

  “Go team.” Chase lifted his glass. “Not to compromise our ability to savor this moment, but do we have a plan for what happens next?”

  “I was already brilliant,” Audrey said. “My work is done.”

  “Good to know we can count on you to see the whole thing through, Audrey.” Logan smirked. “But to answer Chase’s question, I have an idea. I wouldn’t call it a plan . . . yet. But as far as ideas go, it’s not a bad one.”

  “Care to fill us in?” Chase settled back into the leather club chair, throwing one leg over its arm.

  “What Audrey has done is identify the weak link in the Searchers’ armor,” Logan answered. “We have to exploit it.”

  “Agreed.” Chase sipped his champagne. “And how can we do that?”

  “Sarah Doran feels betrayed.” Logan leaned forward, setting his glass down. “She needs to believe someone out there is on her side.”

  Audrey laughed. “Do you really think she’ll take up with three Keeper orphans? If I’m remembering correctly, the man . . . or creature . . . or whatever Bosque is that you’re trying to bring back kidnapped her child and imprisoned her in a painting for fifteen years.”

  “It’s not as if we’re going to bring her in on our plan.” Logan shot an irritated glance at Audrey. “All we have to do is convince her that we’re the key to bringing her son back.”

  “Is that something we can do?” Chase asked. “Bringing Shay back.”

  “I have no idea,” Logan said. “I’m guessing not, but again—that’s not something Sarah has to know.”

  “Exploiting that woman’s grief isn’t a bad strategy,” Audrey added, nodding. “From the way she was acting at the estate, I’d guess that suggesting the possibility of getting her son back will be too tempting to resist. Even if some part of her doesn’t believe us, I think she’s well past the point of reason. Dangle the right carrot and she’ll bring you the box.”

  “Let’s hope so.” Chase finished off his glass and poured another. “Are you up for another tour, Audrey?”

  “Audrey isn’t going back to Rowan Estate,” Logan said. “None of us are.”

  Logan stood up and went to the fireplace. Taking the small pouch of herbs out of his pocket, he tossed it into the flames. The burning herbs produced a cloying sweetness that turned Logan’s stomach, but he swallowed the bile that tried to climb up his throat.

  His ploy was a tad overdramatic, but Audrey and Chase were still impressed by such things and Logan needed to keep them enthralled and obedient.

  For a minute, Logan was afraid the spell hadn’t worked, but then Audrey shrieked. Her glass shattered on the floor.

  “Damn it, Logan.” Chase had jumped up on the chair as if a mouse had entered the room instead of the wolf that sat silently in the corner, watching them. “Can you give us some warning before you pull a stunt like that?”

  “He can’t hurt you,” Logan replied coolly, pretending that the very sight of Ren—even in spirit form—didn’t make his bones ache with fear.

  “True,” Ren said after he’d shifted into his human visage. “But tragic.”

  “I think that answer is justification enough for me to remain afraid of him,” Chase muttered.

  Logan ignored his friend and offered the wolf a flat smile. “I have a task for you.”

  “Wonderful.” Ren folded his arms across his chest. “I live to serve. Well, maybe ‘live’ isn’t the best choice of word.”

  “Do you know who Sarah Doran is?” Logan asked.

  Ren flinched at the name, but he nodded.

  “And can you find her?” Logan continued. “Speak with her?”

  “Yes.” His answer carried a growl with it. “Why?”

  “I’d like to set up a meeting with Shay’s dear mother,” Logan told him. “It seems we may have a common cause.”

  “I find that very unlikely.” Ren reached out as if to touch the petals of an orchid that decorated a side table. He watched his own fingers pass through the plant.

  “I guess restless spirits lack imagination,” Logan said. “Tell her that I’d like to talk to her about Shay.”

  “Is that all?” Ren wasn’t looking at Logan, but his tense bearing informed Logan that the wolf was desperate to find a way out of this scenario.

  Logan smiled, ready to lay down his winning hand. “Ask her what she’d do to see her son again. The boy, of course, not the wolf.”

  Ren shot a hateful glare at Logan. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Bringing Shay back,” Logan replied. “I thought that much was obvious.”

  “You can’t do that,” Ren snapped. “It’s impossible.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Logan continued to smile. “Has becoming a spirit gifted you with omniscience?”

  Ren didn’t answer, but his lips drew back, revealing sharp canines.

  “You won’t be lying to her, Renier. It’s just a matter of semantics,” Logan said with a smile. “Emphasize that it’s only a slim possibility if you prefer. Tell her how dangerous and risky magic this powerful will be. Say that it might not work at all. As long as you deliver the message, I’ll be happy.”

  After glaring at Logan for a long moment, Ren finally bowed his hea
d. He turned away, but Logan called him back.

  “There’s one more thing.”

  “What?” Ren kept his back to Logan.

  “The Harbinger. I think it’s time I spoke with him directly,” Logan said. “You’re a fine messenger, but I’m tired of the riddles.”

  Ren pivoted to face Logan, his fists clenching. “Did you really expect I’d make this easy for you?”

  “That’s what I thought.” Logan walked in a slow circle around the Guardian. “You’re giving me the bare minimum, aren’t you? Anything you can withhold, you do.”

  “What do you think?” The malice in Ren’s gaze was answer enough.

  “I think it’s time to cut out the middle man,” Logan replied. “I can deal with Bosque directly. You’re better suited to other work, I believe.”

  “If you can,” Ren shot back. “You’re an infant when it comes to magic.”

  “Every child learns to walk on his own eventually,” Logan said. “I do appreciate your concern, though, Renier.”

  Ren shifted to his wolf form, snarling at Logan.

  “Yes, yes.” Logan waved him off. “Your complaint is noted. Now run along and find Sarah.”

  Ren gave a harsh bark of protest, but then he turned and loped away.

  Logan let his body relax. Despite Renier’s uncooperative attitude, he’d answered Logan’s questions exactly as the Keeper had hoped. That meant Logan’s work wasn’t done for the night.

  “My goodness, Logan.” Audrey gave a breathy laugh. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  “Good show. Very good.” Chase nodded, teetering in the chair a bit, and Logan noticed that Chase had managed to finish off the first bottle of champagne and start in on another one within the short duration of Ren’s visit.

  Guardians must truly frighten him. Even dead ones.

  Logan tucked away that bit of information. He’d never know when he might need to substitute intimidation for charm.