Why?
Maybe he knew the magic wouldn’t work anyway, and he just liked the way this tattoo looks.
Praxis’ voice hums in my ears.Magic has returned to my people.
No. It’s not true.
It cannot be.
It takes everything in me to not roll my wrist over and stare at the hissing serpent.
I have been unwilling to test my magic for fear it is somehow tied to theirs. What if I healed someone else, and another child was born with the mark, and I inadvertently gave them back their gifts?
I would never forgive myself.
“What else?” I ask, desperately needing answers.
Kassandra shakes her head. “There’s nothing. Everly is just angry with Gabriel.”
“Why?”
Everly rises to sitting and clenches her fingers together. “He has so much potential, and he doesn’t use it.”
“With weaponry?” I ask as I think of the dagger he crafted for me.
Long, dark hair falls into Everly’s face as she shakes her head.
Kassandra bounds from the bed. “Who wants bread?” Before her sister objects, she grabs her hand and yanks her from the room.
I follow them and settle at the table where Kassandra brings her latest loaf of bread. She slices us thick pieces and settles in a chair opposite of where I sit.
She stares down at her bread for several breaths before finding her voice. “Sol, I want you to keep what happened here today a secret.”
My brow rises. “Why?”
“I want…” She wraps cloth around the loaf of bread and sighs. “I want to speak to Luc first.”
“I understand.”
Hesitation grips her voice as she continues. “That means you cannot tell anyone. Even Gabriel.”
What’s one more secret?
Even as I think the words, they fester inside me. I am already keeping so much from him. And this is hard because every fiber of my being wants to run to him and tell him everything. Then, he could punish the people responsible. Just like when he punished Deborah.
“I won’t speak until after you have told Luc,” I say after a moment.
Relief floods to her drawn features. “Thank you.”
As the conversation shifts to a dress Kassandra is sewing for a client, I allow Everly’s words to return.
Days ago, I knew Gabriel was keeping secrets from me. I didn’t realize how big they might be.
I stare down at my left wrist, gazing at those lines, those words.
Surely, he only picked the design for the way it looks. It is lovely, and Alf is very talented.
Surely, that is all.
