I am an oddity.
An impostor.
I have no real tribe. No real home. No real people.
Everly slides closer to me, allowing her shoulder to brush against mine, as if to remind me I belong with her.
We weave through the crowd, searching for a place to stay for the night. Most of the inns are already booked for the festival, but eventually, we find an alehouse with a room, and we settle in, exhausted from our journey.
After we bathe with water and herbs, we climb in bed. Everly doesn’t speak as she rolls away from me and her breathing evens. I smile at how quickly she’s able to fall asleep. My mind is too busy thinking about Father and what our reunion will be like.
Will he welcome me with open arms?
Or will he turn me away?
The thought makes my stomach tighten into thick knots. I raise my hand to the pain and let out a sigh. No matter how he greets me, I must ask him questions about Mother.
It’s the only way I can continue this new chapter. The ones the high gods seemed to promise me as I stood outside the cave. They were watching. I feel it in my bones.
And perhaps they guided me to Tersah. Or rather, according to Tersah, they directed her to me.
Though I don’t understand why the Seer would send Tersah to help me with Bloodstone magic, I know it means something. It has to mean something.
If those flowers are the key to preventing the darkness from taking over again, I may be one step closer to being able to stay with Hector.
ChapterSixteen
Apeacock follows me as I walk to my childhood home the next day. Lanvilla hums with festival activities, but I barely notice as I approach the familiar stone brothel.
The closer I get to the brothel, the more my heart pounds, and the more my nerves tighten and twist inside me. How they twist. How they knot everything together until I’m edgy and shaky.
Calm down.
You can do this.
I glance over my shoulder, half expecting to see the peacock, but it wandered away. Turning back, Igulp in a quick breath as I approach the front door and knock. After a moment, the door creaks open, and Hattie stands there.
My throat thickens as I lower my cloak and reveal my face to her. The older woman’s blue eyes shimmer with tears as she pulls me into her arms, holding me so close I can barely catch a breath.
“Sol! Oh, Sol!” She pulls back, then crushes me to her again.
It’s the same way she held me after Mother died, the same way she welcomed me into her life. It didn’t matter that she was a madam. She taught me to read, tended my wounds, and she listened when I spoke.
She withdraws first and leads me inside. The brothel has not changed much since I left. The dimly lit entrance leads to a narrow hallway that opens into a generous-sized room filled with plush couches and painted women. Incense and perfume thicken the air, and murals, depicting scenes of pleasure and debauchery, cover the walls.
I barely have a chance to look around before Hattie drags me into a small parlor near the entrance.
“Where is my father?” I ask, needing to know.
She shuts the door and turns to face me. “Safe.”
Confusion gnaws at my chest as I lift my brow. “What do you mean?”
She runs her hands against the front of her silk cotehardie. “He has been in hiding ever since the leaders discovered what he did.”
What did he do?
Needles of fear prick at my skin. Fear for him. Fear that something bad has happened. “I don’t understand.”
