Kellan frowns and shakes his head. “I’d venture that I use my power at least as much as they do—daily, really. Perhaps not to the same extent, but I have to think if that was the case and we added exposure over time, surely Thomas or Electra would both be at risk since they are the next two oldest. Neither of them have shown any signs of the—ill temperament.”
“Ill temperament?” I laugh bitterly. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
“Low?”
I can’t stand the softness in his face. His eyes are lighter, like Aidia’s, and seeing them makes me miss her terribly. I want to ask about her, but I want to believe Kellan’s on my side. As much as I’ve seen him yell at our parents about Aidia and Rafe, I know I can’t fully trust him even if I want to.
“You’re right.” I sigh. “If it was about the length of exposure, Mother would also show signs. She’s colder than the dead of winter, but she’s not mad.”
He hums in agreement and continues flipping through his book. Islide my finger across the spines, reading the faded gilt titles of everything I’ve pulled so far.
“What are you looking for?” Kellan asks.
“Is there somewhere that the well pattern is documented? A map of the underground flow of it?”
His eyes light up. “You think it’s environmental?”
“If it’s not something that’s built up over time, it has to be something new that’s been introduced to the well. Maybe it’s connected to why the Drained have become worse over the last year.”
He goes entirely still, and I can sense him trying to feel me out. “Are they worse at the fort, too?”
I hesitate with my hand on a book of maps. “I was trapped with one the other night.”
His head snaps up from the book he’s paging through. “How?”
“It’s a long story. The point is, the Breeder is dead and I’m still here.”
“What was it like?”
“Definitely eerie. Much more in control—calm almost. I was bleeding, but it was biding its time. And it could talk.” Just thinking about its voice, like claws scraping over stone, makes my blood run cold.
“What did it say?”
“Henry jumped down between me and it like some kind of hero and said I was his, but it laughed and said I didn’t smell like I was his.”
“What does that mean?” Kellan asked.
“Well, Kel, when people get married, they sometimes spend alone time?—”
He holds up a hand and makes an exaggerated vomiting noise. “You know that’s not what I meant. I meant what was it scenting?”
I shrug. “Your guess is as good as mine, but what if the madness and the evolution of the Drained are related?”
He purses his lips. “I had considered it, given the alignment of the timing. Obviously, we don’t know for sure when the Drained started to evolve, but it’s clear that there are quite a few of them that have now.”
I look him over again, noticing the lethargy of his aura. “You haven’t had any episodes of madness?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing unusual. Now stop reading my aura. It’s rude. I did an interrogation last night and it took a lot out of me.”
“You should take some time off,” I say.
He shakes his head and looks away. “I can’t. Not with everything that’s going on. The rebels tried to blow up the well two days ago. They snuck some supplies in with the lumber to build the Dark Star Festival dais.”
Even for someone like me who both has magic and a healthy skepticism about how much the Divine care what we do with their seemingly random blessings, attacking the symbol to those blessings seems like asking for trouble. The well is sacred. The extreme sacrilege of it frightens me. That level of frenzy is unpredictable.
Kellan frowns and rubs the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know if any of these books will have it. That specific thing is such a family secret. All of the public drawings only show the Blood Well.” He takes two candlesticks from the table and places one in the center. “So if this is the Blood Well, and this,” he places another candlestick south of it, “is the Family Well, it stands to reason that the well must empty out somewhere south of Carrenwell House.”
“So, somewhere in the Drained Wood?” I lean across the table, scoop up a third candlestick, and place it as far north of the Blood Well marker as I can get it. “This is the Mountain Well.”
