Aurelie could not sleep. And when she did, she just rolled onto her side, worrying about Kirin and about Orken who was planning to perform the mind reading spell the next morning. They had collected the last of the ingredients and were eager to start using them.
She also worried about whether taking the prisoner had really been the best idea on her end? He had not spoken a word. The only thing it had done for them was to cause the concerns of the residents to increase.
Aurelie sat in the common room alone, listening as water dripped onto metal somewhere in the inn.
She heard the soft rustle of the grass as it was disturbed by footsteps.
By the lightness of the step and the clicking of heels, which was caused by the buckles surrounding the boots, Aurelie could tell that it was Kirin who approached. She blew out her candle and searched for a place to hide in the darkness. A knot had formed in her throat and her heart lurched up and down and up again. She just ran toward the back of the stairs without giving it a second thought.
He didn't stop to look around or turn on the light and headed straight up the stairs until he reached what sounded like Sasha's door. One knock sounded, if Aurelie were not already waiting for it, she might not have heard it at all. He was trying to be quiet.
"Wake up," Kirin's voice came from the corridor.
"Kirin?" Sasha asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
"Yes, open the door. I have news," he said.
Sasha turned the key. The door creaked quietly, the sound only audible in the dead quiet of early morning. Kirin entered, and the door creaked shut.
Aurelie left her hiding place and tiptoed up the steps.
"Are you alright? Did they suspect anything?" Aurelie heard Sasha ask before the door closed behind them and the voices grew quieter.
She hurried up the last couple of steps and crept up to the door.
". . . a team of guards to patrol the road where I said that I had been attacked. The King did not even notice me. He had other priorities," Kirin said.
"Good, good. I'm glad that you are okay. We were all very worried about you. Some more than others," she told him.
Aurelie cringed at Sasha's last sentence. She could just imagine her winking and nudging Kirin, trying to get a reaction out of him. Could she stop trying to get involved in everything?
"He had his eyes on the Jasmine family. They're on their way here, I gave them our usual route. I hid them in the Neriss Pass forest for a few days, until I could safely get away," he told her, ignoring her implication as best he could.
Light footsteps moved around the room. "Fools, I told them this would happen. Why did they not come sooner?" she asked. "Where are they now?" she asked.
"They should arrive in a couple of hours. I did not leave them far. I couldn't find Arietta's sister, there was no time," he replied.
"Aester? That's a shame, poor little thing. She's the only one out of all of them I could endure." She sighed, and Aurelie heard her heels tap again the wooden floor. "I would like to send the message to the others if you don't mind. He is acting faster than usual, Kirin. His third witch since you have been away, is it? How are they still so foolish? Why will they not just join us?" she asked, her voice rising in frustration.
Had her father killed three more witches? How did the witches not get tired of hearing that their allies were being slaughtered? Cowards. A bitter taste gathered in her mouth.
"We have to warn the others as soon as possible, my sister is with her people in the south. They will have to go deeper into hiding until we can get our numbers sorted," Sasha said.
The bed squeaked. "Yes, send word, just be discrete about it. We do not need to panic the others. We are safe here, for now. I'm not sure about the other locations. The King has been very secretive since he has lost his trail of the Jasmines," Kirin said.
"We might not be so safe here, Kirin," Sasha's lowered her tone.
Oh no, the prisoner. Kirin is going to kill me.
"What?" he asked.
"Aurelie found someone lurking in the woods just after you left, we tracked him to Berilian later and brought him here, we thought we could get him to talk. But he has not even given us his name."
There was a long moment of silence, where Aurelie imagined Kirin was preoccupied with the steam coming out of his ears, and nose. "Where is he now? Maybe I will recognize him," he offered.
"I'll take you to him," Sasha said and walked to the door.
Aurelie's heart raced, she had not planned an escaped. She turned toward her bedroom and heard Kirin continue.
"You couldn't tell me this in the letter, I'd have come sooner."
When Sasha spoke next, she was right on the other side of the door. "I just wanted you to get Aurelie and Leila back without the others knowing they'd snuck out. That was enough information for one evening, don't you think?"
"Yes, that bloody note almost got me killed. I saw it fluttered outside my window while three of the maids were cleaning my chamber."
"I'm sorry, dear. I didn't know what else to do, everyone's already so mad at her."
"Yes, well, that's the other news I came to share. I've spoken to the council at Halbrook. They're ready to take her."
To take who? Aurelie clenched her jaw. She didn't want to believe that he was talking about her but who else would it be? Perhaps he was trying to separate her and Leila after what happened the night before. Then again, Leila listened to no one, specifically not to Kirin.
Sasha let out a long breath and stayed silent for a minute. "Will you talk to her?"
"I don't think . . . I'm not the right person to do it."
"She listens to you."
"Does she?"
"I don't know but I don't see her agree to leave if it comes from anyone else."
Kirin laughed. "I'll try."
"And if she won't go?"
"Then I'll stuff her in a trunk and carry her there. It's not safe here for her or for any of you while she is here. It's been twice that she's been spotted around these parts."
Aurelie's hands started to shake. She ignored her own dread and considered what they were saying for a moment. Perhaps, he was right. Leaving with Leila was reckless, not to mention the prisoner and their excursion around the town to find him or her rockyâor rather fieryâarrival.
"Perhaps," Sasha's voice took a curious and suggestive tone, "if you were to go with her, she'dâ"
"No, I can't abandon the rest of you."
"Kirin," Sasha said gently, "we both know where you belong now, or at least, where you want to belong."
"That's nonsense."
He couldn't have cut her deeper if he had had a knife. Aurelie exploded through the door, her world a vast and expanding crimson. "So it was a lie?"
"Aurelie." He his eyes widened. "Listenâ"
"Go on then, explain." She frowned and motioned him to speak. "You're such a coward."
Kirin looked to Sasha in a moment of regret.
Aurelie huffed and stormed back out of the room. "I'm not going! I don't care what you have to say about it either. You're a bloody liar and there's not a place in the world I'll go with you."
"Aurelie, wait." He followed after her. "Wait, there's something I came here to tell you."
She didn't stop until she reached her bedroom.
"Aurelie, please."
"What?" she snapped, making him double back in his step and shook her head, entering her bedroom.
"It's your aunt, Aurelie. She," Kirin kept eye contact but she could see the strain he felt doing it, "she hung herself in her cell."
After a moment of bitter silence within which Aurelie felt as if she was going to start crying five times over, he continued. "There's was nothing that I could do. There were constant guards them both. I didn't even know that the seed wore off before it was too late."
She kicked the bed. "You saved some family," she yelled as the tears finally came in quick succession. "And, you couldn't save her? You're useless. You're a coward." Her eyes blazed with fury, she pushed him, knocking him back a step, only because he let her. Tears blurred her vision. "I hate you." Her chest closed around the words she had just uttered, knowing that she didn't mean it for a second but only intended to hurt him with them, and so she did. She wanted his arms around her, comforting her in her grief but they belonged to someone else.
Doors unlocked here and there as people were awakened by the commotion.
"There was no other way," he said.
"Yes, there was."
"I'm sorry." He took her wrist, his eyes pleading with her.
"What is sorry going to fix?" she spat, ripping her wrists out of his grip. "She's dead, but you're sorry. I guess that's okay. She's just the woman who raised me. I am an idiot for trusting that we were all in this together." Her eyes blazed with fury. "The look of you makes me feel sick." Aurelie turned away from him and wandered around the room.
"What else do you want me to say? There is no way that we can fix this, it is done."
A crowd had gathered outside of her bedroom. These people had no shame. They stood listening to the two of them as if they had been actors in a play.
Aurelie smirked, and let out a breath. "You are right, Kirin. There is no way that we can fix this." The room was suffocating her, and Kirin's sorry expression made her want to punch something to get her anger out. She turned on her heel, and cut through the crowd, shoving them out of her way with her shoulder. Kirin followed.
"I couldn't save her, Aurelie. You must know that I would have if I could."
Her nose was blocked, and her chest soaking. "Was everything you told me a complete lie?" she asked him. There was no side that she could turn to. How long before her uncle was killed too? Her stomach sunk, and her knees quivered. She limped to the closest wall and braced herself against it.
"What are you talking about? Is this about the engagement? Aurelie . . ." he tried to explain but she couldn't listen to him anymore. Every word infuriated her.
Aurelie had already made up her mind. "I don't want to hear it." She looked at him with empty eyes, tired eyes.
"Aurelie, please," he said, taking another step forward.
She stopped him with a hand on his chest. "It is okay. That's what you want to hear, isn't it?" Aurelie pushed herself away from the wall. "It's okay, Kirin."
"Aurelie, please," he called as she walked away.
Her chest filled with a bitter ache. Then, time stopped and there was just fear and a scream.
"Wake up!" Daerious' scream came from the basement. "Wake up! He's gone. He's bloody gone!"