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“I slept fine,” Ren answered. “You?”
“Better than I have in weeks. Come on. We should start up to the castle.”
She noted the way he avoided eye contact. That strange disconnect loomed again. Ren almost demanded an audience with him right then, but Dahl was on the move and Theo followed on her heel. It would have to wait until they reached the castle.
Outside, the sun was bright but did little to actually warm them. She set her luggage on the sleds, only to have Dahl immediately rearrange them. Ren tightened her scarf, pulled up her hood, and followed Theo up the mountain.
He turned into a guide once more. Pointing out distant peaks. Talking through old historical battles. She loved that he’d studied all of this, but the history lesson was tainted by the strange gulf between them. The path itself was not particularly daunting. Still, Ren saw why her carriage rider had suggested waiting until the sun was out. It was not hard to imagine a misstep in one direction sending wayward travelers skidding over the side of any number of dangerous precipices. Dahl forged ahead, pulling the heavier of the two sleds, while Theo hung back with Ren. It was not quite enough privacy for her to broach the more serious subjects, though.
Halfway to the castle, Ren started to sweat. She wasn’t even pulling anything, but the sunlight had intensified and the wind from the valley had died. It was quiet, too, with nothing but their breathing and the distant calls of wheeling hawks to break the silence of the mountain pass.
It was a relief when they reached the flattened tier of land fronting the castle. The building looked uglier in the morning light. She could see great gaps in the stones. All of the crumbled arches. It looked like a piece of armor that time had knifed through in certain places. Even the two soldiers looked like they’d suffered through one too many battles. As if they’d rather limp home than keep defending the castle beyond. And this, she realized, was Theo’s home. Not just for the last few weeks. Likely, he’d begun imagining his life for the next few years happening here. Maybe this was the source of his frustration. A reality that Ren had not had to wrestle with.
“I’m sorry, Theo.”
He frowned back at her. “For what?”
“You’ve been alone out here. I’m sure it’s been difficult.”
“Oh. Right. No, it isn’t a very charming place. Dahl has been here. Sam and Mather rotate the kitchen work. I haven’t been completely alone, but…” He trailed off as he looked at the daunting spires. “You’re right. It’s a lifeless place. I feel like I’ve been trying to draw a pulse back out of a corpse. The only thing there really is to do up here is read.”
Ren smiled at him. “Not the worst activity.”
He smiled back, but the expression was flicker and gone. They trudged around the larger snowdrifts. Dahl pressed ahead with her load. Ren saw the growing gap as her chance.
“Theo. We need to talk. Just the two of us.”
His eyes flicked back to her. There was such pain on his face. She’d never seen him look so uncomfortable, and she felt that echoed across their bond. What was happening?
“Of course. I was hoping later today, but I suppose there’s no point putting it off.”
And with that ominous beginning, he led her into the waiting castle. Dahl set to the task of unloading. Theo guided Ren through abandoned halls, full of morning light. It might have been charming if it didn’t show off all the gathered cobwebs and dusty corners. Theo gestured.
“Dahl cleans a different wing each morning,” he said. “But it’s impossible to keep the entire place in good repair with a staff this small. Can’t afford to put enchantments on everything either, since there’s not a magic-house to refill vessels in Nostra. I decided to focus on the rooms that we spend the most time in.”
Ren was led through another hallway—the windows stained and putrid—and up into a library. This room, at least, was in pristine condition. Books ran in a circle around them, reaching from floor to ceiling, and Ren could see why Theo would choose this room to be his refuge. There was a rolling ladder for the upper shelves, chandeliers dangling above a desk and several reading chairs. Even the windows offered a sweeping view back toward Nostra.
Yes, this room would have been her choice as well. Theo closed the door behind them and gestured to the waiting armchairs. Ren took her seat, and the irony of this moment was not lost on her. She was sitting inside a literal piece of history. One of the buildings that had carved the Brood legacy into the history books. If this conversation went the way she hoped it would, she’d take one more step toward dismantling that legacy.
Theo sat down with a heavy sigh. He’d always looked pale, but there was a hollowness to his features. The slightest thinning in his cheeks. A discoloring beneath the eyes. A part of her instinctually wanted to pull him across the room into her lap, to hold him for a while and stroke his cheek and tell him it would all be okay. But she knew she’d come here to ask even more of him.
“I needed to tell—”
“I know why you’re—”
The two of them cut off. It almost helped Ren’s nervousness, this fumbling start.
“Why don’t you go first?” she said.
Theo bit his lip. “I know why you’re here. It’s hard to explain, but I saw you. Speaking with my father. At the apartment in the Heights. It was like I was standing there with you.”
He was clearly expecting her to be shocked. Ren nodded instead. “I know. I felt you there.”
“You did?”
“Of course,” she said. “You pulled me once, too, Theo. The day you arrived in Nostra. I witnessed your first glimpse of the castle. It was the same magic. Across our bond.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Fascinating. I didn’t realize it had happened before.”
