Page 67 of When Ashes Fall

“Why does she hate you so much?”

Briar shrugged. “I don’t know; she always has. She tried to abort me, but for some reason, she couldn’t.”

I frowned at this revelation. Everyone knew the night casters could work that kind of magic, and they were the ones to go to if the need should arise.

“How is that possible?” I inquired.

“How do I know? I was nothing more than an embryo, and then a baby she hoisted off on every wet nurse and nanny she could find. She told them not to treat me kindly, and they didn’t.

“I don’t know why she didn’t throw me out in the woods to let me die there; maybe she was afraid I’d somehow make my way back to her, or maybe she believed the gods were the reason she couldn’t abort me and was scared of incurring their wrath. She never told me why she didn’t kill me outright; although, there were many times when she told me that she wished she had.”

Her mother was an evil bitch; I’d never doubted that, but I couldn’t imagine inflicting such cruelty upon a child. My father never hid his disappointment in me, but he was never purposely vicious in such a way.

“And you never knew your father?” I asked.

She’d told me that years ago, but it could have changed while we were apart.

“She said he was a priest, but I never truly believed her. If he were a priest, he would have come to visit, as Rosalie’s father did. And she would have told me if he’d died.”

“Does she know who he is?”

“I believe so.”

“And no one else from Nightshade told you anything about him?”

“I doubt she told anyone the truth about my heritage.”

“Hmm,” I murmured.

I retracted my claws and wiped the blood staining my hands on the towel Briar had hung by the door for me. I pondered her father… the missing entity in her life that Marina preferred to keep a secret.

Why?

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Knox

I looked at the closed pantry door as I recalled the way that rodent followed her everywhere. Not to mention her strange behavior in the woods before she uncovered the grave and the way she’d acted in the cemetery earlier.

“You and the rat are very close,” I said.

The abrupt change in conversation caught her off guard, and it took a few seconds for her to reply. “He’s not a rat, and he deserves respect. He’s my friend.”

My eyebrows rose at the vehemence of her words. “He’s your friend?”

“Yes.” She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot on the ground. “I was there when the basilisk tried to eat him. I gave him food, and he returned to stay with me. He helped me through my loneliness and fear while I was locked in your tower.”

“A tower you refuse to leave.”

“I will not be broken by my mother or you.”

“Believe me, Briar, if I intended to break you, I would.”

“No, you wouldn’t. I survived her, and I’ll survive you. I can get through whatever comes my way.”

I admired her strength and determination, but I could snap her like a toothpick, yet I wouldn’t, and she knew this.

I could do worse to her by caging her completely, but not even I was that heartless… at least not when it came to her.