The Unwilling - Kelly Braffet Page 0,66

wake Elly. “Can you hear me?”

For a few even more frightening moments, she thought he was deaf. Then he nodded. His lips moved and he said something. She couldn’t hear, so she leaned closer, and he tried again.

“What happened?” he said.

They hadn’t talked about this, about what they’d tell Theron. Judah didn’t know what to say. “You’ve been sick,” she said finally. It wasn’t a lie.

Theron’s eyes drifted, befuddled, to Elly’s sleeping form. “Arkady was here.”

“Yes.”

“Wasn’t sick then.”

“No.” Judah’s eyes were hot.

Theron seemed to think about this for a moment. Normally, to watch Theron think was to be in the presence of a tightly-wound machine, whirring away behind his eyes. This felt different. This felt like watching water drip out of a leaky bucket. He just woke up, she thought. He’s still half-asleep. He’s still sick.

“Tonic,” he said dreamily. “Poison.”

Judah’s eyes closed. She made herself open them. “Yes.”

This didn’t seem to bother him. “Alive.”

She tried to smile. “It’s a long story, love.” But he was already asleep again. Judah felt cold and frightened. Just woke up, she told herself. Half-asleep. Sick.

But the shameful thing that crouched inside her whispering horrible truths knew better. Throughout the night, the cycle repeated: Theron would wake, ask what had happened, and go back to sleep. By morning he was sitting up, holding a cup of coffee Elly had made for him, pale with cream and thick with sugar. He didn’t seem to be able to remember it existed long enough to drink it. Every time he noticed it in his hand, he seemed surprised all over again. He would answer a question if it was put to him, and he didn’t seem unhappy. But neither did he seem like Theron. He was content to sit in bed, eat what they gave him, and listen when they talked, all while wearing the same pleasant, vaguely surprised expression. Theron would rather work than sleep, always, and he was restless when not actively busy. But now he didn’t ask to get out of bed, or complain when they told him to rest. He didn’t even ask for a book.

It was unsettling. Judah suspected that, like her, Elly and Gavin hoped he would fall asleep again so the three of them could confer. He didn’t. And yet, on some level, it was as if he’d never woken up. When dinner arrived, Elly made him a plate and took it to him; Judah and Gavin stayed in the parlor, picking glumly at their own food. They were surprised when, only a few minutes after she’d gone into the bedroom, Elly came back out and closed the door behind her.

“I told him I’d be back after I’d eaten,” she said. “He didn’t seem to mind.”

“Why is he like this?” Gavin said. The question came from the thorny place inside him, and wasn’t directed at anybody in particular.

But Elly answered, her voice chilly. “I don’t know. We could send for Arkady, if you like, and ask him.” She crossed the room and poured herself a glass of wine. Then she sat down.

“I’ll do it,” she said. “I’ll marry Elban.”

Judah couldn’t speak. “No,” Gavin said. “I won’t let you.”

“It’s not for you to let me do,” Elly said. “But of course it wouldn’t have occurred to you to ask my opinion on the subject, because nobody’s ever asked my opinion about anything in my entire life. Why start now?”

“It’s not going to happen,” Gavin said doggedly.

“You would have gone straight to Elban if we’d told you, and you know it,” Judah said.

“Which is what I’m still going to do, except now Theron’s half-dead. Congratulations, both of you. Nice work, well done.” Elly’s tone was neutral, almost matter-of fact. But her words couldn’t have hurt Judah more if they’d been made of fire.

“What happened to Theron isn’t my fault,” Gavin said. “And it’s certainly not Judah’s. But it doesn’t matter. You’re not marrying Elban.”

“I’m not, am I?” Still neutral. A bit curious, if anything. “How do you plan to stop me?”

“I’m going to kill him,” Gavin said in almost the same tone.

Elly’s eyebrows went up. “You’re not serious.”

“Competely.”

Elly took a long, deliberate breath, and then let it out. “Doesn’t that plan rather depend on the willingness of the guards, the courtiers, and the Seneschal to go along with it? That aside, have you even stopped to consider who exactly it is who doesn’t want me to marry Elban?” She gestured toward the closed bedroom door. “Because clearly somebody feels rather strongly about it.

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