contact with it, causes the bond to form. Which means we can take it from the captured guard, and it won’t harm him. If anything, it will help him.”
“Exactly.”
I smiled at Adriel, but she didn’t seem as pleased with the news.
“When are we leaving?” she asked Talin.
“Immediately. Roan and the others already rode ahead. I stopped to collect the two of you.”
Adriel folded her arms across her chest. “Collect us? Like specimens?”
“I’m sorry?” Talin looked at me, clearly confused.
I shrugged, but Adriel only hitched her bag on her shoulder. “I need to go back to the cottage and leave a note for my patrons. I can catch up with you if you want to go with them, Nor.”
Talin smiled at me encouragingly, clearly eager to spend time with me, but I didn’t feel right leaving Adriel to finish up our work alone.
“You ride ahead,” I said to Talin. “We’ll be right behind you.”
I was relieved when he didn’t argue. “We’re meeting at the fort. I’ll see you soon.”
I kissed him lightly on the cheek and watched him ride back to the road leading to Leesbrook with Grig.
“What’s wrong?” I asked Adriel as we gathered our belongings. “This is a good thing. We might actually learn something useful about the bloodstones and Ceren’s goals.”
“You forget,” she said, mounting her mare. “I don’t actually care about Ceren or the bloodstones. Your prince’s cause is not my cause.”
I flinched, stung by her tone, but my hurt was quickly followed by anger. “None of you understand,” I said under my breath.
“Understand what?”
“Understand what’s at stake! If Ceren defeats Talia’s army, do you think he’ll just let the people he’s controlling go? Do you think he’ll let my parents go?” Hot tears pricked my eyes. “Ceren was close to stripping Varenia bare of pearls. He’ll take all the bloodstones he can, and if he finds something else he thinks will give him an advantage, he’ll take that, too. Everyone is so focused on their own concerns, they aren’t seeing the bigger picture.”
Adriel’s brow furrowed. “And what’s that?”
“Varenians are Ilareans, and Galethians are Varenians. The freedom of both groups depends on the other’s. Perhaps Ceren wasn’t willing to waste his men on breaching the Galethian border now, but once he has thousands of mindless soldiers? What will stop him then?”
“I’m sorry,” Adriel began, but I clucked my tongue to Titania, who immediately broke into a canter toward the barn.
At the workshop, I changed into a pair of thicker riding breeches for the trip to Leesbrook. Foxglove sat on the wooden table where Adriel kept her herbs, licking his paws and watching me with one eye.
“What?” I demanded.
He blinked lazily in response.
Adriel knocked on my door a short while later, already dressed for the trip. “I’m sorry,” she said again, before I could speak. “You’re right. I should care about the bloodstones and Ceren’s plans. And I do. But I also live alone in the woods for a reason, Nor. The citizens of Galeth only like me insofar as I am useful to them. Beyond that, they think I’m strange, even frightening.”
“You’re frightening on purpose,” I said, only half joking.
That elicited a half smile. “Only because it’s easier to pretend that’s why they don’t like me.” She patted Fox on the head, running his tufted ears through her fingers. “I think you know what it’s like to be misunderstood, to feel out of place wherever you go.”
I lowered my gaze, already feeling the tears welling. She was right, of course. I had found plenty of places I didn’t belong, but not yet one where I did.
“I tried to live in Leesbrook with Ana,” she continued. “But it only took a few months before the whispered insults about ‘the witch’ started to take their toll. Ana was defensive on my behalf, but no one would visit my shop. Far easier to come to me out in the middle of nowhere, where no one will overhear if they ask for a cure for a personal problem or a way to prevent pregnancy.”
I raised my eyes. “They ask for those things?”
She nodded. “I don’t judge them, Nor. They are the ones who judge themselves.”
“Are you afraid you’ll see her?” I ventured after a few moments of silence. “Ana.”
Adriel started to head for the door. “I’m not afraid. I pray for it every time I go. And that’s the problem. She’s married, with a child. Those are things I’ll never have. Not because I don’t want them, but because no one