Page 20 of Fortress of Ambrose (House of Marionne #3)

Fifteen

Yagrin

The train into the city took a corner too fast, and Nore bumped into Yagrin.

He steadied her as she toppled, with a firm hand at her hip.

She blushed, and he pretended not to notice.

She was full of questions about how he planned to get inside Hartsboro.

And he hadn’t worked up the courage to tell her that was not where they were going next.

If she knew his reasoning, she wouldn’t agree.

And on this he was not negotiable. So he avoided the conversation altogether and endured the nausea swimming inside him.

When the train stopped, they hopped off right at Central Street Books, the library in downtown Boston.

The biggest library in the area, one he’d visited numerous times for Dragun meetings.

Nore watched every direction suspiciously.

She gazed up at the clouds. Whatever she was wary of faded at the clear blue sky, and her cautiousness was replaced with foot-tapping frustration when she read a nearby sign.

“Hartsboro is hours from here.” She adjusted her shoulder strap as the train zipped off.

He shushed her, walking faster toward the doors. She didn’t follow.

“Yagrin.”

“Come on, I have a plan.” He didn’t turn back. He didn’t dare look at her disappointed face. He hated liars. It made him feel sick that at times he had to be one.

“Yagrin!”

He stopped. Others did, too.

“Why are we at a library?”

“I thought you liked books, come on!” He tried to usher her along, but the more he pushed, the more she stiffened.

She was more stubborn than Muddy, Red’s mule.

He was an ass. Nore was an ass and a half when she wanted her way.

It had been three days since they left Chateau Soleil.

The last two nights they slept in one of his father’s hotels, and they’d changed rooms three times because she wanted one close to a fire exit.

Then the next one smelled. The third room only had one bed.

They both decided to ask for another room after that one.

“I knew you were up to something!” She’d caught him sending a written message to his House a couple of nights ago. She assumed it was preparation for their arrival. She was wrong. “All your secret conversations, writing letters, sneaking out. Yes, I know. I saw it. I’m clever, remember? You’re—”

“Yes?” He braced for the insult. He’d heard them all.

“Lying,” she shoved between her teeth, noticing people now watching, remembering they were in public. “I’m not going another place with you if you don’t tell me the truth.”

A couple shuffling their children stared at them. It was midday. The streets were full of lunch patrons and remotely-employed booklovers, apparently. The Order was nowhere and everywhere.

“Take my arm,” he said under his breath, nodding at another onlooker, who was swiping their phone while staring. “I’ll explain.”

Nore’s lips were thin, but she roped her arm around his.

“Now smile at me like everything’s alright.”

“You’re pushing it!”

“Darling, I know you didn’t plan on a trip to the library, but please. You know I can’t resist a good book,” he said, an octave louder than an outside voice.

Nore gazed around nervously, pulling her sweater tighter over her shoulders as she realized how many people were watching them argue on a public street.

“Next time, just tell me, darling, so that I remember to eat first and am not starving.” She smiled tightly, and he led them past the onlookers, up the library steps, and through its glass doors.

She ripped her arm away from him the moment they were inside.

“You said we were going to your”—she looked around—“home.”

The mere suggestion made him queasy.

She leaned closer, and the smell of her ignited Yagrin’s senses. Tiny bumps raced across his arms. “There are four pieces of the scroll, one in each House. Ambrose is split between Ell and me. Marionne’s, we have. Hartsboro should be next easiest to get because it’s your home.”

He wasn’t ever setting foot on his home estate again.

And he had no interest in discussing why with her.

Or with anyone. Red hadn’t even known. His life in the Order was the one piece of himself he had never shared with her.

The only part of him she didn’t truly know.

And in a way, it felt like because of that, Red never really knew him at all.

He was a terrible person.

He wasn’t sure what to expect when Red returned from the dead, but he dreamed of them seeing each other again every night.

Would she remember him? Would she be some shell of a person?

He’d have to research the Scroll’s magic carefully before using it.

If she did remember everything, he’d explain who he really was, what the Order was, and hope that bringing her back to life made him forgivable.

“That place is my House,” he told Nore. “Not my home.”

She crossed her arms. “You’re scared to go back there.”

He smoothed his clothes. Thankfully, their whispered conversation was the least concern of the passing library’s patrons.

“But you don’t want to talk about why.” She wouldn’t relent.

“Stop analyzing me.” He skimmed the sign for an escalator and marched in that direction.

“Stop withholding information, and I wouldn’t have to.”

He froze. She had a point. He wasn’t giving her the benefit of the doubt or making it easier for her, to be honest.

“You were too trusting with the crew at Marionne,” he said. “But I realize what it got us—another piece of the Scroll.”

“I’ve inspired you.”

“Something like that.” The truth was, she had.

And it hadn’t occurred to him until he saw where trusting Dexler with the truth got them.

He’d been bred not to trust people, by a woman who was an expert on the topic.

Suspicion was in his DNA. “I thought maybe trusting a little more could help.” Hartsboro was a nightmare he longed to forget.

If this worked, he would never have to go back there.

“I know you’re hesitant about people, Yagrin. You spend most of your time alone.”

His brows dented. “How the hell do you know how I spend my time?”

“That’s how you come a-across,” she stammered.

“Is what I meant.” Her eyes darted from his.

“You mentioned how much you despise your House when we first met. Which means they did something to you that you can’t forgive.

Trust issues come from somewhere.” She covered her tracks well, seasoning her slip with some truth.

But her nerves couldn’t be covered no matter how smooth her tone.

What was the heiress hiding? Something. Now he was sure.

It shouldn’t surprise him. She was an heir, after all.

It didn’t matter. Only the Scroll mattered.

“We are meeting my cousin. I’ll give her instructions, and she is going to get what we need. Then to Oralia. And finally—”

“We face my brother.” The color drained from her face when she spoke of Ellery. “What do you know about your cousin? I’ve heard horrible things about your family.”

“What you’ve heard probably doesn’t hold a candle to reality. I trusted you back there with Dexler. Trust me now.”

“People only get one chance to show me who they really are. If she betrays us or fumbles this somehow, our partnership is done.”

“That won’t happen. My cousin is different.

” I hope. Time with Beaulah wears on a person.

He hadn’t seen his cousin since he last visited Hartsboro, before Red was killed.

But he’d written insisting he needed to see her about an urgent House matter.

He left Nore there, perusing books, to go meet Adola with his heart in his throat.

He found his cousin dressed in black, head covered with a raincoat hood. She leaned over a parted book, dark hair tied in a braid dangling over her shoulder. He joined her in the row. She sucked in a breath as he passed.

“We can’t be seen together,” she said.

He cleared his throat and pulled a book off the shelves, careful to keep his back to her.

“You—” She started, when an elder woman poked her head into the row. Her finger traced spines, and Yagrin stood there unmoving, not daring to look his cousin’s way. Adola swapped out her book for another and turned a few pages until they were alone again.

“You’re alive,” she said. There was a lilt of surprise between her words. And something else. Caution?

“It seems I’ve disappointed our aunt in that, too.”

She inhaled. Adola was always the obedient stand-in daughter to their domineering aunt.

She wasn’t exactly shy, but she wasn’t outspoken either.

How had she done living under Beaulah for those years after he’d left?

Jordan made it sound like she’d done alright and found her confidence.

But her nerves here, with him, made his heart hiccup.

Adola is trustworthy.

But she is also…an heir.

Both directions in the library were clear. Trusting her felt much less risky than showing up at Hartsboro. When he was sure they were alone, he said, “I’m glad you’re alright.”

She didn’t respond.

“You are alright, aren’t you?”

“As much as I can be, considering.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to your Trial. Or Cotillion. I don’t—”

“I know, Yags. I know. It’s alright. How’s Jordan?”

“Haven’t seen the bastard in some time.”

“I’ve heard things, Yagrin.” Her whisper shook. “Impossible things.”

“I wish I had better news.”

She let out a breath. “What will happen to magic? Does he have a plan?”

“We.”

“You’re actually working together?”

He shifted at all the questions. Hadn’t he called her here?

She exited the row. Her chin over her shoulder urged him to follow.

There was no joy in her turned-down lips, no hope in her make-up-streaked eyes.

He followed her to the next row of books.

For a few minutes they perused, until Nore appeared.

The book fell from Adola’s hands as she gaped at her.

“What are you doing here?”

Nore gazed between them. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said to him before leaving them there. When she was out of sight, Adola replaced her book on the shelf and hustled toward the exit.

“Wait, please.” He rushed after her.

She walked faster.

“Excuse me, miss,” he said, far too loud on purpose.

Heads swiveled in their direction. Adola huffed and pulled him hard by the sleeve into a shadowed corner.

Window light cascaded over hard lines etched into her face.

It had only been three years since he lived in the same prison with his cousin, and she’d aged so much in such a short time.

She squeezed his wrist. “You’re working with a ’Roser now? Are you out of your mind?”

“I know what I’m doing. She’s smart as a whip and hates her House. The perfect ally.”

“So she says.”

His nerves churned. “Look, I need your help.”

“I’m not helping her.”

“You’re helping me.” It felt good to be honest with someone. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t critically important. I need you to find something at Hartsboro. It’s a piece of old parchment from House of Ambrose that we were given stewardship of—”

She covered her gasp.

“What?”

“A scroll.”

Ice slid down Yagrin’s spine. “How did you know that?”

“Ellery Ambrose and his fiancée visited recently. They spoke with Mother privately two days ago. The girl left hours after they arrived. Then she brought me to greet him. As I was leaving, I overheard him saying Mother’d been entrusted with something from his House.”

“Do you know for sure it was the Scroll?”

“I don’t. But the next morning he left with a square of old parchment. I used the corridors between the walls and watched him pack it in his things.”

Yagrin’s heart leapt. Beaulah didn’t just hand over things of value. Even if she’d written off the Scroll as legend, she wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to have power over someone who devoutly believed in it. “Why’d she give it to him?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that halfway through dinner, Mother sent the dogs out of her quarters, to their kennel. And she and Ellery dined until well past midnight.”

His neck broke out in sweat.

“I have to go, Yagrin. Don’t call for me again.”

“Ado—”

“Stay away, alright?” Her stare deadened.

“Stay far away. Mother’s sick. I’ve been moved into position.

It’s not official yet, but it will be soon.

She’s ravenous for blood. I have to commit, you understand?

” Her grip tightened, and a glint in her eye he’d never seen before sank his heart like a stone in a river.

“Goodbye, cousin.”

Her hood fell when she turned to leave, exposing the bone behind her ear, where there was a tiny mark: the cracked column for House of Perl.

But this sigil was wrapped in a vine of thorny roses.

She turned and caught him staring. “All that was broken by Mother’s reign will bloom again under mine.” She hurried off.