Page 172 of Spark of Sorcery

“He is all right. I already told you. His bond brothers have him.” I hold out the glass. “Now drink this. It will calm your nerves.”

She tries to take it from my hand, but her arm trembles so much the liquid sloshes over the rim and I take it back in my hand and lift it to her lips, tipping the alcohol betweenthem. She sips, her wet eyes watching me. When the glass is empty, I wipe the tears from her cheeks with the pad of my thumb. She’s shaking a little less now but her face is still full of fear.

“W-w-w-what happened?” she says. “I don’t understand what happened.”

“You tell me,” I say, pouring myself another drink.

She pulls my cloak tight around her body. There is blood on her knees but other than that she looks unharmed. Not a scratch on her. Completely different to how she looked after that last trial.

She rubs at her head, as her teeth chatter together.

“It’s all right, sweetheart,” I tell her. “You’re safe now. You’re safe with me.”

She shudders, then seems to find the resilience to answer me. “I stepped through the fence and I was back there – in Slate.”

I nod. “And what was there with you?”

“Who,” she corrects, swallowing. “Muriel, my stepmother.”

“The trial was set up for you to face your greatest fear,” I explain. “Is she … did she …”

“She used to beat me,” she says, motioning to the glass. I fill it up, then lift it to her mouth again and she takes another swig.

“The scars,” I say.

“Yes.”

I frown, my eyes scanning her form once again. Did I miss something? Is she hurt and I didn’t realize? “Did she beat you?” I ask gently.

“No, she tried to, but I stopped her.” She yanks my cloak tight around her. “I found I wasn’t afraid of her anymore.”

A smile hovers on my lips. That’s my girl. Brave. Determined.

But then I remember.

“And what happened next?”

“I thought that would be the end of the trial.”

“It should have been,” I growl.

“But then I was somewhere else – somewhere I didn’t recognize. And Thorne was there on his knees. And thesethings,” horror radiates across her face, “these monsters were attacking him, killing him – and he wasn’t fighting back, he wasn’t trying to get away.” Her eyes, far away one moment as she relives it, connect with mine. “What did it mean?”

“I don’t know.” I take a deep breath in. “Briony, what happened next?”

She looks at me with incredulity. “I … I …” Her body starts to shake again. “I don’t know. I don’t know. It never happened before. I don’t understand how it happened. I …” She closes her eyes and I wait for the moment to pass. Gradually, the shaking of her body ceases.

Sighing, I walk over to my desk, open the drawer and pull out the piece of paper from the book. I lift it up so she can see the page, the firelight dancing over the text.

“I removed the censorship.”

“You did?” She hesitates, then stands and hobbles towards me, holding out a trembling hand to take the paper from me. “What does it say?”

I move closer to her, grip her chin and tip back her head so she’s looking right into my eyes, so she can’t look away when she answers me.

“I think you know what it says, Briony. I think you’ve always known.”

I expect her to deny it, feign surprise, at least attemptto deflect.