Page 63 of Whispers of Wisteria (The Garden of Eternal Flowers #5)

“So it seems.” Titus gave me a look that made my stomach knot.

I fought the urge to growl at him. How dare he just presume—

“You agreed to be my mate,” he replied. “That’s how it works. We’ll both just need to get used to it.”

I pulled the blanket to my chin and narrowed my eyes.

What did he have to get used to? He could only benefit from this arrangement, and perhaps even gain some wisdom. Most people would kill to partake in my stream of consciousness.

For example, Damen.

He wanted to read my mind. Although it was probably a good thing he couldn’t. His feelings were easily hurt.

“Things like that.” Titus slumped into the window seat. “I really don’t want to hear your thoughts about Damen.”

“I do!” Julian perked. “Are they as amazing as I’ve dreamed?”

I glared at the two of them.

“Bianca.” Uncle Gregory’s voice was like a cold glass of water crashing over my head. “Can you talk about it through Dr. Ducharme?”

Titus straightened, suddenly alert.

“Don’t give me that look.” Uncle Gregory waved off his stare. “There are things to be discussed. She has trauma-triggered mutism. This will give her back the ability to communicate.”

“But she’d still be responding,” Titus pointed out. “Obviously she doesn’t want to.”

“It would be her choice,” Uncle Gregory replied. “That’s the point.”

My fingers tangled in the sheet as I looked between them.

I…

I wasn’t—

I didn’t want to—not yet.

“She says no,” Titus said, squaring his shoulders. “And I’m not going to force it. She’s going to be upset. She was gone.”

Gone?

What?

My chest felt like it was caving in, and my breathing turned short and hollow.

I’d come close to death so many times, yet somehow, I’d always managed to make it through. At some point I’d started to assume that it would always be that way.

I wasn’t ready…

“Bianca—” There was a weight in the air pushing against me. Uncle Gregory. “You’re here. You’re alive.”

My head was dizzy, and my breath began to slow as my heartbeat echoed in my ears.

I… was here.

My arms felt heavy, and I let myself be pulled through the dark. A warmth pressed into me, and the fuzziness of my thoughts melted away.

Steady arms wrapped around my shoulders before my thoughts drifted back into silence.

Miles POV

Damen sat behind his desk, his back straight, as Abigail paced the center of the room.

But she wasn’t the one leading the conversation.

“You’ve had her for less than three months.

” Jonathon crossed his arms, his aura heavy with disapproval.

He hadn’t dropped the expression since he’d arrived to redo the wards, as he hadn’t been happy with mine, and it’d grown steadily worse the longer he stayed.

“And managed to unmake ten year’s worth of improvements. ”

“How was she improved if she wasn’t living in reality?” Damen rebutted. “You lied to the fae. You lied to us. And you lied to her.”

“We saved her.” Jonathon’s voice took on a dark edge. “And you”—he waved, gesturing between us and Bryce—“let her die.”

Damen leaned back, then his brow furrowed.

“I didn’t ‘let’ her die,” he snapped. “But yes, there were some things we’d overlooked before. I will be remedying that.”

“Regardless of your ‘plans’, you have no right to stop her from being relocated. It is Declan’s decision,” Jonathon replied. “He is her father.”

“So are you,” Damen rebutted.

Abigail stopped walking, and Jonathon faltered. The move was subtle, but Jonathon’s micro-expressions had seared themselves into my consciousness.

It was the only way to tell if he was screwing with me.

“Declan is her father,” Jonathon said again, slower this time. “We might have raised her, but I never asked to take on that title.”

There it was again.

Damen was looking at him like he was a monster. He didn’t notice the way Jonathon’s seemingly aloof posture had shifted.

Guilt.

“You never planned on keeping her,” I interrupted. “That’s why you didn’t change her last name.”

But they had, and now they cared too much. It hurt them more than they wanted to admit. Where I hadn’t seen before, it was now clear.

They’d tried to keep their distance, but they thought of her as family too.

Abigail stared at the floor.

Jonathon looked at me. “Kieran Brosnan was Declan’s brother. There’d be a reason he put her under his house instead of her own. I wasn’t going to override that.”

“Especially since you planned on taking her to the fae,” I added the part he continued to avoid.

Jonathon looked away. “Our original intentions were irrelevant once we realized the situation was worse than we expected.”

“I made the call,” Abigail said. She was rubbing her hands and looked like she might flee at any moment.

“As Bianca’s godmother and Alyssa’s friend, I needed to save what was left.

Bianca didn’t even know who she was. We couldn’t tell her.

She would’ve been too curious, and the fae would have learned about her before she was ready. ”

“It helped that the Brosnans have multiple branch families,” Jonathon explained. “And a presence in the human realm. She was better hidden with that name. I set a ward to redirect the attention of anyone who’d recognize her.”

“Still, the fae wouldn’t have—” Damen started.

“Bianca can’t sing,” Abigail snapped.

I sucked in a breath. Damen, Julian, and Titus wouldn’t know what that meant—most people wouldn’t. But I did, and still, not everything.

“She can talk,” I offered, trying to grasp on to anything that’d make this better. I felt the magic when she took over my practice.

It was something.

“Not anymore,” Abigail scoffed. “We’ve had her working with a specialist for years. She thought it was just speech therapy. The doctors said the damage could be irreversible.”

My heart stopped.

Damen, still not getting it, clenched his jaw. “Taking her to Whisperwind is not the answer. She’s fragile, especially now. Forcing her to reunite with Declan—”

“Could save her life,” Jonathon cut in. “She’s in a crisis. This is not the time for you to indulge her whims.”

Damen raised his eyebrow. “Don’t be dramatic.”

I bit my tongue. Jonathon wasn’t being dramatic. In fact, even he didn’t seem to know the depths of what they’d said. Otherwise, he would have taken Bianca to the fae years ago, regardless of what might happen.

This wasn’t just a broken expression of magic. And I couldn’t say a word without revealing what Mu would’ve killed me for even knowing.

“It doesn’t matter.” Gregory finally stepped forward.

“We do not require your permission,” he said, looking at Damen. “We will be leaving for Whisperwind once Bianca is ready.”

Damen placed his hands on his desk and stood. “You can’t do that!”

“I have the authority, and Bryce holds conservatorship through marriage,” Gregory said, a sarcastic edge lacing his voice. “We are aligned.”

Bryce, who—along with Brayden—had been silent this far, only nodded.

Their expressions could have melted steel.

Jonathon suddenly looked at me. I tensed as my skin crawled.

“The decision would default to me if this ‘marriage’ were to mysteriously dissolve. I’d give everything to Declan,” he said, eyes flashing. “So there’s no use trying to scheme your way out this time.”

I crossed my arms. “Noted.” There was no reason to threaten me; I wasn’t going to stop them.

And it wasn’t scheming.

Julian, who’d been watching from a corner behind Damen’s desk, looked at me with a sour expression. Meanwhile, Titus, standing next to him, glared at the floor.

“I said no.” Damen’s voice turned sharp. “She’s not ready.”

He was scrambling, trying to think of anything that might help. But we were outranked, and he knew it.

This—and the Council—was what we’d been trying to avoid.

Yet, he tried. “With Jameson gone, I—”

“I am in charge.” Gregory squashed the last of his hope.

“If you wanted to lead, you would have completed your training while you still had the chance. Besides, she hasn’t been publicly exposed as Mu yet.

The families are already moving, but it still isn’t safe until Dustin and Oliver finish preparations. ”

Yeah. Preparations like Zane. And probably the Council, which would actually be helpful. But still… they had to pick the Papadakis?

This was turning into a nightmare.

“What?” Bryce spoke for the first time, stepping back. “When did he—”

“Dustin knows about her?” Abigail asked, wringing her hands. “But he’s so…” Her voice faltered. “Intense. They can’t meet; he’ll frighten her.”

“Too late. She’s already met him,” Brayden said.

“What?” Bryce repeated, sounding significantly angrier. His skin flushed at the neck as he rounded on his brother. “When?”

“It happened more than once.” Brayden shrugged. “She went through the Dubois library wards. They talked. He likes her. I guess she likes him too, because she keeps going back.”

Bryce looked like he was about to explode.

“She doesn’t know who he is,” Brayden added, as if that made it better.

“The details don’t matter. He’s an Elder and her grandfather,” Gregory said. “She needed to meet him either way.” He turned to Damen. “He isn’t going to drag her to Ravenswatch right now. And if she could face Dustin, then Declan won’t even phase her. There’s no longer a reason for delay.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Damen warned.

“No,” Gregory replied. “The mistake was made when Kieran never checked in. Now we can only attempt to fix the rest.”