“She did this to us,” said Jared. “She put a spell on Kami’s mother to see through her eyes before either of us was born.”
“I didn’t know what would happen,” Rosalind said sharply, lifting her tear-wet face from her hands. “That woman, Claire, she wasn’t a Glass. There was no way she could have been a source. I didn’t know she was having a baby, or that you could find a source that way, across distances, without saying the words. I just wanted to make a bridge from me to Sorry-in-the-Vale.”
“And instead you made a bridge for a source to your son,” Rob said. He was the only one in the room who looked concerned for Jared.
So this was why the Glass family had a house built where the Lynburns could keep their eye on it, why the family was meant to stay where the Lynburns could keep their eye on them.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” said Rosalind, swallowing another sob. “I didn’t know anything. Not until he was born, and he was such a terrible baby. The city was like a cage. There was nowhere to go, but then there was another Lynburn with me. But he wasn’t ever like us. He was always talking to someone else. He used to turn his face away from me. It was as impossible to love him as it was to love David.”
“Rosalind,” Lillian snapped. “He was a child. You linked his mind with another child’s. And you are Lynburns. You had somewhere to go. As soon as you realized what you had done, you should have come to me.”
“I didn’t do it,” Rosalind said, and looked beseechingly at Rob. Her fingers were white on the arms of the sofa. “Not really. It was Jared. He chose to make the connection. It was Jared and that girl.”
Lillian’s voice crackled, impatience breaking up the smooth flow of her commands. “I wish you would take some responsibility for once!”
“And what about you?” Rosalind demanded. “Wh
at about what you’ve done? What about what you did to me?” She rose from the sofa, one hand wrapped around the walnut wood bolster that held up the canopy.
Lillian tilted her chin and regarded her coolly without getting up. “I do not regret anything I have ever done. That is a policy of mine.”
“You have no heart,” Rosalind said, low. “You never did.”
“The mistress of Lynburn does not need a heart,” Lillian told her.
Rosalind cast a look at Rob, as if expecting something. When Rob stayed silent, she ran from the room. Ash sidestepped fast, bowing his head, to get out of her way. She had not looked once at Jared.
Lillian had scarcely looked away. Kami did not much like the way she looked at him, the appraisal of the woman who thought she owned every blade of grass in the Vale.
“None of this is Kami’s fault,” said Ash. His head stayed bowed.
“Of course not,” Lillian said absently. She leaned forward, eyes narrowed and her focus solely on Jared. “We could test the limits of your ability.”
Rob shifted away from his wife and rose to his feet. For a moment, Kami thought he would run out the door after Rosalind. “We know the limits of his ability!” he said. “Rosalind chained his powers to someone else before he was born. I would never have believed she would do such a thing. I will not allow it to continue.”
The room blurred before Kami’s eyes, the Lynburns pale gold spots in her vision as if they were made of light. “It doesn’t have to continue?” she asked. “There’s a way to stop it?”
“A way to sever the connection? Yes,” said Rob Lynburn. “I beg you to do it.”
“How—” Kami began.
At the same time, and far more loudly, Jared said, “No.”
Kami let her fingers brush Jared’s shoulder: it was tensed, hard and unyielding as stone, but stone would not have flinched away from her. “I think we should hear what he has to say.”
“No!” Jared repeated. He wrenched himself up to wheel on Kami.
For a moment, he was just another one of the Lynburns. All of them were staring at her now, the creatures of red and gold, with demands in their eyes, and the only thing she wanted was to escape.
But I can’t escape you, can I? she asked him. And that’s why I think we should listen to your uncle and weigh our options.
I don’t want options, said Jared.
Now Kami was angry. Jared said things like this all the time, as if—and then he didn’t do anything about it. He didn’t seem to want to touch her, ever. So why did he talk like that? She could read his mind, so he should make more sense! “Jared and I need to talk this over alone.”
“Why?” Ash asked, his voice unexpected in that hushed room, his eyes fastened on Kami. “Why do you need to be alone?” he asked. “You can read each other’s minds.”
“Thank you for pointing that out; I wasn’t aware,” Kami told him. “And yes, it would be fantastic to have a silent conversation with all of you looking on.” She stood up. It didn’t give her much of a height advantage, but she glared up at Jared and over at Ash anyway. “None of this was Jared’s fault. None of this was my fault either. You may think I don’t matter because I’m not a sorcerer, but I don’t care for being threatened or being ignored. And you know what? I’m going to go.”