Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy 1)

His parents had both been monsters, then. No, his whole family were monsters, but his parents were the worst. There was nothing but poison in his veins, and the potential for violence. He thought of lightning cutting a wound across the sky, and all that blood on the girl’s skin. When he did look away from his mother’s bed, he saw Aunt Lillian standing by Uncle Rob, her hand on his arm, as if she was reaching out for help. He had never seen her touch Uncle Rob that way before.

But she was not looking at Uncle Rob. She was looking at him. “Rosalind is your mother,” she murmured. “Yet you’re not surprised.”

The sound of a door opening made them all start. The girls’ voices made Aunt Lillian’s shoulders slump for an instant as her brief hope was taken away.

Jared walked past Aunt Lillian, who was stiff with despair, and Uncle Rob, looking both confused and concerned. Jared stopped at the top of the stairs that would lead him to Kami and looked back at his aunt’s pale face, the mirror of his mother’s. “No,” said Jared. “I’m not surprised.”

Jared’s feelings were like a beacon in Kami’s mind. His distress burned so brightly she barely saw the stone hands and drowning women of the manor. Holly had to run after her up the stairs, then across flagstones and to the corridor where Jared stood with his aunt and uncle.

Kami did not look at the open door and the empty room. She ran to Jared and Jared lifted his hand, warding her off.

I’m so sorry, she told him, trying not to care. I’m so sorry, but it’s not your fault. Nothing your parents ever did was your fault. You misunderstood me last night, but you have to understand me now. I know you’re not like them.

Jared had so many walls up, she could not tell what he was feeling, except that the burning beacon of his distress had gone dark. And how do you know that?

Because I know you, said Kami. Nobody knows you like I do.

Jared tipped toward her, as if they were reading something together, and she pictured again her thoughts as an illuminated manuscript. Kami needed some things to be clear to him. Her heart was almost an open book.

Jared could tell she was holding back, and something dark passed from him to her, like drops of ink in running water, even as he made an effort and smiled at her. “No,” he said. “Nobody does.”

You’re all right?

You’re here, said Jared. So I’m all right.

“Jared,” said Kami. “We have to—”

“We have to find Angie,” Holly finished, before Kami could say it.

Kami looked at Holly, who was staring warily at Lillian and Rob Lynburn. Kami took her first real look at them, Rob standing by his wife, Lillian with her pale face and wide cold eyes. They were sorcerers, sorcerers Kami did not know and could not trust.

“The woods,” Lillian said abruptly.

“What?” Jared asked.

Kami realized that while he hadn’t touched her, his body was angled toward her, aligning himself with her and Holly. She glanced at the other Lynburns and saw the same realization passing over Lillian’s face, turning her eyes into dark lakes. Kami could tell that she didn’t like seeing one of her precious Lynburns on the side of the lowly mortals, not at all.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know, Jared,” Lillian said, her voice low. “You have the same blood in your veins as the rest of us. It draws you to the same end. Don’t pretend you are not drawn to the woods. If Rosalind has the girl, she has her there.”

“If Ash is with her,” Rob told her, his big hand closing on her thin shoulder, “it will be all right, Lillian.”

Lillian nodded sharply once, staring out the window into the woods.

Kami glanced over at Holly, who was glaring defiantly at the sorcerers, trembling with eagerness to be gone. “Do you mind if we stop talking about Ash?” Holly asked. “And start thinking about the person he might hurt? None of you Lynburns seem to care about Angela at all. Or is it that you don’t care about anyone but yourselves?”

“There’s no time for this!” Kami shouted. Everybody looked at her and she lifted her chin. “They’re in the woods?” she said. “Let’s go. There are five of us. Four of us can do magic, and two of us can read each other’s minds. We can split up. If my group finds Angela, I’ll tell Jared, and if the other group does, Jared will tell me.”

A flash of protest went through Jared as she suggested separating, but he knew when she was determined, and he knew sense when he heard it. She felt that he hated it, at the same time as she watched him nod.

“You should all stay here. Rob and I will handle this,” Lillian said. “You’re children. Jared hasn’t done the ceremony of the lakes, and that means he doesn’t have the magic we do. He wouldn’t be able to stand against Rosalind.” She said her sister’s name forcefully, as if she was terrified she would not be able to get it out.

“Jared has a source,” Rob reminded his wife. “They will be able to stand against Rosalind. We might need them.”

Kami did not wait for Lillian to argue. “Then it’s settled. Jared and another magician should go with Holly; one magician come with me.”

“Go with her, Uncle Rob.”

Kami looked up at the tense sound of Jared’s voice, saw his eyes, and said quietly, “You protect Holly.”