Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Kat,” I say gently, taking her hand in mine again. “Tell me…how did your father die?’
She frowns at me. “Why?” Then her mouth forms an O in shock. “You don’t think my mother had anything to do with his death, do you?”
“I’m thinking a lot of things,” I admit. “It’s part of my job to examine all the angles. Is it possible that—”
“No,” she says sharply. “No, that can’t… I won’t entertain that notion.”
Then, a look dawns on her face.
“Think about it, Kat,” I say softly. “Tell me how he died.”
“Heart attack,” she says, her eyes going glassy as she looks away from my gaze. I give her hands a squeeze. “I was there. I saw him die. He was in bed. It was the morning, early. My mother had run out into the hall and yelled for me. Said there was something wrong with him. I ran into the bedroom, and he was gripping his heart, gasping for breath. I ran to his side while my mother went to call for help.”
She closes her eyes, and a single tear runs down her cheek. I feel another thread inside me unravel while my sense of protection over her tightens, becoming something raw and fierce.
“He stared up at me, and in his eyes, I saw so much sorrow,” she goes on quietly, her voice breaking. “He was so sad that he was dying, and I…I knew from that moment on I’d never have something good in my life. I was losing the one person who loved me. But even in his last moments, his words were for my mother, not for me.”
I frown. That doesn’t seem like the man she’d been describing, the one who would do anything for his daughter, the one who created all the love I felt when I was inside her memories. “What did he say?”
“He said for me to watch over my mother,” she says. Then she stops herself, her brows knitting together as she meets my gaze. “No. No, it wasn’t that. It was ‘watch for your mother.’”
“As in watch out for her?” I venture.
She swallows. “I don’t know,” she whispers. “I always took it to mean that I would have to watch over her. She became so weak after he died it’s like he knew that she would wither without him.”
Something about that turn of phrase tickles something at the back of my brain, but I don’t know what it is. “Like he was keeping her alive,” I muse quietly.
“Yes,” she says, a sharpness coming over her expression. “It was like he was keeping her alive. After he died, she was never the same. She still isn’t. It’s like her life force is…gone. No one can figure out what’s wrong with her.”
I cock my head. “Well, what do you make of that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe their magic was fused together. Connected. Like the mushrooms you spoke about. Maybe there was something in him that kept her alive.”
“Hmmm.” There’s something more to it than that, but we’re on the right track. Least I think we are. Frustration coils inside me yet again. “Damn it, I was hoping I could solve one mystery before moving on to another.”
“Maybe if you solve one, you solve them all,” Kat says. “You can start with Brom. Because last night after supper, I was alone with him, and he started acting really strange. Getting mean, getting…violent.”
“Violent?” I exclaim, rage flickering inside me. “Towards you?”
I’ll fucking kill him if he hurt her in any way.
“He didn’t really hurt me, but he was…physical in a way he hasn’t been before,” she says. “He wasn’t himself. I was looking into his eyes, and it was like they became so black they belonged to someone else.” She pauses, her gaze drifting to the ground. “He insinuated I was a whore for sleeping with you.”
My teeth grind together as the rage continues to flame inside me. “Guess it wouldn’t help to point out we haven’t actually fucked.”
Her chin jerks in at my choice of words.
“Sorry,” I say quickly. “That was not very gentlemanlike of me.” I pause. “Well, you can tell Brom that won’t be an issue if you’re currently betrothed to each other.”
She gives me an odd look. “Don’t tell me you’re actually jealous?”
“Jealous?” I let out a sour laugh. “Of course I’m jealous. Here I am falling for one of my students, against all reason and logic, and meanwhile, she’s betrothed to another.”
“Falling for?” she repeats softly, a tenderness in her gaze.
I raise my chin in defiance. “You may be getting under my skin, sweet witch. I won’t hide that from you. You’re unraveling all the threads that have been holding me together.”
She blinks. “Oh,” she says, a small smile appearing.
It would be nice to hear something like that in return, but I’m not sure I’ll be so lucky.