DARKHAVEN | "Three Sisters" Book One

Chapter Forty-Four

Gia

There ahead waited Darkhaven Castle.

Not home, but not not home, either.

"Looks like Edric's crow made it back in time," Blodwyn observed. "We've got company."

A welcoming party had gathered in the castle yard to greet them, but even a literal welcoming party couldn't make the castle feel welcoming—not to Gia. No amount of smiling faces, clapping hands, whoops, cheers, or trumpets could make her feel welcome.

Even in the face of such revelry and happiness at their return, Gia could not find it within herself to care. Her mind was too far away, as it always had been since arriving at this damned castle.

Sensing her unease, Aleksander twisted in his saddle and glanced back at her, concern in his eyes.

But Gia lowered her gaze, refusing to meet his.

He had ridden alongside Loriel again.

Gia knew he'd felt jealous about her closeness with Edric. And while it was true she had nearly kissed Edric in a moment of impulse, nothing had happened, not actually.

Not with Emily waiting back at Darkhaven, nor with Aleksander's watchful presence that made absolutely everything feel tangled and complicated when it needn't be.

But if Loriel hadn't cried out, if we hadn't been interrupted...

Gia didn't finish the thought. How selfish could she have been, how impulsive? How badly did this thing—this connection—cloud her judgement?

To her left and right, Blodwyn and Roslin were chattering, but Gia scarcely heard.

"I can't wait for dinner," Blodwyn was saying.

"Nor I a hot bath," hummed Roslin. Then, turning her attention on the blonde sister who rode between them, "How about you, Gia?"

Gia just made a noncommittal sound and hoped it was sufficient.

Then promptly turned back to her thoughts.

While it was clear Aleksander didn't care about their connection, or how much he was hurting her by engaging with Loriel, Gia refused to hurt him in return. There was enough pain to go around. I vow to focus less on matters of the heart and more on the task before us, Gia thought. I vow to focus on my sisters—on keeping them safe. I vow to focus on banishing the First Evil.

Words she'd been repeating over and over in her head all morning. Words she kept repeating to keep herself from looking to Edric or Aleksander. Words to keep her quiet.

Words she wasn't sure she meant at all. She didn't know how to mean them.

When at last the horses slowed to a stop, the bugles and clapping stopped as the fairly sizable welcoming party rushed forward, having waited long enough for the return of their friends.

Friends.

Gia glanced to her right where Orvelle and Siria were already hurrying to Blodwyn and Lucien in a swirl of golden silks and crimson jewels. "You have returned!" Orevlle was saying again and again, arms open wide in celebration and a grin plastered to that tanned, forever-smiling face. "What a welcome sight you are!"

Then, to her left, Jon and Dorian were hugging, clapping one another on the back. Dorian took Jon by the shoulders and shook him. "Welcome back, brother," said the young Lord with shining eyes.

"It's good to be back," Jon told him through his quiet laughter, "knowing that you were here waiting."

The wolf brothers laughed, hugged again, and passed Jon's horse off to a stable boy before heading for the castle.