DARKHAVEN | "Three Sisters" Book One

Chapter Fifty-Three

Roslin

They read the note once, twice, three times. After reading it the fourth time, they held it to the flame of the candle and burned it.

They watched it burn until it was little more than a blackened corner pinched between Gia's fingers, and then they burned that, too. There would be no risking the First finding any trace of their communication.

"Find the magic." Gia's eyes were wide. "Where do we even start?"

Roslin shook her head. "I don't...I don't know." There had been books on alternative magic in the castle's library—she'd leafed through a number of them while scouring for information on the ancient sort of magic the Kerata might possess. Most of the known information was comprised of scattered notes and the rambling of maddened, addled minds. What she had retained was failing her at the moment: it was dark in the bathing chamber, too dark, and it left Roslin feeling choked and stifled. Darkness had been a struggle for her ever since the blackness of The Spinner's lair. Too long in the dark and she'd start to see...

"Everything I've tried has failed," Gia said as she tugged at the manacles. "To get them off, to circumvent them, to break through them...I haven't found a single way."

Roslin leaned against Gia to ground herself in the darkness. "Nor have I, and gods know I've tried," she admitted. "But if Blodwyn says it exists, I believe her. She and I scraped together a few books on alternative and lost magics from the library but...all of the truly great knowledge was kept under lock and key by the Lords."

Just like our own fates, apparently, she added internally, acridly.

"It's...good to feel something other than hopeless despair. We have something worth trying for."  Gia's hands curled into fists. "We have to try everything."

Roslin rested her head on Gia's shoulder. Her eyes didn't leave the flame of the candle when she agreed, "Everything."

x

They'd dared not linger together much longer. The sisters were discouraged from spending time together, and though they'd been dismissed to their rooms, sharing a room—or sharing any sort of anything—would not likely end well for them.

"We'll talk again soon," Gia promised with one hand on the doorknob to Roslin's bedroom. "Start thinking."

"Way ahead of you." Roslin forced a smile and tapped a finger to her temple.

Gia returned that same weak, forced smile and slipped out into the hallway. Roslin peeked her head around the doorframe to see her sister safely re-enter her own chambers—

Only to watch Gia walk straight into Ratford.

The ratly man narrowed his shrewd little eyes. "My my, what do we have here?" he asked, seizing Gia by the wrist. She twisted only slightly, daring not to pull away fully. "I do believe you're not to share quarters. Conspiring, are we? Overseer Wicklowe won't much like this."

Gia stammered out, "Conspiring? No—never. We were only—I just missed her—"

Roslin's stomach sank. Conspiring? Does he know? How could he possibly know?

"You miss her," he mocked. "So you wanted to slide into bed with her."

Gia nodded. "Only for a moment. I was going back now—"

"Would that I could slide into bed with you." Ratford slid a hand down Gia's side, earning a high-pitched groan from deep in Gia's throat. "But, no. The Overseers indeed won't like the two of you skulking around."