Page 82 of When Roses Burn

“Not as I’d anticipated,” I told them.

“She didn’t spill her secrets?” Dromon asked as he heaped eggs onto his plate.

I turned away from the window as Bertie flew into the room.

“I’m not sure she has any secrets to spill,” I admitted.

Bertie stopped in midflight, and the others halted what they were doing to look at me.

“What does that mean?” Pierce asked around a mouthful of sausage.

I spent most of last night asking myself that question. “Briar never changed her story. She still claims to know nothing about the curse and swears she never told her mother anything about me.”

Lyra set down her fork and knife as she leaned back in her chair. “And you believe her?”

That was the other question that kept me up all night. Do I believe her?

I still didn’t have an answer for that, but… “There’s more.”

“What’s that?” Dromon asked.

“She got through her Needing without any release. She asked me to unchain her, and after a while, I did. She lay on the floor, unmoving, determined not to be like her kind.”

“What?” Lyra gasped.

“She withstood the drive of her Needing.”

“She didn’t fuck anything?” Pierce demanded. “She didn’t find any release.”

“No, and I unchained her for most of it.”

“Is that possible?”

“If you’d asked me that yesterday morning, I wouldn’t have hesitated to say no, but now, I know it is possible.”

They stared at me in disbelief before anger settled over their features. Lyra lifted her knife and held it like a weapon on the table. “You mean to tell me those fuckers can control themselves and choose not to?”

“They might not know they can control themselves,” Bertie said. “This is the way it’s always been for them.”

“Or maybe they know and never tried!” Pierce spat.

“Until now,” I said.

“If she can withstand the call of her Needing, then she could withstand what you planned for her and lie,” Lyra said.

“I’ve considered that.”

“If she can withstand the call, then she’s not like them,” Bertie insisted. “She fell in love with Knox when she was a child; she didn’t grow up the same way as the others of her kind… including the day casters. She knew there was something more… someone more for her out there.”

“She didn’t fall in love with me when she was a child,” I told her.

“You were both children when you met and became friends. You loved her then.”

“I didn’t recognize it at the time, I was too young, but I believe my draw to her was because she was my mate.”

“Probably,” Bertie agreed. “But in the beginning, you loved her in the way that children can love others… sweetly, innocently, perfectly. And I’m sure, because her heart was still so innocent and pure, she loved you in the same way.

“Love is the most powerful force in the universe. It can destroy lives or complete them. It can be your greatest strength and biggest downfall, and it will compel you to do things you never thought possible. She loved you then, and she loves you now. I don’t think her mother would have told her anything; Marina sees her as weak.”