I tilted my head forward, not liking where this was going.
“No, no, I’m certain it’s nothing,” he said after seeing my response. “Maybe she isn’t even aware of what’s happening. It just seems like she’s familiar with far too much.” He rubbed a hand absently over his chest as we rounded the corner. “Things have been excitable around here to say the least. Probably one of the younger ones, they are so worked up about the actual prophecy girl being here. Likely one of them mentioned something they’d overheard from a private meeting.”
I glanced over at him. “Prophecy girl?”
He smirked. “Yeah, that’s what they’re calling her. She’s like a pop star around here.”
“I’ve noticed I’m not getting the same reception,” I said.
Brendan didn’t meet my gaze. “They feel betrayed. Now that she’s here, it’s different. It’s like you’re refusing her, like you’re refusing the prophecy.”
“It isn’t my prophecy.”
“And so you’ll leave her to Morgan?”
His words were ice and I stopped to stare at him. “Then you’ve turned on me as well.”
“No,” he said, letting out a deep breath. “No, Aern. It’s… it’s only that things have changed now. This is building to something we can’t control. If we don’t strike now—”
I cut him off, throwing his own words back at him. “I know the stakes, brother.”
He held up a hand in forfeit. “You’re right. We’ve had this argument enough. Come; let’s update you on what you’ve missed.”
I followed Brendan to a balcony overlooking several manicured acres that fell into dense woods. It was still cool, but he left the double doors open behind us, and if I hadn’t known better, I’d have said we were alone. But there would be armed guards throughout the house, and though I couldn’t spot them from this vantage point, I was certain the trees were crowded with even heavier security.
When Brendan leaned against the thick wood rail, I asked, “What have they learned?”
“They made the connection right away, traced the car back to their foster parents. The woman, she’s safe as of this evening. As luck would have it, she’d changed her name, cut all ties to her previous life. They may track her down one day, but we’ll keep an eye on things. The foster father, however, was not so fortunate. Morgan’s men took him in the same day. Word is they botched their chance to get information from him, roughed him up a bit more than they should have.”
I winced. When Morgan was angry, he tended to overdo the sway, let a little too much of his rage through.
Brendan nodded. “We had a team extract him, but it doesn’t look good.”
“Where is he?”
“Logan dropped him at County General, convinced him he’d been cleaning gutters when he’d fallen from the second-story roof and tumbled through the balcony railing before landing face first on the concrete drive. That should just about cover his injuries with the doctors, excepting the screw holes through his wrists.”
I loosened my grip on the railing and turned to lean against it, watching the cream-colored curtains swim on the breeze.
“The house was clean,” Brendan continued. “It had to have been dumb luck that they found you again.”
“You’re giving luck a lot of credit, Brendan.”
He stared out over the lawn. “Maybe not luck so much. Maybe it’s that the bastard turned a hundred men to find you.”
Just then, one of the sheer curtains flipped in the wind and I caught sight of Emily across the expanse that was the dining hall. She held my eyes for one brief moment before a ribbon of beige fell between us.
Brendan looked over his shoulder, and I wondered if I’d given some clue to their arrival.
A trim blonde appeared a moment later, announcing his guests. “Thank you, Ellin,” he said, distractedly scratching his jaw.
We pushed off the railing at the same time, walking in as Ellin discreetly closed the balcony doors behind us, and found Brianna and Emily standing beside a table set for fifteen. Brianna’s eyes were trained on Brendan.
“You’re not making a show of her,” she said, somewhere between a demand and a question. It was clear the idea had her horrified.
“They’re here for Aern, Brianna, not Emily.” His gazed moved to Emily as he spoke. “And you do look lovely this evening, Miss Drake.”
I had the distinct feeling it was meant as a spur for Brianna, but Emily ran a tense hand over the fabric of her blouse. I couldn’t tell if she was uncomfortable with Brendan’s attention, or having been outfitted in clothes that probably cost more than the last car she’d stolen.