“Just admit it!” Arlais screamed at her mother. “Just admit you don’t trust me!”

“Of course I don’t trust you!” his mother barked back.

Frederick chuckled but Var didn’t understand why his sister wouldn’t simply tell their mother the truth. She’d turned Brigida down. Even if the old She-dragon hadn’t told him, Var would have known that. His sister would never trust Brigida and, more important, she wasn’t about to go live in a cave. With anyone. For any reason.

But instead of simply telling their mother that, she decided to torment her instead.

Honestly, the pair of them.

“By the way,” Frederick said, as he removed the spectacles on his face and quickly cleaned the glasses on a bit of cloth. “Your off-putting aunt Brigida was in the book tower a few minutes ago and—”

Var grabbed his cousin’s arm, cutting off his next words. “What do you mean she was in the tower? Doing what?”

Putting his spectacles back on, Frederick shrugged. “I don’t know. She went into the stacks and then she was gone.”

“Which stacks? Which books was she looking at?”

Frederick closed his eyes and Var knew his cousin was going through the titles in his head. He only had to read or see something once and the Northlander could remember every detail. It was quite a remarkable gift and one that Var and his mother used to their benefit whenever necessary.

After a few seconds, Frederick opened his eyes and looked at Var. “Ancient spells.”

“Fuuuuuuck.” Var pulled his cousin toward the back hallway.

“Where are we going?”

“To find out what that old witch is up to.”

“Should we tell your mother what’s going on?”

Var glanced back at his mother and sister. They’d started throwing loaves of bread at each other while still yelling.

He pushed his cousin ahead of him. “I’m going to say no.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

Aidan stroked Brannie’s back, cringing each time she heaved again into the ocean water. And after each heave, she said the same thing to him: “I hate you. I hate you for doing this to me. I hate you. I hate you.”

Then she’d heave again.

“Still?” Caswyn asked, sitting down across from Aidan and Brannie. When Aidan only nodded, “How could there be anything left but blood and her internal organs?”

Aidan honestly didn’t know. Even drunk, Branwen had never vomited so much in front of him.

Continuing to rub her back, Aidan noticed that she’d finally stopped vomiting. He leaned over the edge of the ship, trying to see how she was holding up, but her arms hung down, fingertips coasting across the waves.

He caught her before she slipped completely into the water and dragged her back into the boat.