Page 57 of Stolen Thorn Bride
“Oh, there you are.”
Kasia looked up to find Gianessa beaming at them from the doorway.
“You’re back,” the mage woman said matter-of-factly. “Did you have a nice time?”
Did she have anice time?
Beware of thorns. Beware of promises. Beware of kings.
Just how much had Gianessa known before Kasia went into the woods searching for her pigs on that fateful day?
But right then, she didn’t have the courage to ask. She was too relieved. Too exhausted. Too sick at heart. Too everything.
“Rory, are you…”
He nodded, a little shamefaced as he glanced at Gianessa. “We’ve been living here since the house burned. I went to the village first, and they… No one would help me.”
She wished she felt surprised, but she didn’t.
“But Kasi, I’m sorry for all the things I said. I remembered you told us to come here, and… Well, I’m working here now, and it’s kind of nice.”
Kasia felt her jaw drop. “I’m… glad,” she stammered, stunned by her brother’s change of heart. “But we can’t keep trespassing on Gianessa’s hospitality. Now that I’m home—”
“You can sit and have some tea,” Gianessa said firmly, floating out of the room, only to return with a kettle and two mugs swinging from her fingers. “We can discuss everything else later, my dear.”
And so they did. Kasia drank tea and stared as she watched her brothers smile and laugh. They hadn’t been that happy since… since her mother left. Even Gianessa seemed less absent and more prone to laughter as she explained how the three of them had come to live with her. When Ellery ran into the room and leaped into Gianessa’s arms, Kasia felt tears prick her eyes and knew she had to escape. Once she let herself start crying, she doubted she’d be able to stop.
She jumped up and set her mug down on a table. “I think,” she said hastily, “I’m going to run back over to the house and see what can be salvaged. I’ll be back by dinnertime.”
“But, you just got here.” Rordyn was obviously confused. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“It’ll be fine, dear,” Gianessa told him fondly. “We’ll just give her some time to say goodbye.”
To say goodbye.
“I mean for you all to stay,” the mage woman said firmly, when she saw the look on Kasia’s face. “We both know there’s no rebuilding what’s left, and anyway, I like having you all here. There’s plenty of room, and if people are going to talk anyway, might as well give them something to talk about.”
“Yes,” Kasia said mechanically. “I see. I’m sure you’re right. I’m… I’m going to go.”
She almost couldn’t breathe as she made her way out of the house and stumbled down the path into the late afternoon sun. Her mind and heart were such a mess of horrible, conflicting, knotted-up feelings she didn’t even know where to start other than tears.
They were all right.
They didn’t need her.
She was finally home where she belonged.
And they’d been just fine without her.
She should be relieved, she reminded herself. She didn’t need to carry the burden of her siblings alone anymore.
But all she felt was the hollow sensation of loss. Without the constant fear of being unable to care for them, what did she even have left?
She’d suddenly been cast adrift, and now…
With tears streaming silently down her face, Kasia walked back down the road to the burned-out shell of her home. There, she sat in the ashes near what used to be her fireplace, and asked herself what she was supposed to do now.
Everything was gone. And that should have felt like freedom, but it didn’t. It was lonely, lost, and empty.