Briar Rose (22 page)

‘I’ll explain later. Just hold it together, OK?’ She smiled up at the villager. ‘How long does he have to stay like this?’ she asked, turning on the charm.

‘If he apologizes, I’ll set him free.’

‘I won’t—’ Pat began.

Reena slapped her palm over his mouth. ‘How long will he stay if he doesn’t apologize?’

‘Half a day should do it.’

She looked back at the prisoner. ‘Well, Daniels, what’s it going to be? Half a day of getting hit by crap, or just sucking it up and being polite?’

‘Polite,’ he mumbled against her palm.

‘Good plan.’ She removed her hand and the prisoner stammered out an apology for being a total jerk.

Joshua cracked a smile.
This has to be a first.
Once they got Briar home, he’d savour this memory for years.

In a short time, Pat was free of the contraption, groaning in agony as his muscles protested. He shook himself to dislodge some of the fruit. ‘God, I stink.’

He headed for the closest water trough, and after dunking his head he scrubbed until his face was clean. Joshua decided not to point out just how filthy the water might be.

Pat’s efforts resulted in his hair plastered against his head, water dripping down. Joshua began to snigger.

‘It’s not funny,’ he said through gritted teeth as he shifted his full attention to Reena. ‘If this is a hazing thing, just tell me.’

‘It’s not. I’ll explain later.’

‘Yeah, later,’ Joshua urged. ‘Let’s grab Briar and get out of here.’

‘Briar? She’s here too?’ Pat’s expression changed. ‘Oh, I got it. This is some sort of payback for coming on to her, right?’

‘I wish it were that simple,’ Reena said, tugging on his arm to get him moving. ‘I’m not sure why you’re here. What happened?’

‘I went to sleep and I woke up dressed like this,’ Pat replied, gesturing at his damp clothes. ‘Everybody I talked to was stupid. I couldn’t get a straight
answer.’

Probably because you were an asshat.

‘What time did you fall asleep?’ Reena asked.

‘Ah, a little after four. My folks are in Savannah for the weekend so I stayed up and watched some TV.’

‘It was the same for us,’ she said, looking over at Joshua. ‘There has to be a connection.’

Smoothing his hair out of the way, Pat ran a hand across his face, leaving a trail of red in its wake.

Reena stepped closer to him. ‘You’re bleeding.’

He looked down at his palm. ‘Yeah, I did it at the party. It was that dumb bracelet of Briar’s.’ He frowned at Joshua. ‘Why would you ever give a girl something sharp
like that? You know they’re klutzes.’

A low growl formed in Reena’s throat. ‘I’ll act like you didn’t say that.’

Suddenly it all made sense. ‘The charm that cut you, was it the woodsman with the little axe?’ Joshua asked.

‘Yeah, why?’

He and Reena traded looks.

‘It’s possible,’ she said, lowering her voice. ‘If he got his blood on the charm before I did the spell, he would have been included in the magic.’

‘Magic?’ Pat blurted.

‘Shush!’ Reena replied, looking around uneasily. ‘These people are not going to be good with that kind of thing. OK?’

‘I don’t care. I’m going to start yelling that word at the top of my lungs if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on,’ Pat retorted.

‘The dude’s losing it. Better calm him down,’ Joshua said, which earned him a glower.

Keeping her voice low, Reena began to explain, though to any normal person it sounded quite insane. From the expression on Pat’s face, he was thinking the same. As they retraced their
steps to the stable, he went through a number of stages: first he laughed, then told her to stop lying to him, and finally grew really angry.

None of which had played well with Reena.

‘I told you the truth,’ she retorted, her fists clenched, looking like she wanted to punch some sense into him. ‘I’m sorry you have your head so far up your butt you
can’t deal with it.’

Pat glared over at him. ‘Is this crazy chick for real?’

‘She is. Hoodoo brought you here and it will get you home, unless you keep being a total dick and she decides to leave you behind. Frankly, I’m all for that.’

Pat shook his head. ‘This is just bull. It was that pizza I had right before I went to sleep. I’ll wake up in the morning and it’ll be fine.’

Reena nailed him on the arm and he winced. ‘You feel pain in your dreams?’

He blinked a couple of times, then checked out their surroundings with increasing concern. ‘This is for real?’

She nodded. ‘Welcome to Briar’s nightmare, dude.’

Briar was still crying when her friends found her. She ran into Reena’s arms, weeping so hard she could hardly catch her breath.

‘Honey, what happened?’ Reena asked. ‘Are you OK?’

‘They arrested Ruric,’ she gasped. ‘They’ve taken him to the castle.’

‘I’m so sorry. He seems like a nice guy.’

‘We need to leave before something like that happens to us,’ Joshua insisted.

Briar stared at him through the tears, stung by his insensitivity. Then she saw Pat and her mouth dropped open. ‘What is he—?’

‘Long story,’ Joshua replied. ‘We need to go now.’

Go?
Was that even an option? Could she leave Ruric behind, never knowing what had happened to him?

Even as she thought that, she felt the darkness growing again, gathering strength. Her friends being here had changed everything. Before, it had been a matter of keeping her head down, trying to
figure out how to help Ruric wake the princess. Now, if she tried to save him, she’d be putting the others in danger.

Who did she owe more?

‘I’m with the horse dude,’ Pat said, angling a thumb at Joshua. ‘This isn’t my idea of fun. Can we go now?’

‘No,’ Briar replied, pulling away from Reena. ‘I’m not going anywhere until Ruric is safe.’

‘What?’ Joshua shot back. ‘Are you crazy? You know what it’s like here.’

Townspeople began to watch them more closely than was prudent. Having this sort of argument in the middle of the street wasn’t a smart move.

‘Come on, we need to talk this out somewhere else,’ Briar said, beckoning them forward. ‘Somewhere less . . . public.’

Somewhere the regent didn’t have any spies.

After a brief stop to talk to the smithy, who had promised to deliver the bad news to the stable’s owner, Briar herded her friends through the village. To ensure they
weren’t followed, she’d led them on a circuitous route.

Finally she swung open the blue door to the building that supposedly held the wine cellar. The moment she stepped inside she wondered why Ruric had thought this was such a great hiding place.
The roof was history, birds flitting around in the open rafters, which meant the floor was covered in little white mounds of bird poop, and the hearth was home to a hissing creature of some
kind.

‘This pretty much blows,’ Pat began as he checked out the dusty interior. ‘You really live here?’

‘No!’ she said, irritated, pushing the door closed behind them. ‘It’s a hiding place if things go wrong.’
Like now.

It took a bit, but Briar finally found the door that led to the cellar and creaked it open, nearly tearing it off the weakened hinges. A wooden box sat on the top stair. Inside she found six
beeswax candles and a candle holder, along with a flint, a crude piece of steel and other items. Ruric had planned ahead.

‘Either of you a boy scout?’ Briar asked.

Pat shrugged. ‘I was when I was a kid.’

‘You? Really?’ Reena said. ‘My middle bro is into all that. He’s working on some first-aid badge and he keeps bandaging up the dog because the rest of us won’t let
him near us.’

‘Been there, done that,’ he replied sullenly.

Briar pointed at the candles and the flint. ‘Can you get one of those going? We’re going to need it to use the cellar.’

‘I can try,’ he said, scooping up the items and retreating back into the sunlight. There were a couple of muffled curse words along with the repeated sound of flint striking steel.
Then a ‘Score!’

Pat returned with the burning candle. ‘Don’t let it go out. It was a pain in the ass to light.’

Briar took the taper and the holder, mating them. She slowly descended the stairs, taking care not to trip. ‘Can one of you bring down the box?’

‘I live to serve,’ Pat replied.

Compared to the upper level, the wine cellar itself was pretty decent. Dusty, but not as bad as she’d expected, probably why Ruric had selected it. She set the candle on a broken barrel
and tried to clean off a place to sit. Then gave up.

Pat slumped on the floor. ‘You got any food in there?’ he said, gesturing at Reena’s bag.

‘No. This isn’t a picnic.’

‘I just asked,’ he replied, crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes.

Joshua had gone silent, besides his occasional sneezes, and parked himself some distance from Pat. Reena sat in between the two guys, as if she was a referee. Which was about right with this
pair.

‘Look, I’m sure that staying here sounds like a good idea to you right now,’ her best friend began, ‘but I’m not sure how long the magic is going to hold for us to
get back.’

‘Did Lily help you?’

‘Sort of. Not straight out, though.’

Still not a complete answer. ‘You’re not even sure if I can leave, are you?’ Her friend gave a reluctant nod.
Thought so.
‘This isn’t negotiable,’
Briar continued. ‘I need to get Ruric free. I don’t know why, but it feels really important. I think it’s a way to fight the curse on my own terms.’

Joshua pounded a fist into the dusty floor. ‘This Ruric guy is not real,’ he exclaimed. ‘He’s just some fantasy in your head.’

‘He’s real to me, as real as you are,’ she said. ‘Maybe more so.’

Something changed in Joshua’s eyes, as if a massive steel door had just slammed shut inside of him.

Briar looked away, feeling bad. Why had she said that? ‘I’m sorry.’

Reena’s expression grew pensive as she fiddled with a ribbon she wore round her neck. ‘We saw that guy get his throat cut and the fata thing put in the cage. This regent of yours is
red-lining the evil scale, so we’re outgunned here. I know you care for Ruric, but—’

‘Fine,’ she said, disappointed. All those years she’d been there for Reena and now her friend was not willing to take a risk for someone Briar truly cared about. ‘You
guys can wait for me here, or go home. Whatever works for you. I’m going after Ruric.’

‘You can’t just knock on the castle’s doors and ask if he can come out and play,’ Reena argued. ‘You have to have a plan.’

Briar was only half listening. For some reason the captive fata kept coming to mind.
Why does the regent fear them?

Was it because they were incredibly dangerous and she was trying to protect her subjects?

No . . .
Nothing about the tyrant said she gave a damn about her people. Which meant if the fata weren’t their enemies, they might be potential allies.

Was that why I was given the feather?

‘I need to free that little creature in the cage,’ she announced.

‘Why? What would it gain us?’ Reena asked.

Us?
Briar knew that tone: her friend wanted to be convinced.

‘I want to see if the fata can help us. Maybe it knows a way into the castle. We need those guys on our side.’

‘You only need allies in a war,’ Joshua argued, ‘not in some punked-up fairy tale. We’re not here to overthrow a tyrant. We’re just here to get you home.’

He was pushing back on everything she said and that pissed her off.

‘I know why Reena’s here, but what about you? Your family hates me. In fact, I bet it was one of them who put the curse on me.’

Even in the dimly lit room Joshua’s face paled. His eyes lowered as he shook his head, more in resignation than anything. ‘You’re just like the rest of the Roses,’ he
said, not looking at her now. ‘I don’t know why I thought you might be different.’

‘OK, this is serious drama overload,’ Pat said, opening his eyes. ‘Time to blow out of here. Make with the magic, will you, Reena? I want to be home before my folks know
I’ve been gone.’

Reena blew out a breath through pursed lips. ‘No go. I’m staying with Briar.’

He frowned. ‘Fine. Just zap me out of here.’ There was a silent pause as the light dawned. ‘You’re not going to do it, are you?’ She shook her head. ‘I
didn’t ask to be in whatever the hell it is.’

‘I know, but you’re here now so just deal.’

‘Reena,’ Joshua warned.

‘Same for you.’ Reena turned her back on him. ‘So what’s the plan?’

It was the first time Briar could remember taking the lead in anything. Definitely the first time in her friendship with Reena. It felt good, and really scary at the same time.

‘If the fata escapes, the guards will go crazy trying to find it because they fear the regent. While they’re running around, that’ll give us a chance to get inside the
castle.’ Not that she had a clue how to do that.
If only Ruric had told me
what he had planned . . .

‘Well, that’s a long shot,’ Reena said, rising to her feet.

‘I know.’ As plans went, it was way thin.