Mine to Fear (Mine #3)(39)

“I believe I have.”

“What do I need to do to find out the answer?”

He grunts. “You have to understand this isn't easy for me.”

“Is that a good sign or a bad one?”

“Depends on your perspective.”

“You're maddening.”

Jack raises an eyebrow at me with a grin and then sombers. “I…I had a sister.”

Had? And what does this have to do with his decision? “Were you close?”

He laughs, but it's tainted with a deep bitterness. “No. She avoided me as much as she could. Which she should have. I was cruel. Teased her, hexed her. Then she was tested and sold off to an old warlock. It was supposed to be a good thing for our family, a raise in status and wealth, but…” He shakes his head.

He continues, “It doesn't matter now. The point is, I thought it was the correct way to act, treating her as such. I thought it was the way things were supposed to be. My friends all treated women that way. When I'd help with a training for class, they'd encourage the same. My father, well, he wasn't always the harshest warlock, but women were definitely objects to him.”

His description leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. This doesn't sound like the talk someone gives before accepting to help you overthrow other men who act the same way, even if he did preface it with how helping women has changed him.

“Yet, now my sister has been gone years. Shortly after that, I came to work for Councilman Daniel to help with Father's debt. Things were different there. I've never seen a warlock treat a woman the way he treats his wife. And he's kinder to the other women as well. It's stuck with me. Made me think on how I treated my elder sister. How she always avoided me, yet adoration shone in her eyes when she looked at mother. I felt like I was missing something. And then you. You came along.”

“And probably ruined any kind thoughts you had about women with how incredibly harsh I was.”

“You were harsh.” But he smiles, a real genuine smile that makes my stomach flutter. “But it was the first time I've seen a woman be so, well, warlock-like. Confident. You never lower your face to a warlock. You don't even mind talking to one like there isn't any consequences to your words. You are nothing like Chardonian women.”

“Thank the queen for that.” And does that mean he sees me as a positive thing? “But I'm hoping more Chardonian women can gain that confidence. They are people. They have rights. They need to know it.”

“I'm beginning to think you're right.”

Did he really just say that? Jack? The servant who's been mean to me and apparently his older sister? “That you think so gives me hope other warlocks may feel the same someday.”

“It also means,” he takes a deep breath and lets it out in a puff, “yes, I will help you. Though it will probably mean death to us all.”

My mouth would hang open if my mother hadn't drilled into me to keep it closed. “I don't know what to say. I admit that's not the answer I was expecting.”

“Yet it is what I've been leaning toward with everything I've been doing.”

“Yes, it is. Forgive me. I've been thinking that you aren't as strong as you really are. I've gotten to know you better than that, seen how loyal you can be. I shouldn't have judged you so harshly.”

“I did bring it on myself.”

“Maybe. But maybe my preconceived ideas need to be unlearned as much as yours.”

“That might be true.” He gives a half smile. “I will help, and I will give everything I have.”

“Thank you.”

But he's right. This may very well mean death to us all.





Chapter Twenty-Seven





“You do understand that I can't make the others want to participate in our suicidal rebellion,” Jack says.

I try not to let his words deflate me. “You have more power over them than you think.”

“I have less power over them than you think. The only reason they're letting me lead them is I'm the only warlock who's stepped forward to do so. If another warlock came along and started punishing them, my position would be done for.”

“Do you really think they would? They're finding freedom to speak in here, to play and to walk around without an escort. They're finding a life without hexes and beatings. They're already seeing how much better life can be without that.”

“I want to hope otherwise, but I think it's so.”

Exactly the type of thing I'll keep working on. “We'll just have to do the best we can then.”

“About that…”

A sudden influx of trepidation fills me. “What?”

“As much as I don't think I can influence them much since I won't punish or hex them, you have even less influence than I,” he says. “Truthfully, I believe that anything you support they will actively work against.”

This is beyond ridiculous. Sometimes I am so through with this county. “Because I am a woman.”

“You are. And an Envadi woman at that. Two terrifying counts against you as far as they're concerned.”

Well past done with this country’s backward ideas. “I thought we had grown past this.”