Pieces of Eight (The Frey Saga, #2)(7)

He slunk forward, toward the sheered bed and I let him, looking around as we went. It seemed easier to “ride along” than to constantly try and control his movement. He pounced the sheers, pulling them loose, and then lazily plopped down on the end of the bed, looking out, around the room. I wasn’t sure how to know when I’d found Ruby’s room, let alone where to look for the diary, but this was definitely a woman’s room. There were rich fabrics everywhere, dresses draped over the wardrobe door. But, they were dusty, very dusty. I took a closer look at the bedding, it was also aged. So, this couldn’t have been Ruby’s room, it hadn’t been used for what seemed to be a exceptionally long time. Why weren’t the servants cleaning it?

I tried to move down from the bed to get a better look at the items on the vanity. We didn’t budge. My head was almost throbbing now but I tried harder. He didn’t behave as I wanted and I wondered if this was why so many less had shown up at the castle than I’d planned. Then his head turned suddenly, there was some commotion nearing the door. He was moving now, but I concentrated on making out the sounds.

“The seal has been broken… Miss Vita’s room… no, no, by one of the cats…”

I didn’t know whether it was the pain in my head or recognition of the name that brought me back, but I was gone from the castle in a heartbeat. I sat up on my blankets, rubbing my temples as I attempted to focus on the memories. Vita. My mother’s mother, I’d read it in the diary. She’d died, from grief, it had said. My mother had tried to see her, and her room later, but it was sealed, kept from her by her father.

“Headache?” Ruby was watching me. I had an audience. Big surprise. I opened my mouth to speak but was too exhausted so I just shook my head and lay back down. It was near impossible to examine the memories now, between the exhaustion and pain. So I tried to not think as I drifted off to sleep.





I felt better when I woke but I was positive I could have used a few more hours sleep. I was a little grumpy and more foggy than usual. By late morning, I’d remembered that I was mad at Ruby for keeping something from me and I shot a glare her direction.

Steed saw my sour face. “Don’t be sore with Ruby.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“She had her reasons for the invasion.” He read the confusion on my face and continued in a hushed tone, “She’s very interested in your… lineage.”

I realized he was talking about her reading my mother’s diary and the anger was suddenly stronger. I had forgotten that part. He’d stopped talking so I composed my face and waited, trying to look patient.

He smiled at my attempt. We fell back from the others as he explained. “You know some of her story, that she’s a half-breed.”

Patience was a hard thing.

“Oh, I should just start from the beginning. It will be a long ride after all.” He could tell I was struggling.

His grin died as he began what I knew was a serious story. “My mother and father had a happy life. Their differences fit nicely together and their bonds were strong. But the horses couldn’t thrive on the mountains that my mother loved and my father traveled often to find new blood to bring in for the line, so he was gone sometimes for months at a time, as was I, once I began to learn the trade. Which is why we were both absent during the… incident in which she lost her life.”

I tried not to groan. I was sure the “incident” he referred to was the massacre single-handedly caused by my mother.

“We returned separately, as I was detained, in another matter, and so I was not there when he’d received the news.”

I realized I was holding my breath and focused on matching it to the rhythm of the hoofbeats.

“When I finally saw him, he was beyond distraught. He was… not himself. I was fearful for him but I too was in mourning. And I had my own duties to fulfill. So, I found myself gone again when the second tragedy befell him.”

Ruby’s mother.

“The fairy found him in such a condition that it was effortless to sway him with enchantments. All this, you know. But what Ruby has left out is the root of the issue. Yes, you are similar in that you are both from unmatched parents.” I very nearly laughed at his term. “But the real reason she was interested in your mother’s diary was because that, well, you, were what sparked the idea in her own mother’s twisted mind.”

I was lost.

He could tell.

“You see, Frey, your mother was bred, uh, created for uniqueness. But you, you were born with it.”

I couldn’t think of my own mother, of myself, now labeled a crossbreed, so instead I thought of Ruby. Uniqueness. “Well, she got it, didn’t she?” I knew we were both thinking of her venom when we looked at her then.

She turned back with a half smile and shot us a wink. I could see why Steed had helped her now. And after all that her mother had done to destroy his family, it almost gave me hope. It did seem that this group had forgiven me for my mother’s actions. I wondered how clearly those actions might have been detailed in the diary.

“I wish I’d finished reading it,” I said sullenly.

“Why don’t you?”

“I don’t know where it is.”

“I’m sure Ruby has it. She carries everything she values with her.”