Free Blooms of Consequence (Dusk Gate Chronicles Book 4) by Breeana Puttroff

Quinn’s pillow, squinting to find the source of the noise that had roused him.
    “How long have you two been in here?” he asked. Thomas and Linnea were both sitting on Quinn’s couch, their outlines just visible in the low light coming from the floorboards.
    “Not long,” Thomas said, standing and walking over to him. He carried something in his hands, and when he reached the edge of the bed, he held it out to William.
    “Thanks,” William said, accepting the still-hot mug of tea. He closed his eyes and breathed in the comforting steam before taking a sip. He studied his brother for a moment, noticing that he was fully dressed, in different clothes than yesterday. “Is there news?” he asked.
    “Nothing,” Thomas answered. “Father sent several more guards to search the entire camp, and they haven’t turned up anything. Nobody has seen her. They’re going to search again at first light and then decide what to do.”
    “So what are you two doing in here?”
    “We’re going to search, too. We’re ready to leave right now.”
    “Father’s all right with that?”
    Thomas shrugged. “We dealt with staying here yesterday without complaining. We were needed at the castle with the children. We’d probably have gotten in the way down at your clinic. But this is different. I’m not sitting around in the castle when Quinn is missing. We’re going to find her and bring her back today. I don’t care where she is.”
     
    Fifteen minutes later, the three of them were down at the stables saddling their horses.
    “Where is Ben, anyway?” Linnea asked, as she climbed up on Snow, her white mare. “Did he ever come back from the camp last night? He’s the one who was supposed to be guarding Quinn.”
    “I don’t know.” Thomas was mounting his own horse, Storm.
    “He was distraught,” William said. “Nearly as much as I was. Quinn was supposed to ask him to go get water with her at the well. I don’t know why she didn’t.” His throat was suddenly tight again, and moisture was threatening behind his eyes.
    “Are you sure she didn’t?” Linnea asked, a strange sound in her voice.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean – what if we can’t trust Ben as much as we thought we could? What if he knows more than he’s telling? We trusted Paul once, too, you know.”
    A sick feeling ripped through William’s insides. “He’s a Friend of Philip! He’s Marcus’ son.”
    “I know,” Linnea said, closing her eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that – it’s just hard to trust anything right now, you know?”
    William didn’t know. Right now, he didn’t know anything.
    “Oh, stop, Linnea,” Thomas said, a sound in his voice that William didn’t understand, but that he didn’t have the energy to wonder about.
    “Has Ben ever done one thing – even one – to deserve to have you saying that?”
    She looked down at the ground. “No. He hasn’t.”
    “You need to deal with your feelings some other way, than that , Nay.”
    William had no idea what they were talking about, and he didn’t care. He rode away from the stable without another word.
     
     
    *          *          *
     
    In the pale light of the morning, the emergency camp was even more depressing than it had been the night before. Well before they even reached it, as they approached from a hill, William could see that it was much calmer and quieter than the night before. There hadn’t been any additional evacuations during the night. He scanned the sky, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that the plume of smoke had moved – the fire was drifting back into the deep woods, away from homes.
    Slowly, William brought Skittles to a stop.
    “What are you doing?” Thomas asked, riding up and stopping next to him. On his other side, Linnea stopped, too.
    “I don’t want to go in there.”
    “Into the camp? Why? What’s wrong?” Thomas’ brow furrowed in concern.
    William closed his eyes for a moment,