Free Thorns of Decision (Dusk Gate Chronicles) by Breeana Puttroff Page A

I’m definitely not ready to be alone in my house with my mom for ten days. I don’t know when she’s going to decide to talk to me about any of this, but I need some time away to figure things out, and I’m not okay staying here.”
    Nathaniel nodded. “I understand, Quinn, but please tell me you’re not going to just take off again without telling her.”
    “No. I’m going to leave here in a little while. I’ve barely seen Annie since I’ve been back, and it’ll be a while, at least for me, until I’ll see her again. I want a little time with her. I’m going to call Mrs. Williams and let her know I won’t be at the library tonight, and then I’m going to pick up Annie from Maggie’s and take her out for hot chocolate or something. Once my mom is home from work – I’m sure she’ll be home early, especially if I text her that I have Annie, I will drop my little sister off, tell my mom where I’m going, and then meet you back here before dusk.”
    “What if your mother forbids you to leave?” William asked.
    Quinn shrugged. “I will find a way to go anyway. She can’t keep me locked up for over a week. Besides, I don’t think she will.” She caught Nathaniel’s gaze on the last part. “Will she?” she asked him.
    Nathaniel shook his head, closing his eyes for several seconds before meeting hers again. “She won’t. That was part of our original agreement. I would stay out of the way … I would keep the secret from you, never tell you anything until after your eighteenth birthday, but she was never to actually deny my access to you – or yours to me.”
    “That’s why she didn’t stop me from going to visit Thomas last night. She was mad – she didn’t want me to – but she didn’t say no.”
    “We never, ever imagined that you would really discover the gate on your own, but there were stipulations in the agreement about it anyway. She agreed never to move you away from Bristlecone – away from the gate, until after you’d been told. Charlotte and Stephen wished always to be able to know how you were doing here as well.”
    Her eyes widened at this news. “But I’m not really even related to them.”
    “By blood, no. Do you really think that makes any difference to them? Stephen and your father and I grew up loving each other as brothers. You’re as beloved a niece to him as you are to me. You always, always have been.”
     
    *          *          *
     
    William couldn’t think straight. He hadn’t been able to for several hours, ever since the conversation he’d witnessed between Quinn and Nathaniel had turned his entire world upside-down. Thoughts and questions would almost form in his brain; he would almost understand some small part of what had just happened, when a new aspect of it would assault him.
    Nathaniel was Quinn’s uncle? Quinn’s father was from Eirentheos? That meant … It meant so many different things. What boggled his mind the most was that Nathaniel had always known. The entire time he had lived here, William had been going to school with Nathaniel’s niece, and he had never had any idea. And his parents knew, too? What had they been thinking?
    Suddenly a thousand little things made a whole different kind of sense to him – while the things that had seemed to make sense before no longer did.
    And now he didn’t have time to think about it anymore, because she was back, and it was time to get ready to go to the gate, to go home.
    Nathaniel, who, between an extended trip to Eirentheos and arranging things with Thomas’ surgery, had fallen far behind in his work, intended to help them get through the gate, but stay in Bristlecone for several more days. They wanted to make sure they got to the gate early enough that Nathaniel would have enough time to help Thomas through and then come back. His parents had planned to make sure there would be help waiting on the other side each time the gate opened until Thomas’ safe return.
    He met