Free Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy Book 3) Page A

Jared’s sleeve to push him behind her, but he wouldn’t move, and then the door of the inn opened and Lillian Lynburn came hurtling out, hair a loose golden sheet around her shoulders and her blood-red-painted mouth trembling.
    She stopped like a bird that had hit a window, and stood on the step staring at Jared. He stood looking up at her, and Kami remembered that Lillian had his mother’s face, and his mother was most likely dead.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Lillian said in a harsh, abrupt voice, more like Jared’s own voice than Rosalind Lynburn’s soft tones had ever been. She came tumbling off the step into Jared’s arms. Kami felt Ash’s surprise, greater than Kami’s own, and shadowed with envy.
    Jared had always dealt best with his aunt, perhaps because words and gestures of affection did not come easily to either of them. Lillian Lynburn had put Kami’s brother in danger and Kami had not forgiven her for it, but she knew Lillian meant something to Jared. She was happy he had her.
    He put his arms around Lillian, smoothed her tumbled hair, and laid his scarred cheek on top of her head.
    â€œI’m sorry too,” Jared murmured. “Aunt Lillian. Edmund Prescott didn’t leave you. There’s a priest hole behind the mural in Aurimere. Rob put me down there. Edmund’s been dead for years.”
    Kami looked at Holly, whose whole family had been punished because her uncle had—as everyone thought—dared to leave a Lynburn. Holly had grabbed onto Angela’s hand and was holding on tight, but there was no grief on her face: she’d never known the boy who died in the priest hole. She only looked tired.
    When Kami’s gaze returned to Lillian and Jared, Lillian had detached slightly from Jared but still had his face cupped in her hands.
    â€œMaybe Edmund didn’t mean to leave me,” Lillian said. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re here, Jared. You’re back.”
    She pressed his head down on her shoulder, and Jared shuddered slightly and then leaned against her. Kami thought he’d relaxed in his aunt’s arms, before she realized that he had lost consciousness.

There’s blood between us, love, my love,
    There’s father’s blood, there’s brother’s blood;
    And blood’s a bar I cannot pass.
    â€”Christina Rossetti

Chapter Six
Call-Me-to-You
    J ared had a fever for three days and two nights. Lillian led Ash and Kami in spells for healing, sending air to cool him and water to soothe him, and putting herbs under his pillow.
    Eventually Martha Wright, who ran the Water Rising with her husband, mustered enough courage to stand up to a Lynburn and said that Jared was worn to a bone and needed rest, and completed this act of courage by shooing Lillian out of the room.
    Lillian was admittedly not a very restful person. Even the way she smoothed Jared’s sheets was peremptory, tugging at them in small irritable jerks as if she could tug health out of him that way.
    On the second day, Martha Wright told Kami that Jared had woken up calling out with night terrors, and after that they took turns sitting with him. Holly and Angela were exempt because they had volunteered to go through the books from the Aurimere library, but Kami, Ash, and Rusty split their time.
    Kami was uneasily aware that both Ash and Rusty were better nurses than she was. Kami suspected that she was only one step up from Lillian. Kami didn’t like staying still for too long, while Rusty power-napped with one eye open. Kami was nervous about hurting rather than helping Jared, while both the boys had charming bedside manners.
    Of course, Jared was not a particularly charming invalid.
    Kami sat on the horsehair armchair that she and Rusty had carried up the dark stairs of the inn, curled up with a mystery novel in Jared’s narrow, whitewashed room. Bright sunlight filtered through his single tall window in a