Free Aether Spirit by Cecilia Dominic

either. “She’s making some adjustments. Being here is hard for her.” He stood and closed the office door. “Can I ask you a few questions about her?”
    Bryce’s grin vanished. “I don’t know, Doctor Radcliffe. I promised—” He looked away and scratched his arm.
    Chad caught his hand. “Don’t do that, you’ll only make it worse. I don’t want to push you into doing anything you’re not comfortable with. God knows you get enough of that being in the army.”
    Bryce pulled his arm away with a furious expression too intense and regretful for his sixteen-year-old face. “It’s not that. I mean, yes, it is that I’ve had to do too many things, but no, I promised my mother…”
    Chad told his jaw to relax, but the string of tension from just behind his right ear down his neck and to his collarbone told him it was too late to try to keep the headache from coming. Apparently Claire wasn’t the only one who had that reaction to reminders from the past.
    “Your mother,” Chad said. “Yes, how is she? Living with Claire’s mother, I hear?”
    Bryce nodded and halted his hand before it found his elbow again. He scratched his stomach instead. “Yes, at least that’s how it was when I left. When Uncle Allen died, Aunt Melanie was lonely.”
    Chad stopped himself from saying something about how Eliza had swooped in to save the day but probably just to make sure Melanie wouldn’t keep him updated on Claire. Eliza had always hated him for his skin color, although Melanie and Allen had welcomed him as a possible son-in-law.
    “What did she make you promise her, and what did you end up with in return?”
    “She made me promise I wouldn’t ever tell you anything about Claire, what they did to her after the accident.”
    “Wait, what they did to her? What they?”
    Bryce shook his head. “I can’t tell you. She said she’d make it easier for me in the army, that she’d use her connections to get me a better placement.”
    “So you ended up here?” Chad gestured around. “This is one of the more active sites on the front.”
    “I couldn’t help where my general brought us.” He studied his arm.
    Chad shook his head to stop his thoughts from bouncing around. He didn’t know what to say. Eliza had lied to Bryce, of that he was certain. She had influence in Boston, yes, but not with the draft office or army, at least not as far as he knew. If that had been the case, she would have had Chad moved before he finished his education at Harvard, which the army had paid for. Or perhaps her influence only stretched so far.
    “Let me ask you this—do you love your cousin?”
    “Oh, yes! She was always my favorite. She’d never tease me with the others when they started singing the girly hair song.”
    “Girly hair song?”
    Bryce raised his good hand to his hair, which curled around his fingers, and sang softly in a high-pitched, sing-songy voice like a child’s, “Brycie curls, Brycie curls, he’s got hair, just like a girl’s!” He dropped his voice into its usual register. “I always hated it, but even though her brother would join in, Cousin Claire never did.”
    Chad remembered Claire’s brother Aidan. He’d always been distant but polite. Perhaps if Chad reached out to him, he’d get more information… But no. He had no doubt Eliza had Aidan in her power like she did Bryce. She could know someone’s weak spot within two seconds of meeting them. It seemed to annoy her that she couldn’t make Chad feel inferior. He couldn’t be angry at Aidan, though. He had arrived on the accident scene first and had helped them find Claire where she’d been thrown.
    “Then I’m going to ask you to consider helping me to help her. I want her to be restored to her former wholeness, at least as much as possible. I can’t say whether she’ll remember you or not, or if it will be painful for her to do so, so please try to stay away from her. She’s going to be doing some work here once she’s feeling