“And how are we doing that?”
Malachi leaned forward, his eyes growing cold again. “We aren’t doing anything. You are still here on sufferance.”
“I see,” Thaddeus said, trying to keep the ice out of his own voice. “Is that all?”
“For now,” Malachi said. “Continue your training and learn to let out that power within you without letting your rage control you. Continue your dalliance with Melanie, if you’d like. When the time is right, we’ll assign a task to you.”
“A task?”
“Yes. Perhaps something here, perhaps on another world. We’ll see where your talents are. Assuming that is, you actually have any.”
Malachi smiled, pretending that his words were a joke, but Thaddeus knew better. He just needed to look in the man’s eyes.
♦ ♦ ♦
“Was it bad?”
Melanie lay with her head on Thaddeus’s chest. He had enjoyed their lovemaking but was now sinking into a malaise as he replayed the meeting with Malachi in his mind. His hesitation, the lack of any true answers and the abrupt dismissal at the end all ate at him, and all he wanted to do was slip off, sleep for a long time and forget about everything.
“It was fine,” he said.
“Liar.” She snuggled in closer to him. “I can hear it in your voice.”
“You think you know me that well already?” For some reason, the thought that she could read him that easily bothered him.
She laughed. “Anyone could hear it. Don’t be ashamed. There are very few of us who meet with Malachi and come away feeling good about ourselves. I think he enjoys it.”
“Mmm. He said that what happened to me was all part of a test. Not my cousin, but the rest of it.”
“It could have been,” Melanie said.
“He also said I should ask you about yours.”
“Really? What a bastard.”
Silence reigned in the room. Thaddeus was happy to let it go, to simply lie there in her bed, letting the shadows lengthen and his eyes grow heavier. Then Melanie pushed herself upright and sat against the headboard.
“Why do you want to know?” she asked.
“I didn’t say I did. I said that Malachi said I should ask you about it.”
Melanie turned away from him.
“Look,” Thaddeus said, “you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. It doesn’t matter to me.”
“It might.”
Thaddeus shrugged. “It’s possible, I guess. It’s your choice to tell me or not.”
Melanie was quiet for a moment, then, “My former house was Flourishing Maple. Do you know it?”
“Of course.” Thaddeus had made it a point in his earlier life to know all the Houses of the Greenweald, great or small. Flourishing Maple was a midsized house, located near the edge of the Greenweald where it was more open, consisting of a bunch of farmers. Yes, he understood the importance and necessity of that type of work, but it wasn’t for him. Still, their Head of House was accorded due respect.
But there was some minor scandal involving that House, if he remembered right.
“Yeah, well, I was the oldest daughter of Titus, the Head of House,” Melanie said.
“That’s something. Not quite like being family in one of the great Houses, but something.”
“You don’t have to be so condescending. I know where Flourishing Maple stands, and what some of the other Houses think of what they do. Just remember who is training who here.”
There was true hurt in Melanie’s voice and Thaddeus glanced at her. He was letting his emotions get the better of him, exactly what Malachi warned him against. Plus, he was doing a good job of pissing off the one person in this whole place who was kind to him.
“Sorry,” he said, pushing himself up to sit next to her. “You’re right, I was being rude. Please, continue.”
Her hand found his and grasped it. “I didn’t get along with my parents very well. Especially as I got older. I had … I don’t know what you’d call them … appetites, maybe? Regardless, they didn’t sit well with my father or mother. They were undignified for the daughter of the Head of House.”
“Appetites? You’ve lost me.”
Melanie shrugged. “You know. Same as a lot of kids. I was curious about things. Magic didn’t run in our family and they didn’t trust it, so when I started to develop a talent for it, they squashed it. I found little ways of practicing, like making one plant in the field grow faster, or wither and die. I have to admit, I did the wither and die routine more often. It was easier.
“And also…I liked boys. I mean really liked them, but they all steered clear of me, since I was Titus’s daughter.”
“Cowards.” Thaddeus said it as a joke, but Melanie didn’t crack a smile.
“My parents were hypocrites. Both of them had plenty of partners on the side that they thought the other didn’t know about. Or anyone else. I knew, though, and it made me so angry that they’d lecture me about my behavior when they were acting like that.”
Thaddeus thought back to Florian, the only person he was ever close to who had a long-term relationship. His cousin was fiercely loyal to his wife, and he couldn’t imagine him ever having strayed on her.
Melanie continued. “I found out that part of my gift for magic was being able to influence people. Not a lot, at least not at first. I’ve developed that a lot more here, but enough to get one of the common boys to follow me to my bedroom.”
The idea of Melanie doing that made Thaddeus squirm. Perhaps that was how he ended up here as well.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Melanie said, “and the answer is no, I haven’t used it on you.”
“Would I know if you
