Thorns of Decision (Dusk Gate Chronicles) (10 page)

Nathaniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “It’s true. Samuel was my oldest brother. He and I were very close – William, you and Thomas have always reminded me of the two of us.”

“Wait,” Quinn said, finally finding her voice, although it was small and shaky. “If you and my father were
brothers
… that makes you …”

“Yes, Quinn. It makes me your uncle.”

Her
uncle. Her father’s
brother.
She didn’t know the source of the tears that flowed down her cheeks now, didn’t even notice them, actually, until one dripped onto William’s hand, and he reached into his pocket to retrieve his handkerchief for her. “But …
what? How? … Why?”

She glanced over at William. He’d moved closer to her, and his whole body was visibly shaking now, as hard as hers was. Thomas still just looked stunned. She had learned, on her second trip to Eirentheos, that Nathaniel wasn’t really related to William and Thomas – that he’d lived with their father’s family since he was a teenager, and his status as “uncle” to them was an honorary one. But she’d
never
imagined that he was actually related to her.

“I can’t even begin to answer all of your questions right now, Quinn. And I can’t tell you how sorry I am that you’re just finding this out now. This was never how I intended things to go.”

“Does my mom
know
this?”

“Yes, she does. Not many people did know that we were actually brothers. That part we kept quiet, to protect the secret, to protect
you
, but of course Samuel shared that with Megan.”

“Then … my dad was from
Eirentheos?
”

“Your father and I were both from that world, yes.”

“What about my mom?”

“She’s from this world. Your father met and fell in love with her after he’d already been living here.”

“Was he a … did he come here to study medicine, too? He couldn’t have also been a healer.”

“No. Neither your father nor I first came here to study medicine. That was an unexpected benefit I discovered after our first several trips. There were other reasons we came … things in our own world we came to get away from, and that I am not at liberty to share with the three of you, at least not yet. Really, I’ve shared too much already.”

“Are those the same reasons you never told me you were my uncle?”

“That part I never meant to keep from you, Quinn. When you were tiny, you knew – at least in a way. I used to spend so much time with you when you were little – spoiling you rotten.”

“So what happened? Why have you been keeping this from her – from all of us?” William’s still shook in anger.

“Everything changed when Samuel died. It was hard enough on Megan to know that her daughter was part of this other world that she didn’t understand, and the situation was so complicated. There’s still a lot she doesn’t know, and she always knew we weren’t telling her everything – some of it was understandably frightening for her. We agreed on a compromise – that I could tell you about some things when you were eighteen, and old enough to decide for yourself. And then things changed again when you discovered the gate on your own.”

She nodded, although she wasn’t sure what she was agreeing to. Her brain felt overly full – like it might burst, and she was having trouble staying on the couch. “Can I – I need a few minutes to myself.”

Without waiting for a response, she stood and walked out of the room.

Inside Nathaniel’s bathroom, she opened the medicine cabinet and looked for something she was almost certain she’d find, as several things clicked into place at once.

There it was. A small, brown, glass bottle, exactly like the one in her bathroom at home, and the one in the bathroom in her bedroom in the castle. She dug in a drawer for a clean washcloth, held it under hot running water, and then opened the bottle.

The comforting scent of lavender and vanilla filled the room, and she carefully placed three drops of the oil into the center of the cloth before folding it and burying her face in it.

When she returned to the living room, almost half an hour later, Thomas was asleep, and William and Nathaniel were both silent, staring into the fire.

“I’ve made a decision,” she said, and they looked up, both wearing cautious expressions. William raised one eyebrow.

“I’m going back to Eirentheos with you tonight. It’s Spring Break, and 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 Quinn as she pulled into the driveway. It would be easier to get Thomas into the back seat of her Pilot than into Nathaniel’s small sedan. And Nathaniel had already told him that he intended to drive Quinn’s car back to her house for her tonight, and have a conversation with her mother. William was rather disappointed that it would be quite a long time in his world before he saw Nathaniel again to hear the outcome of
that
meeting.

William was surprised at the overwhelming relief he felt, knowing that Quinn was coming with him back to the castle. After everything she’d been through recently, and what had just happened in Nathaniel’s living room, he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her here with so many people who were angry and not speaking to her. What had the girl done to deserve any of that?

He walked around the car and opened her door to help her out. Her eyes were puffy and red, so he didn’t ask how things had gone with her mother. “Did you have fun with Annie?” he asked instead.

She nodded. “It’s next to impossible not to. She ended up spilling half of her hot chocolate down the front of her shirt – I couldn’t resist taking her into Nannie’s shop to pick out something clean to wear home. Then I bought her another hot chocolate and told her she couldn’t drink it until she was home.”

William smiled – he wished he’d been there to see that. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you guys about ready to go?”

When they reached the other side of the bridge in Eirentheos, Simon and Maxwell were there, waiting for them with a wagon. His older brothers came up onto the bridge to help him and Nathaniel carry Thomas. Simon raised an eyebrow when he saw Quinn come through the gate with them, but Max looked almost as if he’d been expecting it, greeting her with a friendly, “Glad you see you again.”

Thomas smiled and joked, trying to hide his chagrin at needing assistance with
everything
, but William knew the helplessness grated on his younger brother.

“We weren’t really expecting you’d be back so soon,” Simon said, as they worked to arrange Thomas’ leg on pillows and help him get comfortable in the wagon.

“Truthfully, he could have used a couple more days in the hospital,” William said, noting the sweat on Thomas’ forehead, and the fact that he’d gone a little gray. “He did just have surgery two days ago.”

“We figured Nathaniel would make him stay longer, but Mother insisted we bring the wagon out here last time, too. Linnea wanted to come this time, but we convinced her that it really was too soon.”

“I’m fine,” Thomas said. “I’m ready to be home.”

William squeezed Thomas’ shoulder. “I know, buddy. Do you want some more medicine before the wagon ride? It’s close enough to time you could have more.”

Thomas shook his head. “I don’t want to be asleep when we get there.”

Quinn, climbing up near his head and finding a place to sit close to him, rolled her eyes. “Right. Because it’s better to pass out from being in pain than it is to be
asleep
.”

Thomas just smiled at her. “You’ve got your spark back,” he said.

She sighed.

William walked with Nathaniel back up to the gate, and picked up the two enormous backpacks they’d dropped on the bridge as soon as they’d crossed into Eirentheos carrying Thomas. Before they’d driven down, they’d emptied Quinn’s small backpack of her school things, and filled it with as many medical supplies as they could. She was wearing the backpack now.