The Tethering: The Complete Collection

33. Gray Wrath-1

33

Gray Wrath

Molly didn’t speak as she drove. Jacob wanted to ask her to pull over for food. He had forgotten the pizza in the snow. He waited for Molly to put gas in the car, but she didn’t stop. Whether the car had a spell on it, Jacob didn’t dare ask. She drove through the night in stony silence.

Jacob remembered his first drive to the Mansion House. Emilia had just told him he was a wizard. His father had just died. Samuel had driven him into the unknown. Now he knew what he was going to, and he was even more afraid.

Rosalie snored softly on the floor of the car. He wanted to talk to Emilia. They should have planned what to say to Aunt Iz. Emilia’s tension pulled at his chest. She was worried about what Aunt Iz would say, too. As they passed through New Hampshire, Jacob closed his eyes and let himself drift into sleep.

The car’s shuddering as they passed through the fortaceria woke him a few hours later. Jacob blinked at the sun shining into his eyes, unsure of how it hadn’t woken him before.

“Molly?” Jacob asked as they pulled up the long driveway, his voice crackled from sleep and thirst. “Who’s here?” Jacob took in his first sight of the Mansion House. It was as grand and beautiful as ever, but it seemed lonely now, empty.

“Isadora is here,” Molly said tersely.

“Are Connor and Claire still―” Emilia began.

“Don’t pretend to care about their whereabouts. You abandoned them in the woods,” Molly snapped.

Jacob wanted to tell Molly that Connor and Claire were far safer without him and Emilia around, especially now that they had the Pendragon’s coniunx at the house with them, but somehow it didn’t seem like the right time to argue with her.

As the car stopped, Jacob expected to see Aunt Iz on the steps waiting for them, but the front door remained closed.

“Rosalie,” Emilia whispered, gently shaking her mother. “Rosalie, we’re here.”

Rosalie began to stir as Molly got out of the car and stalked into the house, leaving them behind.

“Where are we?” Rosalie asked groggily, lifting her head to look out the car window. “This isn’t right. This isn’t where you were supposed to take me.” She opened the car door and tumbled out onto the gravel.

“Be careful.” Jacob clambered out of the car and ran around to Rosalie.

Emilia knelt next to her mother, pulling stones out of Rosalie’s palms, but Rosalie didn’t look at her hands or at Emilia. Her eyes darted from the steps to the house.

“I know this place,” Rosalie mumbled. “I was here. I left you here.”

“Yes,” was Emilia’s only reply, but tears caught in her voice.

“You stupid child.” Rosalie shoved Emilia onto the gravel.

Jacob stepped between Rosalie and Emilia.

Rosalie lunged at him, shrieking. “I leave you here. I leave you safe, and you drag me back into this Hell!”

Rosalie looked frail, but it still took all of Jacob’s strength to keep her from reaching Emilia.

“Do you want him to find you?” Rosalie shouted. “Do you want him to kill us? I lied to him. He will kill all of us! And this is your fault.” Rosalie pointed her pale finger at Emilia. “It is your fault when we all die.”

“Calonox.”

Rosalie slumped in Jacob’s arms. He glanced over his shoulder to see Iz striding down the front steps.

“Aunt Iz,” Emilia said, pushing herself off the ground, “I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t have brought her here if I knew where else to take her.”

“Who is she?” Iz asked, tipping Rosalie’s head back to examine her face, not looking at Jacob or Emilia.

“She’s my mother,” Emilia said. “We left to try and find her. And we didn’t know we had been gone this long. And we found her, but she’s tethered to the Pendragon. And her mind isn’t quite right, but I made her come with us. I couldn’t just leave her somewhere for the Pendragon to find.” Emilia paused, meeting Jacob’s eyes, as though silently pleading him to say something to Iz.

“We’re sorry,” was all he could manage.

Iz bent down and examined Rosalie’s limp hand. In the sunlight, only the faintest glimmer of gold shone.

“Jacob, put this woman in the blue room. Emilia, I would like to see you in my study.” Iz turned and walked into the house without looking at either of them.

It would have been better if she had screamed. Or cried. Joyful tears at their safe return might have been nice. But at least she hadn’t cursed them or kicked them out. Yet.

Emilia glanced at Jacob. Her brow furrowed as she chewed her bottom lip.

Jacob opened his mouth to speak, to call after Iz that he would go with them, but Emilia shook her head and silently followed Iz into the house.

Jacob lifted Rosalie and carried her through the front door. The inside of the house seemed cold and hollow without Claire and Connor’s constant bickering. There was no scent of fresh baked goodies coming from the kitchen. This was a different home than the one he’d left.

He found the blue room in the girl’s wing and laid Rosalie down on the bed. She was breathing slowly like a child sound asleep. Aunt Iz’s spell was gentler than Emilia’s. Jacob wanted to go down to the kitchen and find some food, but the idea of facing Molly turned his stomach.

He closed Rosalie’s door. “Compingere.” The lock clicked softly.

Jacob considered waiting in Emilia’s room so he could talk to her as soon as she was done with Iz, if Iz didn’t murder them both, but he didn’t want Iz or Molly to find him there. He padded down the soft carpet and up the servants’ stairs to the green room. His room. He flopped down face first on the bed and was sleeping before the thought of taking off his shoes had formed in his mind.