Thorns of Decision (Dusk Gate Chronicles)

by Breeana Puttroff

  “And, of course, by the time I was sleepy again, the blood pressure lady was back. When the guy came for blood at five in the morning, I think I almost cried. I know I just wanted to be home.”

  It was almost funny – except that it wasn’t.

  “I’m sorry, buddy,” William said. “None of this is fun, I know. Someday, I am going to get my hands on Harbin Rhinewald …”

  Thomas gave him a half-hearted smile, though there was a strangely dark look in his eyes. “Don’t ever go near that guy, William. Really. I’m here and I’m safe now, and none of this is your fault. I’m sure it isn’t easy on you either, having to take care of me like this. It was probably a nice break for you to have someone else do it for a couple days.”

  The look that flashed across William’s face then made Quinn’s heart give a little jolt. “It was not even a little bit easier for me, Thomas. Don’t ever think that,” William said, rubbing his brother’s shoulder. “I love you. And I hate that you’re hurting, and I want to be here for you and helping you through it.”

  Somehow, a new IV port was already secured in an out-of-the way spot on Thomas’ arm, and he hadn’t even flinched. Another wave of admiration for William washed over her.

  Only a second later, though, she cringed when William picked up a small syringe. “Unfortunately, you’re not going to like me any better than that night nurse for a minute here,” he said as he lifted the edge of Thomas’ shirt. “This one has to go under the skin on your abdomen.”

  Thomas sighed. Though she could see he was trying hard not to react, his whole body tensed a little. “I know. I asked about it when they gave me another one before I left the hospital.”

  Although the needle was tiny, Thomas squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath during the shot. Quinn grabbed his hand and held it tightly, while Linnea combed her fingers through her brother’s hair.

  “Do those hurt?” Linnea asked William when he was finished.

  “I’m fine, Nay,” Thomas said, probably hearing the worry in his sister’s voice. “It just stings for a few minutes.” He closed his eyes again, and then looked back up at her. “I guess that stuff keeps me from getting blood clots in my legs.”

  “It does,” William said. “It’s one of the drugs we didn’t have enough of when you were first hurt. Nathaniel and I were worried the whole time.”

  “So, let me guess, you brought back plenty of it, right?” Thomas said drily. He meant to be funny, but nobody laughed.

  “You need it a couple of times a day until you’re up and walking,” William’s voice was tinged with a mixture of sorrow and anger – and Quinn knew exactly where the anger was directed.

  “A couple of times every day? I think I’m going to need my mom,” Thomas said, not entirely jokingly.

  Quinn squeezed his hand again, sad as she thought about him having to go through that all alone with some stranger in the middle of the night. She felt guilty now that they hadn’t gone to see him on Tuesday night, too. So what if she would have missed work?

  Almost as if on cue, there was a soft knock at the door. It opened before any of them had time to respond, and Queen Charlotte peeked into the room. She hesitated for a fraction of a second, glancing at the four of them, and then nearly ran to the bed. Linnea and Quinn backed away automatically, and after placing one more piece of tape, William joined them at the foot of the bed.

  By itself, Quinn’s hand reached toward William’s and clasped it tightly. Never taking his eyes off Thomas and his mother, William squeezed back.

  “Mother,” Thomas said, as Charlotte leaned down and kissed him on the cheek.

  For a moment, Quinn was acutely aware of how young Thomas really was. His whole demeanor changed as Charlotte ran her hand across his forehead. As mature and skilled as he so often seemed, in reality, he was still a teenage boy. More than a year younger than she was, even. And he’d been through so much lately.

  “How is he?” Charlotte asked, looking up at William. “We didn’t expect you all to return so soon.”

  “I’m right here, Mother. I can talk.” Thomas said.

  “Yes, but you won’t be blunt with me.”

  Linnea stifled a giggle.

  “I’m okay. The surgery went well, and I hear my leg will be okay. I’ve gotten over any interest I ever had in hospitals in Quinn’s world. I’m still hurting, and the trip here isn’t something I’d like to repeat any time soon. I’m really, really glad to be home though, and I’m happy you’re here.”

  “He’s right,” William said. “And he really needs some rest soon.” Glancing at Quinn and Linnea, he nodded toward the door. The girls picked up on his hint, and followed him into the hallway, giving Charlotte some time alone with her son.

  * * *

  They were all the way out in the hall when Quinn noticed that Linnea was looking at her strangely. She followed Linnea’s eyes down to her hand, and realized that it was still interlaced with William’s.

  Apparently he’d only just noticed that as well, because he let it drop then, although he didn’t appear to be bothered. In fact, he reached up to her shoulder and gave it a gentle pat before looking back at his sister. “Do you know where Father is?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Everyone was eating dinner – we all thought Simon and Max would be coming back alone, but I just couldn’t. I needed to be where I’d see him right away. I just had a feeling that you might – that Thomas would be coming.” Looking over at Quinn, she frowned, “I didn’t imagine you would be coming back so soon, though. What is going on with that?”

  Quinn looked down at the floor, tracing the lines in the hard wood with her foot. She didn’t even know where to begin.

  William interrupted. “It’s been a difficult few days for Quinn, Linnea. And we heard some shocking news today. I don’t think she’s quite been able to absorb it yet. I know I haven’t. I know you’ve had to be patient a lot lately, but we could all use whatever little bit you have left to spare.”

  Curiosity burned in Linnea’s dark gray eyes, but she nodded. “We should go and open…”

  Linnea’s sentence was cut off as Mia ran up the hallway toward them.

  “Lady Linnea! I heard that Master Thomas had returned. Is he here? Is he all right?”

  William turned to face her. “Yes, Mia. He’s here, and he’s okay. My mother is in with him now.”

  Mia nodded, out of breath, worry still in her expression. Suddenly, she looked up at Quinn. “Lady Quinn! I had no idea you might be coming! Your room isn’t…”

  “I’m sure my room is fine, Mia. Unless someone else is sleeping in there or something.”

  Mia’s eyes widened. “Oh, no! Lady Quinn! Your room has always been reserved just for you since you first stayed in it. I don’t know that anyone ever even used it before you began visiting.”

  “Relax, Mia. It’s fine.”

  “I’ll have it ready in twenty minutes.” The girl disappeared down the hallway.

  Quinn would have called after her, to stop her, if she didn’t know that Mia took pleasure in the work that she did, and that she would never calm down until everything was ready. Truthfully, tonight it wouldn’t have made any difference to Quinn if she’d had to sleep on a couch in her clothes.

  After what she’d learned today, she wondered if there was more to Mia’s assertion that her room had always been “reserved for her” than Mia was even aware of.

  Still not ready to handle the rest of the horde of Rose children, they decided to go to Linnea’s room instead, and were walking that way, when King Stephen appeared in the hallway.

  “William!” he said, taking the three remaining steps to his son and wrapping him in his arms. “I was just looking for you. How is Thomas?”

  He nodded, which seemed to be enough for his father. Quinn was glad – she knew that explaining things over and over was beginning to wear on him.

  “Have any of you eaten?” Stephen asked. It didn’t escape Quinn’s notice that Stephen didn’t ap
pear in the least surprised to see her standing in the hallway with William and Linnea. Charlotte, too, had behaved as if her presence was anticipated.

  “No.” William answered. “Quinn, are you hungry?”

  “I … I don’t know,” she said. Now that she thought about it, she should be hungry – starving, really. Outside of a cup of hot chocolate with Annie, she hadn’t eaten anything since William had made the two of them some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when they had first arrived at Nathaniel’s house.

  “Linnea – I’m sorry to do this to you, and you can be mad at me later,” William said, “but will you please go and ask someone to bring up some dinner for all of us? I’m sure it will be fine for you to go back in with Mother and Thomas soon. But Quinn and I really need to speak privately with Father.”

  * * *

  Linnea sighed as William and Quinn followed her father down the hallway, wondering what in the world was going on now. She’d been waiting as patiently as she could for them to return, and now there was something else going on that she wasn’t a part of.

  She raised an eyebrow at how closely her brother walked behind Quinn, almost as if he were ready to catch her if she stumbled. She’d seen the subtle way that things had changed between the two of them when they’d first brought Thomas home from Philotheum, and she wondered how much more things had changed while they were in Quinn’s world.

  After Philotheum, Will had no longer kept his distance from Quinn – no longer spouted off his ridiculous assertions about “letting” her get “too involved” in their world, that by being torn between the two worlds, she’d get hurt in the end. As if any of that was up to any of them, anyway. She’d met Quinn. That girl was going to do what she was going to do.

  Not that he was fooling anyone in the first place. Linnea and Thomas had spent countless evenings gossiping about it while Will was in Bristlecone, and wondering when he was going to wake up and realize how he really felt about Quinn.

  It had been obvious from the first night the girl had arrived at the castle. Careful, observant, meticulous Will not noticing that a girl was following him closely enough to find the gate? Right. Really, it had been clear that something was up with this girl from the first time he’d ever mentioned her.

  He’d talked about girls in Bristlecone before, come home and told everyone stories about the ones who tried to get his phone number, or who asked what he was doing over the weekend. That question was always good for a laugh around the fire in the evening, because wouldn’t the unfortunate girl be surprised if he told her the answer? “Wanna come over to dinner with my family in a different world? I’ll bet you’ve never been inside a castle before. Don’t worry – I’ll take you back home after we keep you for a couple of weeks.”

  But when Will had first brought up Quinn Robbins, said he’d noticed her around a lot lately, and he’d been wondering if she was watching him, it had been different. When Thomas had teased him about his “new secret girlfriend,” Will hadn’t laughed. He’d been defensive of the girl – insisting that she was only curious, not like the others – that she didn’t have a crush on him.

  And once they’d all met Quinn, and seen William around her, it had become quite clear that he truly wasn’t worried that she had a crush on him. Although he’d never admit it even to himself, his real worry was that she didn’t.

  She had never before seen Will the way he behaved when he’d first brought Quinn home with him. The girl had fallen on her way, and William had needed to stich up her leg. She’d arrived at the castle unconscious from a rare reaction to the valoris seed he’d given her to help her relax.

  That night, William had refused to go into Quinn’s room to check on her – making Nathaniel take care of her instead. He’d acted angry – at the girl for being so persistent, and at himself for “not seeing” her. He’d excused his refusal to attend to her by saying she’d be more comfortable with Nathaniel, whom she already knew.

  Linnea and Thomas, though, had both seen it for what it really was. Quinn made him nervous, in a way that no other girl had done before. They’d talked about it that first night, huddled together in the family room playing choice, wishing Will would get over himself and join them. They’d learned to give him his space, though. The next morning he’d still been in his huffy mood, and had run off somewhere to blow off steam.

  Thomas had been taken with the girl right from the beginning, too. So much so that Linnea had been dying to meet her, and frustrated that she’d had to wait until after breakfast the next day. Actually, Thomas had tried to get her to give the girl privacy for longer than that, but she hadn’t been able to hold off. And once she’d met Quinn, she couldn’t blame her brothers. She’d loved her instantly, too.

  Although Thomas would have gladly pursued the girl himself under different circumstances, it was on her second night in Eirentheos, as Linnea and Thomas danced together, that Thomas suddenly stopped, and nodded toward William and Quinn, who were dancing after being goaded into it.

  “Someday,” Thomas had said, “someday, that girl is going to be our sister. And I will do whatever I have to do to make the two of them realize it sooner than later.”

  That night, Linnea had just smiled and nodded. Tonight, she was anxious to find out just how much those two had realized.

  Curious and excited as she was, though, her thoughts were on Thomas right now more than anything. She knew her mother needed some time alone with him, but there was only so much Linnea was willing to give her. She’d been separated from her twin far too much lately.

  Before Thomas had left to go to Bristlecone, she had battled with her parents over going with him. Although her hopes hadn’t been high that they would agree, she’d been flabbergasted at how vehemently they’d refused. She hadn’t even gotten to use any of her well-planned arguments.

  Her parents had been sorry; they knew how difficult it was for her to be away from Thomas. Her mother, especially, was aware of the anxiety that sometimes overtook Linnea, the feeling that she would sometimes get that something wasn’t right.

  But their answer had been so absolute, coordinated, unwavering, that it had made Linnea wonder what else was going on that she didn’t know about. Surely she was old enough now – she was almost of age – that she could be trusted not to violate the secret of the gate. There had to be more to it than that. And now she wondered if this “private” conversation that Will and Quinn were having with her father had anything to do with it.

  She would find out, and she would find out soon. But first, she was going to have to address the anxious twisting in her stomach that had been there since Thomas had gone back to Bristlecone – she needed to see Thomas again.

  Linnea hurried to the kitchen and asked one of the servants there to have three trays sent up to Quinn’s room – that was probably where they would head after they’d finished whatever they were doing. Then she asked for some soup and bread for Thomas and after that, she practically ran back up to her brother’s room.

  Inside, the room, it was quiet. Her mother was sitting in a chair next to Thomas’ bed, stroking his hair. He was still wide awake, but he looked a little more relaxed than he had been a few minutes ago.

  “Hey, T,” she said, approaching the bed and taking hold of his hand.

  He smiled. “My Nay-Nay. I’m glad you came back in. I missed you.”

  “You have no idea,” she said. “I know it was only a couple of days for you, but I wasn’t ready to have you away from me like that again.”

  Her mother caught her free hand and squeezed it.

  Thomas opened his mouth. For a second, she thought he was going to argue, give her some stupid, teasing, Thomas-style platitude, but then he looked into her eyes and he just nodded. “I know, sweetheart.”

  Tears dripped down her cheeks and off her nose as she leaned in to lay her head on his chest, careful not to bump or jostle him. Although she had known he was safe and being taken care of in Bristlecone, the last thirty days had been far t
oo much of a reminder of the time he really had been missing, that they hadn’t known where he was.

  Linnea had worried every minute of that time that he wasn’t okay. She’d tried to brush it off, the anxious feeling that had sat in the pit of her stomach and wouldn’t budge. Every morning she had awakened, hoping that he’d be in his room and it would have all just been a bad dream.

  Even when he finally had come home, he wasn’t okay. Her beautiful, loving twin brother, who would never hurt anyone, who protected those he loved with a fierce, unwavering determination, had been so brutally beaten. It was devastating.

  And during these last thirty days that he’d been gone again, that feeling had come back. She knew it was irrational, that he was okay, and that the surgery he was having would ultimately make things so much better for him. But that feeling had a life of its own, and only now, with her head against his chest, feeling him breathing in and out, could she keep that nightmare at bay.

  7. King Stephen

  “Do you want William with you while we have this conversation, or would you prefer to speak to me in private?”

  Although Quinn considered the question for a moment, there was no real decision. “He knows as much as I know already,” she said. “He can stay.” She and William were sitting on one couch in a small sitting room, and Stephen was on another sofa, directly across from them.

  For the first time since she had met him, the man in front of her didn’t look like a king. Sitting there on the sofa, wearing a purple sweater and gray slacks, hollowed out cheeks, and an expression of worry mixed with apology, he didn’t look like the ruler of a kingdom. He looked like a father.

  He studied Quinn’s face for what felt like a long time before he spoke. “So your mother told you.” It wasn’t a question.

  She shook her head. “My mother isn’t speaking to me right now. Nathaniel told me.”