Thorns of Decision (Dusk Gate Chronicles)

by Breeana Puttroff

  “Can I come with you? I can drive and you won’t have to walk.”

  William frowned, his gray eyes concerned behind his wire-framed glasses. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Quinn?”

  The only thing she heard was that he didn’t say no. She looked up at him pleadingly. “I’m out of ‘good ideas’ right now, Will. I need some space just to breathe, okay? Please?”

  “Let’s go get your things.”

  William was holding her backpack for her while she turned to get her coat, when suddenly a familiar voice behind her made her heart jump into her throat.

  “Nice, Quinn.”

  She whirled around, and found herself face-to-face with Zander. He was warily eyeing William, who was staring at the floor, zipping Quinn’s backpack while red colored his cheeks.

  Quinn found she couldn’t meet his eyes either. “Zander … I …”

  “You couldn’t just be honest with me? Tell me the real reason you were breaking up with me?”

  “It isn’t like that, Zander!” She blinked furiously, trying to hold back the tears that were building in the corners of her eyes.

  “Sure it isn’t! And what is your problem?” he growled, turning on William. “Can’t be bothered finding a girl unless someone else is interested? Or has this been going on for a long time and it’s some kind of joke on me? The two of you plan this out together in the library?”

  A spark flashed in William’s eyes that surprised Quinn. “That’s enough, Zander.” His voice was low, careful, and firm and his eyes met Zander’s directly.

  But Zander was angrier than Quinn had ever seen him. “Who are you to say what’s enough?”

  “I know what it looks like, Zander, believe me, I do. But Quinn has been as straightforward with you as she can. She and I are friends. My family has had some challenges lately, and she has been a friend to me. Now she’s having a hard time, and I’m trying to return the favor. I’m sure you can understand that.”

  Zander didn’t look like he could, at all, but he took a small step back. He stared at William, looking intimidating, even to Quinn, but William held his ground, his shoulders back, and his expression calm. Quinn was instantly reminded that he was a prince.

  “She’s the one who broke up with me, been lying to me. She’s not the only one going through a hard time.”

  “Just because she’s the one who broke it off doesn’t mean it’s easy for her. She cares about you. And she handled things between the two of you in private. Not in the middle of the hallway like you’re doing. Don’t stand there and tell me you actually care about her feelings when you’re trying to have it out with her with a hundred people walking by, all of whom are going to side with you because you’re more popular than she is in the first place, and you’re the one who gets to play the broken-heart card. If you’re even half the man everyone gives you credit for being, you’ll walk away now, go to lunch, and let Quinn have her space.”

  Quinn’s eyes were glued to the floor, her cheeks on fire; she could not bring herself to look up at Zander, or even at William. After a long silence, Zander turned and walked away.

  * * *

  Quinn’s hands were shaking as she and William climbed in the car. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself enough to be able to drive.

  “I’m sorry,” William said quietly.

  She swallowed hard, looking up at him, although she couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I should be saying ‘thank you’ for standing up for me. I can’t believe what a mess I’ve just made of everything. I can’t believe how badly I just hurt Zander.”

  William was quiet for a minute, and then he sighed. “Quinn, I know you’re probably not ready to hear this right now, but you didn’t do anything wrong, either.”

  She thought about arguing with him, but the only retorts she could come up with involved talking about the kiss, and she wasn’t ready to go there, to explore either of their feelings about what had happened in that basement, so she just turned the key in the ignition and drove off instead.

  They’d been at William’s house for only a few minutes when Quinn heard the sound of Nathaniel’s car in the driveway, and a sudden shiver of anxiety tightened her stomach, mixed with a new bout of anger. She hadn’t seen Nathaniel since the other evening at the bridge. If she couldn’t get any answers from her mother, she wanted some from him.

  She followed William outside.

  Thomas grinned widely when he saw her. “You decided to skip school this afternoon, too?” he asked when she opened the back door of the car. He was lying across both seats, unable to bend his leg with the splint that extended from just below his hip all the way to his toes. He was trying to remove a knitted blanket, but it was challenging to pull it up and over his leg with his one free arm, so she reached in and took it from him.

  “I guess so,” she said, folding the blanket and setting it over her arm.

  “She’s had kind of a rough week,” William told him, putting his hand on Quinn’s shoulder. “We need to cheer her up.”

  “Easy enough,” Thomas said. “As soon as you all help me get into the house.”

  Nathaniel appeared just behind her then, and she stiffened. “Hello, Quinn,” he said.

  She turned and looked up at him. His face was apologetic, almost sad. Something in his expression made most of her anger dissolve on the spot – her anger towards him, anyway. Another fierce rush directed at her mother filled her chest.

  “Are you going to tell me what is going on here?” she asked.

  “Quinn, I would tell you everything I could right now, really, I would, but I made a promise that I don’t know how to break. I never imagined that you would find out anything like this. Can you please be patient with me until I can figure out what to do, and until I’ve had a chance to see how your mother is going to handle this?”

  “Right now, she’s not talking to me at all, Nathaniel. I haven’t even seen her since Sunday morning. She’s actually avoiding me.”

  “That’s what Thomas was just telling me in the car.”

  “Speaking of Thomas, I’m cold!” Thomas said in a joking tone from his seat. “I’d go into the house while you continue your little chat, but I need some help.”

  Although Thomas made light of the whole situation, Quinn could tell that it bothered him to be so dependent on their assistance. Nathaniel and William had to work together to lift him out of the car and carry him into the house. They were extremely efficient and gentle, but Quinn still saw Thomas wince a few times.

  William had told her that there was no way he would have been released from the hospital already if Nathaniel hadn’t been a doctor. There was still an IV port taped in Thomas’ left hand, and once they’d gotten him settled on the couch, Nathaniel squeezed a small syringe full of pain medication into it. Thomas looked very pale after the exertion of being moved.

  Once they were all sitting around a fire in the living room, sipping large mugs of tea brought back from Eirentheos, Quinn turned again to Nathaniel.

  “So you’re really not going to tell me how my mother knows about the gate?”

  Nathaniel sighed. “Your mother has known about the gate for long time, Quinn. How she guessed that’s where you had gone, I’m not sure. I haven’t had more than a passing or professional conversation with her since shortly after your father died.”

  “My boss at the library told me that you used to be close friends with my father.”

  Nathaniel sighed again and put his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. He stayed that way for several minutes, clearly deep in thought. Finally, he looked up. “You really just found out that I knew your father?”

  She nodded. “I mean, I guess I figured that you’d met him. You’ve been my doctor since I was born, and my father was alive until I was three. But I had no idea you knew him outside of that.”

  “And your mother is really completely avoiding you?”

  “Every night this week, she
’s made sure she and the little kids are in bed before I get home, and they leave before I wake up in the morning. She’s left me a couple of notes and text messages, grounding and un-grounding me from various things.”

  He leaned back in his armchair, an expression on his face that she couldn’t quite comprehend. He looked … lost, maybe? Helpless. Sad.

  Beside her on the couch, William shifted, his eyes darting between Quinn and Nathaniel, concentrating intently. His posture was almost protective of her. Even groggy as he was from the medication he’d taken, Thomas too, was focused on the conversation.

  “Quinn … I’m not even supposed to tell you this much. But I just … can’t keep not telling you anything. Yes, I knew your father. More than just as a casual acquaintance. More than just as a friend, even. Samuel was … my brother.”

  Suddenly, everything in the room grew slightly fuzzy at the edges, and she felt like she was moving. Her hand hit the couch cushion as she tried to steady herself, and William’s landed on top of hers almost instantly. His was trembling, too.

  “What?” Although the word was the one echoing through her mind, the voice that spoke it wasn’t hers. William sounded shocked and angry. Thomas had sat up impossibly far, considering his casts. “What do you mean?”

  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 b
een 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?