Read Online Ivy's Choice (The Fey Quartet Book 3) by Emily Larkin - Free Book Online

I was a fool to agree to wait. I should have married him two weeks ago.”
    “I’m glad you didn’t,” Ivy said. “If you hadn’t been here to help me with Larkspur . . .”
    They exchanged a sober glance. Hazel pushed wearily to her feet. “Let’s go see her now.”
    “You don’t want a nap?”
    Hazel shook her head. “I’m too worried to sleep.”
    So am I . “Where’s Tam?”
    Hazel’s eyes unfocused slightly. “Crossing the bridge.” She blew out a breath and smiled wryly. “Crossing the bridge, alive and well. As are Hugh and Cadoc. And . . .” Her eyes unfocused again. “And Larkspur’s awake. Come on, let’s go.”
     
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    THEY SAT TOGETHER on the mossy doorstep, the three of them, with the hounds basking in the sunlight at their feet. Another beautiful, golden day. Ivy gazed across the little glade, at the summer-green grass and the wildflowers nodding in the breeze. This is how we sat three days ago . She had an odd, unsettling sense that they’d slipped back in time. Any moment now a roebuck would come crashing from the trees . . .
    She remembered Hugh as he’d been then: filthy, shaking with exhaustion, half-mad with terror. Her heart clenched in her chest. And then she told herself—and Larkspur—fiercely: I do not love Hugh Dappleward .
    Larkspur slipped her hand into Ivy’s. “He’ll be free of the spell soon.”
    Ivy looked at her sister. Anxiety jolted through her. Larkspur’s cheeks were even more hollow today, the shadows under her eyes darker. Guilt followed swiftly on the heels of anxiety. “We shouldn’t have asked it of you. It was too muc h— ”
    “No, it wasn’t. I’m fine.”
    Ivy reached for her crutch. “I think we should go. You need to rest.”
    “I’m fine, ” Larkspur repeated.
    “Last night, you were too weak to walk,” Hazel said. “Cadoc carried you.”
    Ivy’s guilt intensified.
    “Don’t!” Larkspur said sharply. “Don’t feel guilty! How could I not help after what I’ve done to you!”
    “You’ve done nothing to me,” Ivy said, climbing to her feet. “It was Father who broke my leg, not you.”
    Larkspur’s lips twisted. “He broke it because I was born.”
    “He broke it because he was drunkard and a fool,” Hazel said, standing.
    Ivy glanced at her, and wondered how much she remembered of that day. Nothing, I hope . Her own memory was mercifully disjointed; she remembered her first glimpse of Larkspur—wrinkled and pink—but not their father’s drunken rage.
    “My lameness is not your fault,” she told Larkspur firmly. “Not then, and not now.”
    Larkspur shook her head.
    Father may not have wanted another daughter, but if he had lived, he would love you now . Ivy reached down and touched Larkspur’s shining hair. “You regret your wish, love, but remember this: because of it you’ve saved two lives.”
    “She’s right,” Hazel said bluntly. “If you couldn’t hear people’s thoughts, Hugh would have died a roebuck. And Tam, too. And Aleyn would likely be Dapple Vale’s next Warder. We should thank the gods you wished as you did!”
    Ivy stroked a strand of hair back from Larkspur’s cheek and tucked it behind her ear. “Hazel’s right. We should thank the gods for your gift.”
    Hazel bent, and hugged Larkspur fiercely. “Make sure you eat everything we’ve brought! And that you sleep .”
    “We’ll be back tomorrow.” Ivy hugged Larkspur, too.
    She tucked the crutch into her armpit and hobbled across the glade. The crutch would be with her forever, but she didn’t regret it. If it meant Larkspur and Hugh were safe, she would willingly be lame the rest of her life.
     
     

CHAPTER TEN
    HUGH SAT IN one of the huge oak chairs in a corner of his father’s work chamber. His legs were too weak to stand for long, his hands too weak to shave the stubble from his face, but he was home, home and human, and about to be free of Aleyn’s spell.
    He glanced around the shadowy chamber: the long