THE SON-IN-LAW WHO WOULDN'T BURN

CHAPTER 6: WHAT ELISE SAW

Orla kept her fingers on Cole's sleeve for a moment after Elise let go. She looked at Elise, then at the sleeve, before lowering her eyes. Whatever she saw on Elise's face made her breathe out through her nose.

"Fine," Orla said. "He's got a cold-blood condition and a stubborn wife. Write that down, Morrow. I'm done."

She turned and walked out. Nobody asked her what she had seen.

An hour later, Cole was locked in the salt cellar.

It was a small stone room under the east wing. Part of it was used to keep things, while the other part served as a cell. A wooden bucket sat in one corner, and a thin straw mat lay on the floor. White salt covered parts of the damp walls. A small window near the ceiling let in a little grey light from the rain outside.

The guard pushed Cole inside without a word. The door slammed shut behind him. Then came the sound of the bolt sliding into place.

Cole stood still and listened as the guard's footsteps faded down the hall.

"That went well," he said to the empty room.

"It went better than I expected," Hollow replied. "You gave the old man a story with just enough holes to make it sound real. Cold blood. Your mother. That was good."

"My mother never said any of that."

"Doesn't matter. They can't ask her."

Cole sat on the mat and pushed up his sleeve. The white ring on his left wrist gave off a faint light in the dark. The number was still there.

30.

He rubbed it with his thumb, but it didn't come off.

"Twenty-nine days after the sun comes up," Hollow said. "I'd start thinking about Gate One."

"I'm thinking about dinner. I haven't eaten since the bread this morning." Cole rested his head against the wall. "What does a Gate even look like?"

"Not tonight."

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, I'll teach you how to hide what you are. That's more important right now."

Cole closed his eyes.

But the moment he did, the same pictures came back. Orla's pale face. Garrick lifting his torch. The oil catching fire, then the flames turning away from him as if they knew him.

His heart was still beating fast. He tried to calm himself, but it didn't help. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened.

Then he heard a key scrape against the lock.

Cole jumped to his feet before he even knew he had moved.

Hollow said something sharp, but Cole didn't listen. The door opened a little. A thin hand appeared, holding a wooden bowl. It set the bowl on the floor and pushed it inside.

"Eat," Elise said.

She slipped into the room and shut the door behind her. She looked even worse than she had in the healing room. Her face was pale, and her hair was coming loose from its tie. Her right hand was wrapped in clean linen and held close to her side. In her left hand, she carried a small cloth bundle.

She placed it on the mat, knelt down, and began to open it.

"How did you get in?" Cole asked.

"The guard on this hall is Dennis. His daughter is sick. I told him I'd pay for her medicine this month." She kept her eyes on the bundle. "Eat quickly. He gave me ten minutes."

The bowl held two boiled potatoes and a piece of bread. Inside the bundle was a thick piece of cheese and a small flask.

Cole stared at the food.

He had spent three years eating scraps. Now Elise had brought him all this.

"This is from the family table," he said.

"It's from my plate."

"Elise..."

"I said eat."

He picked up a potato and started eating. It was still a little warm. The cheese had a strong taste, and the bread was fresh and easy to tear.

He tried to eat quickly, but his throat kept closing up. A few times, he had to stop before he could swallow.

Elise sat across from him with her back against the wall. She watched him eat without saying a word.

They stayed quiet until he finished the bread.

"Your hand," he said.

"Two fingers. Orla set them. They'll heal."

"Garrick did that."

"I know who did it." Her voice stayed calm. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't make that face. The one you make when you decide to feel guilty about something that isn't your fault. You're good at it."

Cole almost smiled. "I wasn't."

"You were. Your jaw does a thing."

"My jaw does a thing?"

"It does." Elise picked up the flask and opened it with her left hand. She passed it to him. "Water. Drink it all."

Cole took it and drank. The water was cold and clean. When he handed the flask back, their fingers touched. For a moment, she didn't pull away.

"Elise." He lowered his voice. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me." She shook her head. "I'm bad at it. I never know what to say back."

"You could say you're welcome."

"I could. I won't."

"I know."

A small smile touched her lips, then quickly disappeared.

She closed the flask and rested it in her lap. Her eyes moved to his wrist. His sleeve had slipped back when he reached for the water, leaving the white ring in plain sight.

Neither of them spoke.

Elise kept looking at it. The white band gave off a soft light between them. The number had not changed.

Cole's heart began to beat faster.

"You saw it."

"In the healing room." She didn't look away. "Before I stopped Orla. I was standing right behind her."

"Elise..."

"I'm not going to ask you what it is."

He stared at her. "You're not?"

"No." She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. "I'm not going to ask because I don't know what I'd do with the answer. I swore an oath, Cole. If Silas asks me directly, I can't lie to him. But if I don't know anything, I don't have to lie."

Her voice was steady, but it shook a little at the end.

"So I didn't see anything. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

"Good."

She opened her eyes.

Cole looked at her, but neither of them spoke. There was something between them that he couldn't explain. He didn't even know what to call it.

Hollow stayed quiet inside his head. Cole was glad he did.

Elise stood and brushed the salt from her skirt. She reached up to fix her hair, and the sleeve of her left arm slipped up to her elbow.

Cole saw the marks before she could pull it down.

Her arm was covered in bruises. Some were purple, while others had turned yellow. They looked like the marks left by someone's fingers. One dark bruise went all the way around her forearm, just like someone had grabbed her hard.

"What's that?"

"Nothing."

"Elise."

"It's nothing." She quickly pulled her sleeve down. "I bumped into things."

"That's a hand."

"Cole."

"Who did that?"

He stood up. His voice came out harder than he meant it to, and the white salt on the walls seemed to flicker. Elise glanced at it, then looked away.

"Was it Garrick? Did he do that tonight?"

"No."

"Then when?"

"Three years ago. Two years. Last week." She said it quickly, as if she wanted to get it all out at once. "Whenever someone wanted to know where you were and I said I didn't know. Whenever your cell was empty and I said you'd been with me. It's not a big deal. I'm a Vance. They don't leave marks where people can see."

Cole stared at her.

"You've been taking my punishments."

"I've been taking mine." She lifted her chin. "You never had to know."

For a moment, Cole couldn't speak.

He thought about all the nights he'd gone hungry. All the times he'd found food in the pantry that he knew he shouldn't have had. All the bruises he'd seen on her before without knowing how they got there.

"Why?" he finally asked.

"Because you were the only one who ever said thank you."

Her voice grew sharp, almost angry.

"When I was seventeen and they called me useless, you were fourteen. You carried my laundry up three flights of stairs and said, thanks for the bread. Nobody had ever said that to me."

She stopped and swallowed.

"That's all. It isn't a speech."

Cole didn't know what to say.

Then the door rattled.

"Two minutes, miss," Dennis whispered from the other side.

Elise nodded and walked towards the door. She stopped with one hand on the latch, her back still turned to Cole.

"I need you to hear this," she said quietly. "I can't say it twice. Whatever you are now, whatever that thing on your arm means... if you run, Cole, don't."

"Elise, I wasn't..."

"If you run, I take your place on the altar."

She turned to face him. Her eyes were dry and steady, but the way she said it sent a chill through him.

"That's the oath. It's already signed. They won't need Garrick's torch for me. The fire will find me by itself."

Then she slipped out of the room.

The door closed, and the bolt slid back into place.

Cole stood alone in the grey light. The empty flask lay on the floor beside him. In his hand, the piece of cheese rind broke in two.