It Happened One Bite by Lydia Dare Read Free Book Online Page A

settled over Blaire. “Mama would have told me about it, Aiden.”
    He winced. That didn’t bode well. Exactly how talented was Aiden at prevarications?
    “What is it ye’re no’ tellin’ me?” She sank into a chair across from him.
    He raked a hand through his dark hair. “Honestly, Blaire, I doona ken.” Aiden sighed. “I remember Briarcraig from when I was a child. That’s why I was so excited ta see it again.”
    “Ye remember it?” Why the devil hadn’t he said so?
    Her brother shrugged. “No’ a trunk full of guineas.” He sighed. “But we spent a lot of time here, Mama and me. It was a sanctuary of sorts from Father. He never came with us.” Aiden shrugged. “Then we just stopped comin’. I asked Mama about it, and she said I was never ta mention it again.”
    “How old were ye? Did I come here, too?”
    He shook his head. “Nay, it was before ye came along. Mama was expectin’ ye though, the last time we visited.”
    Blaire looked around at the tattered walls and tried to pull the essence of her mother from the place. “The home of the battle-born witches? Why dinna she tell me?”
    “I was just a lad, Blaire. I doona ken. For the longest while, I thought this castle was a figment of my imagination, in fact, until I met with Mr. MacDonald last week.”
    The solicitor who had finished going through the last of their father’s papers, Mr. MacDonald had seemed glad to be done with the Lindsays. “Why dinna ye tell me this in Edinburgh?”
    He hung his head. “I suppose they were my memories, the best of my childhood, and I dinna want ta share them. I forgot about the portrait. She had it commissioned when she knew she was expectin’ ye. I played out by the loch while the artist painted her, day after day. Ye should see the place in the summer, Blaire. Loch Calavie sparkles like glittering diamonds under the sun.”
    Blaire barely heard his words. She was sitting in the ancestral home of the battle-born witches. Her mother and grandmother and every generation of warrior witches before that. For some reason her mother never told her about the place. Why? Did she think Blaire was undeserving of her birthright? Had she disappointed her mother in some way?
    Her mind spun with memories, trying to sort out the reason. Why would her mother have kept the castle from her? It didn’t make sense. Was that why her ring had reacted so strangely upon their entrance? As though it was being returned home to its rightful place? It had certainly returned to normal since. No more glowing, no more radiating heat.
    “Are ye all right, Blaire?” She looked up to see Aiden hovering over her. When had he left his seat?
    “Fine,” she mumbled.
    “Ye doona look it.” Her brother frowned, worry etched across his brow. He touched his hand to her head. “Ye dinna sleep well. Perhaps ye should lie down for a bit.”
    She must truly look bad if Aiden was concerned about her well-being. “I just canna understand why she wouldna tell me. Why she would stop visitin’.” Blaire stared into her brother’s eyes looking for any sign of deception. “She said ye were never ta mention Briarcraig?”
    Aiden sighed. “It was so long ago, Blaire. I was so young that I thought I’d imagined the place. When I saw the name on a piece of foolscap on Mr. MacDonald’s desk, I couldna believe my eyes. I had ta see it again, see if it was what I remembered.”
    “And it is?”
    “Some of it. Will ye take me ta the trunk ye found with Bran?”
    She nodded. “It’s in a large wardrobe.” Blaire started for the corridor.
    Aiden was quick on her heels. “Do ye suppose there are other trunks or chests hidden away?”
    Blaire shrugged. “I have no idea what ta think or believe about this place.”
    “True,” he conceded as they began to climb the stairs. “I’d like ta be sure, though. I’d like to search the castle over if ye and Bran doona mind stayin’ here a while longer.”
    Wild dragons couldn’t drag Blaire away