38. Lucy

O ld Man Aimes wasn't a harmless, doddering drunk. His father was a moron booting him from his army because if his leg. Aimes's strength wasn't in his sword hand. He was a cunning strategist. He could have won any war or skirmish without leaving his chair.

It was why Aimes and Trevils were such good friends. They were both brilliant. Aimes could break into my basement, drink every barrel down there, and still be as cunning as a serpent. Ollie was also smart, and he knew how to play a role. He did it with every single customer he talked to at the tavern. Ollie was a different person to each customer.

For once, I was glad when Aimes left. I didn't want Ollie anywhere near this. Ollie got up and kissed me.

"Hey, can you cover things for a minute?"

Yeah, I could. Basselt took to the kitchen right away. He said in shifter culture, most men knew how to cook and care for a house. He just needed a recipe to follow, and he was good. Ugh. If being able to shift into an animal wasn't cool enough. It sounded like they didn't really subscribe to traditional Nestran gender roles. Maybe I should have been born a shifter.

I told myself I didn't want to know, but I knew Ollie was about to go tell the Blight what Aimes just said. I stuck my head out of the window and watched Ollie walk straight into the brothel. Which meant he lied to me. I supposed it could be Panas, but there were only two Jagged Key Isles men who lived in the brothel—Beck and Panas.

If it was Panas, I would have heard about it before now. Panas was a few years older than Mom. It just seemed weird that he would snap and suddenly start killing recently. Beck didn't make sense, either. But I put on a certain face to the public. Beck could, too.

I'd have to think how to approach this and why Ollie lied to me when I asked.

I stomped off to the kitchen. Basselt was plugging away. He had several barrels done already and his stew smelled fantastic. I told him he could try a few recipes of his own when he said he knew how to cook. This would be one of them.

"Oh, gods. What is that? It smells amazing."

"Some wild goat I hunted with potatoes and herbs."

"Thank you. For taking over the hunting. Ollie is juggling the tavern and trying to help out on his uncle's farm. He also sucks at hunting and there's someone who's been stealing rabbits out of my snares. Our stews usually have more potatoes than meat."

"Not anymore, little one. I'm an apex predator. I set some aside and made a meat pie for your mother. She's going to need to keep her strength up until the plant I need finally blooms. Why don't you bring that up to her and make tea with these herbs?"

"Thanks, Basselt. One of the best things we did this moon cycle is hire you."

Ollie wasn't back yet, and this was our slow time. We didn't have anyone in the tavern after Aimes left, so I locked the doors and went upstairs. Mom looked utterly bored. I was pretty sure she'd darned everything that needed to be darned.

"Basselt made this for you. Said you needed to keep your strength up. He made one for me, too, so eat with me."

"This is miserable, Lucy. I have nothing to do."

I removed the cover from the tray Basselt prepared and found something more precious than money in Guttertown. It was a book of Theran stories. He had to have left this for Mom. Ugh. If it were up to me, Mom and Basselt would ride off into the sunset together and basically never think of my father again.

But it was so taboo. There was the shifter-human thing for one. The second was that the Barons basically decided they were going to have a relationship with some Guttertown woman and they couldn't say no. Then the rest of the men in Guttertown basically shunned them because they knew what would happen if that Baron ever came back.

Mom deserved to be happy, and I liked Basselt. Maybe it was just me being a girl now that I had three boyfriends. I took a bite out of Basselt's meat pie and nearly died.

"Oh, gods. I'm not trying to pressure you, but I wouldn't say no to Basselt as a stepfather if he cooks like this."

"And I'm not trying to get your hopes up, but he's exactly my type. None of us have to worry about your father coming back because he likes his mistresses young. I'm too old for him now. You're forgetting one major problem. He's a shifter and I'm human. I don't really care, but he might. Plus, he's already married."

"Well, his shifter wife turned her back on him after he got banished and so did the rest of the shifters. I'd say you have a shot."

"Look who got some big breeches now that she finally told her friends she's not a man and that she's in love with them."

"Mom," I moaned, burying my face in my hands.

She must be feeling better if she was poking at me. It was just the relationship we had. We liked to embarrass each other. She was always a mom to me but she was also my best friend. And then I realized I was horribly mistaken. She wasn't feeling better. We'd officially moved into me breaking her trust and contacting my father.

Mom's whole body seized as she started coughing. She crashed to the floor with blood pouring out of her mouth. I screamed for Basselt, but enhanced hearing must be a shifter thing like their sense of smell. He was already through our door before I'd even finished calling his name. He must have heard the crash.

Basselt immediately rolled Mom on her side.

"I need you to dissolve salt into hot water and bring it to me with something to dribble into her nose. I'll also need any honey you've got in the tavern. It's going to be a little awhile before I have any hope of foraging what I need to fix this. I know you don't want to and she doesn't want you to, but this is bad.

"It's up to you whether you want me to try to do what I can until the plant is ready, but it might not be enough. I can try to drain what's in her lungs until I can cure the infection, but until the infection is gone, they will fill again. And if they fill too much, she will die."

Fuck. I was so close to fixing this without having to contact my utter shit-stain of a father. I'd only just met Basselt, but there was just something about him that made me trust him. He was telling me the truth, and he wasn't lying to me to make me feel better in this exact moment.

It would have made me feel better now, but if Mom had died when I had time to do what literally no one wanted me to do, I never would have been the same. Basselt spelled it out for me. He'd do his best, but we might not have time.

Mom knew me. She raised me. She was the one who said it was sometimes better to ask for forgiveness than permission, though she hated it when I used that against her.

This time, I'd be doing the one thing she asked me to never do. I'd be losing everything. I'd be conscripted into my father's army and they might eventually find out I wasn't Lance. I'd either hang or get tossed to the brothel. I'd be limited in working in the tavern doing what I loved and I wouldn't see my boyfriends as much anymore.

But Mom would be alive, so it would be worth it.