Selwyn sat in silence, watching Jacobi and Ross talk. They were getting along wonderfully, having a great time boasting about their various achievements. Briefly Selwyn wondered if this would result in a literal pissing contest. Some days he wouldn't put anything past his brother. Jacobi did seem to be in much better spirits with having Joy back around him. The fact that Ellah and Marcelo were still missing worried Selwyn, and a frown creased his brow as he drank his coffee. How far could Marcelo have gotten since the previous night?

  He ran his finger along the rim of his cup, remembering the way Joy had looked when they found her in that cellar—naked, wounded, yet somehow still defiant. The memory made his stomach twist and the urge to hurt those who had hurt her was almost overwhelming.

  A movement outside the kitchen door caught his attention and he watched the older kitchen hand from earlier walk past with a bucket swinging in her hand. Selwyn threw back the rest of his rapidly-cooling drink and nodded to the two other men, "If you'll excuse me, I just want to have a chat with someone."

  Jacobi acknowledged his words with a wave, but Ross peered at him closely as he stood. "While you're welcome to go exploring, I'll ask you to stay away from the northern wing upstairs." Ross pointed, indicating to the back corner of the house. "Anything beyond the blue music room, off limits."

  Selwyn nodded, looking up as he mapped out the area in his mind. "Got it. Thank you again for your hospitality, Ross."

  The Naerithi nodded and turned his attention back to Jacobi, and Selwyn slipped out of the kitchen, following in the direction that the woman had disappeared.

  He wound his way through the back corridors of the house, and found himself at a door to the back of the estate building where a large fire was roaring with a huge pot of water boiling over it. The woman was carefully dipping her bucket into the water and Selwyn stood silently as she did, not wanting to startle her while she was so close to the boiling water and fire.

  She carefully backed down the small set of steps next to the pot edge and turned with a smile on her face. "And who are you, young man?" She held the full bucket out to him and he looked at her for a moment before realization hit him and he rushed forward, taking the bucket from her.

  "Oh! Sorry about that. I'm Selwyn Velez."

  "Clover. Over there, the other one please." She pointed to a nearby bucket sitting on its side and Selwyn grabbed it for her, watching silently again as she filled that one and climbed down from the steps to stand beside him.

  "So... did you come here just to help an old lady carry buckets?" She started walking into the house and Selwyn hurried after her, trying not to splash his water all over the floors of the house.

  "I, uh... no, I actually was exploring, looking around the house."

  The woman looked over her shoulder at him with a grin. "You're wondering if Miss Joy is awake?"

  Selwyn struggled to keep the grin from his face at the sound of her name, and Clover nodded to herself as she turned back to watch where she was walking. "That's what I thought. Who is the other boy? He looks like you, your brother, is he?"

  "Yes, uh, Clover. That's Jacobi, he's my brother."

  Clover stopped with one foot on the bottom stair and turned back to look at him. "You both light up the same way at her name." She grabbed the handrail and started struggling up the stairs with the heavy bucket. "Tesharen knows what you two will do around her." Clover let out a laugh. "If you can form words I'll be impressed."

  Selwyn frowned as he carried his bucket up the stairs behind her.

  "Excuse me for asking, but I thought that Tesharen was a Naerithi goddess?"

  Clover laughed again. "Yes, but I've heard the name mentioned so often around this house, I guess I just picked it up into my words also."

  They reached the top of the stairs and on the landing Clover turned, putting her hand up to stop Selwyn.

  "How much do you know about her injuries?"

  "Apart from the knife to the back, next to nothing. I mean, we saw the bruises, and that brand that he put on her back."

  Clover nodded, and put the bucket down on the ground, resting her hands on her hips. "Those are nothing, those will heal."

  Selwyn frowned at her. "Nothing? That brand will scar her for life."

  "The body heals." Clover tapped her temple with one finger. "It's what's in here that matters."

  "I don't understand."

  Clover studied him for a moment, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Her wrists and ankles are torn and bruised like someone had her trussed up. Spread-eagled. Unable to fight back or protect herself."

  Selwyn's jaw tightened, bile rising in his throat as the full meaning of Clover's words registered. "You think he..."

  "I know he did." Clover's voice hardened. "I've seen that look in her eyes before. I've even had it myself, a very long time ago."

  Selwyn's hands curled into fists at his sides. "I'll kill him."

  "That won't help her right now." Clover stepped closer, her voice softening. "Listen to me. Whoever hurt Miss Joy did some evil things to her, and when she comes to terms with that, she'll be hurting and lash out."

  "Lash out?"

  "At everyone." Clover placed a hand on his arm. "She'll say and do things that will make you want to walk away."

  Selwyn shook his head firmly. "I won't walk away."

  "You say that now." Clover's eyes were knowing, almost sad. "But you need to hold onto those feelings you have for her, really hold onto them. Because after she burns through that fire she feels, she'll need to be picked up again."

  "How do I help her?" Selwyn's voice dropped to a whisper.

  "By staying. By seeing past whatever she throws at you."

  "I can do that." His voice was quiet but certain.

  "We'll see," Clover murmured.

  Again Selwyn opened his mouth to speak and as he did so, a long shriek echoed from the nearby bedroom, closely followed by the shattering of glass. His body reacted before his mind could process—muscles tensing, heart rate spiking, the instinct to protect his own surging through him. He took an immediate step toward the sound, but Clover's hand shot out, halting him mid-stride.

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  Her calm steadied him, grounding his racing pulse. Clover pointed down to her bucket on the ground, her eyes holding his with quiet authority. "Take that. Go gently." The emphasis on the last word wasn't lost on him. Gentle. Not charging in like a knight with a sword, but approaching with care. This wasn't a threat to be eliminated but a wound to be tended.

  Something about the older woman's wisdom touched him. In the space of a few minutes, she'd seen through him, understood Joy's needs, and somehow recognized what even he hadn't fully grasped.

  Selwyn nodded and leaned forward, dropping a quick kiss on Clover's cheek before he grabbed the second bucket. "You're a gem, thank you."

  She shooed Selwyn past her as he walked towards Joy's bedroom. The sound of pounding footsteps drew his attention, and he looked back to see the twin stomping of Ross and Jacobi's boots on the staircase. A satisfaction spread through him—they were coming to Joy's aid, but he was already here. Already chosen.

  The last thing that he heard before he slipped into the bedroom was Clover ordering the two men back downstairs again. A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth as he pictured the diminutive Clover, hands on hips again and glaring down at the two so-called alpha dogs. For once, Jacobi's status meant nothing. Ross's blood connection counted for little. He, Selwyn, had been granted access to Joy. The darkness inside him stirred, not with violence but with purpose.

  Selwyn looked around the bedroom and followed a sound of gentle splashing into the bath chamber. Joy lay curled up in the large bath, her back to the door. Although he didn't want to disturb her, one of the buckets clanked as he put them down on the floor. She shifted away from him, resting her chin on the opposite side of the bath and wordlessly Selwyn hefted one of the buckets to the edge of the bath, gently cascading the water into the tub.

  Joy's only acknowledgement was a sharp hiss as the hot water flowed against her skin as it settled into the tub, and Selwyn emptied the second bucket in. The water now reached Joy's waist. His eyes instinctively tracked the rising water level, relief washing through him as it provided her some dignity. Then, without warning, Joy rolled onto her back in the water, her eyes closed.

  Selwyn froze mid-motion, bucket still tilted. A prickling heat crawled up his neck and he immediately averted his gaze to the ceiling, the wall, the floor. Anywhere but at Joy's exposed body. He set the bucket down with deliberate care, keeping his eyes fixed on the tiled floor. The muscles in his shoulders tightened with the effort it took to resist looking back at her. Not from desire, but from the protective urge to catalog every injury, to know exactly what had been done to her. Knowledge was power, and power was what he'd need to make Marcelo pay.

  Joy winced as she settled against the tub and a grateful smile briefly flashed over her face. "Thanks Clover."

  Selwyn looked around the room helplessly, glad his brother wasn't here to see him so flustered. He didn't want to leave Joy alone again. His eyes caught sight of the shattered mirror pieces on the ground and he stepped closer, small pieces of glass crunching under his shoes. He grabbed the two buckets and settled them in the middle of the broken glass, carefully cleaning the mirror shards up into the buckets.

  As he gathered the shattered pieces, he wondered what had driven Joy to break the mirror. For a while there was no other sounds in the room apart from their breathing and the occasional tinkle of mirror pieces breaking as they landed together in the buckets. The relative silence was broken when Selwyn pierced his finger on a mirror piece, and a loud curse escaped him before he could stop it.

  "Selwyn!?"

  Joy's whisper echoed in the bathroom and he spun slowly in his crouched place, the sharp mirror shard still in one hand.

  "Hello darling." He made his voice smooth and even, falling back to his habits when dealing with the wilder animals in need of comforting.

  Joy peered over the edge of the bathtub at him, and he gave her a half smile, grateful that only her shoulders and above were visible now. She looked curiously at him and her arm snaked out from the tub to reach for him.

  Her silver eyes stood out against the bruises on her face. It had never been easy to guess her age, and she'd refused to confirm their guesses, but right now she looked younger than he'd ever seen.

  The vulnerability in her voice pierced him. This wasn't the fierce warrior who had dominated the arena or the mysterious woman who moved like shadow through Jacobi's household. This was Joy stripped of her masks, and something protective stirred in Selwyn's chest. An image flashed in his mind—himself at fourteen, standing over the broken body of a boy who'd tormented his childhood friend, his own knuckles bloody and a strange calm settling over him as he'd realized what he was capable of. His father had covered it up, of course. The Velez name protected him, just as it always had.

  He dropped the glass into the bucket and moved to the side of the tub, sitting down on the cleared floor next to it. Her hand touched his face lightly, and she looked at him as though she wasn't really sure he was there.

  "Do you want me to get some more hot water?"

  Immediately Joy shook her head, her eyes widening. "No." The hand which had previously been lazily draped against his shoulder now gripped onto him tightly, her claws digging into his skin.

  Just a stress reaction, not aggressive, Selwyn told himself, and he breathed through the pain, trying not to let it show on his face.

  He turned his head to the side and dropped a small kiss on the hand that held him in place. "Don't worry, I am not going anywhere." Selwyn gave her a smile, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "This'll have to be loud then."

  He leaned to the side, towards the open bedroom door, and yelled out into the house, "Clover? Hot water please!" He and Joy both stayed quiet, listening to the sounds of the house reacting to his shout. The stomping of Ross and Jacobi's boots on the staircase again rang clearly through the hallways and from the corner of his eye Selwyn could see Joy sink lower in the tub until only her eyes and above were showing. The heavy footsteps came to an abrupt stop with the sound of Clover's voice as she ordered the two men back downstairs to help her fetch water.

  Selwyn gave Joy a grin. "I think we know who runs this household."

  Joy's eyes had an amused glint that he was happy to see, and that was reflected in her relaxing her hold on his shoulder. She released him and draped her elbow over the edge of the tub. Selwyn laid his head on the edge of the tub to look at her and she did the same from within the bath, their bodies curled close together with the wall of the tub between them.

  They sat peacefully together like that, simply staring at each other, until slow footsteps outside the bedroom door signalled Clover's approach. Ruefully, Selwyn lifted his head and returned to gathering the remaining glass mirror shards. Clover struggled into the room with a larger bucket than the other two, dropping it down heavily on the floor beside the tub.

  "You can lift that," She gestured to Selwyn. "You didn't bring the others back to me."

  Selwyn jumped to his feet and grabbed the large bucket, carefully tipping the hot water into the bath.

  Clover looked at Joy hanging over the edge of the tub with her eyes trained on Selwyn and the woman smiled warmly. "You look better already, child."

  Joy bit her bottom lip in what Selwyn noted was an uncharacteristically nervous gesture, and she looked up at Clover. "I am sorry for the mirror."

  Clover waved her hand, dismissing the apology. "For one thing, that belongs to your family, you do what you like with it. Another thing," Clover crouched down with a grunt to be eye to eye with Joy and she looked at her silently for a moment. "Get that pain out. Whatever you need to do, don't you dare keep that inside. It'll curl up in there and fester, and it'll only make things worse."

  Joy nodded, and Selwyn noticed her wiping her eyes and he quickly moved away to his collection of mirror shards, giving the women as much privacy as he could.

  He kept his gaze on the shards on the floor, but from the corner of his eye, Selwyn watched Clover point at him. The urge to know what she was saying was overwhelming and he tilted his head to better hear their discussion as he kept up the pretence of privacy.

  "That one knows darkness. He can help." Clover's voice was low but clear. "I've been watching him since you arrived. Gentle hands but there's something underneath. Something that understands pain."

  The water in the tub splashed as Joy sat up, turning to look at Selwyn, her voice hushed as she frowned at Clover. "Are you sure you have the right brother? Jacobi's the one with the temper."

  Clover shook her head slowly. "The other one wears his darkness like armor, all on the outside where everyone can see it. This one..." She gestured again toward Selwyn with a knowing look. "This one keeps it buried deep, only lets it out when there's need. I saw his eyes. I know that look. He's got something in him that understands the place you're in right now."

  "What do you mean?" Joy's voice was barely a whisper.

  Clover's weathered hand touched Joy's cheek gently. "The things done to you, child. Not everyone can handle that kind of hurt. But that one there, he's got scars of his own. Different maybe, but he knows the path back."

  Selwyn stood quickly, clearing his throat, the two glass-filled buckets in his hands and he made a show of looking around at the floor of the room. His heart hammered against his ribs.

  "Well, all clean! I'll go get rid of this glass and make sure these buckets are clean. Can't go mixing the glass with the water." Selwyn lowered his head, avoiding eye contact with the two women. As he walked through the bath chamber, a smirk appeared on his face. For the first time since finding Joy in that cellar, he felt a strange sense of purpose rising within him. The part of himself he'd always been ashamed of might be exactly what she needed now.