“Who?” Amma’s voice was riddled with weariness.
The half elven girl stopped short, looking at Amma dumbly. Kaz almost ran into her feet.
“Oh, Thomas, of course.” Amma rubbed at a temple, her clean face paler than normal, and she continued on across the grass that ran along a hedge. Damien grunted to himself—another man? Who was this bloody Thomas?
“Yes,Thomas, only the man you had a torrid affair with. That Thomas,” Laurel added helpfully yet unwelcomely.
“Laurel!” Amma hissed. “A few moons of flirting and a couple nights together years agoisn’tan affair, and nothing about it was torrid.”
“Well, you described it as swoon-worthy and the best kiss of your life, so I didn’t think you’d forget.”
Best kiss of her life? Damien regretted briefly not replacing that memory the night before.
“I had a very different idea of what was swoon-worthy then. I haven’t been interested in him in years anyway, and he’s married now. Why are you bringing him up at all?”
“Oh, I just realized he’s going to be invited to your parents’ banquet, and with everything else going on, I just thought you should know. I’m sorry.” The girl looped her arm in Amma’s and pulled her close as they headed to the far side of the courtyard, staying in the hedge’s darker shadow.
“It’s all right, the whole thing is going to be a mess anyway. Everyone’s going to want to hear about what happened to me, and how I got away, and what Damien did to help me.”
So, Amma had told her friend his true name. Interesting.
Laurel nudged Amma. “Don’t worry about the story. While you were gone, I was imagining all these different scenarios you might have been in, I even wrote some of them down—I plan to change all the names when I publish it, of course, but I’m more than happy to speak on your behalf when the nosiest start asking questions.”
Amma laughed lightly. “Just be consistent, okay? No plot holes. And don’t lay it on too thick.”
“Me? Never. I’ll leave out all the lewd parts I made up too.” Laurel brought her to a stop beside a set of topiaries shaped like a rabbit and a deer. “But listen, I do have something important to ask you, and I’ve been waiting because I couldn’t say it in front of Perry and damage his delicate sensibilities, but I just can’t wait any longer.”
Amma’s eyes widened, frozen with fear as the other woman checked the empty courtyard.
“Please tell me you fucked Damien.”
“Laurel!” Amma shook her off and began storming away.
The half-elf cackled wickedly, running after. “That’s not a no!”
Kaz ran over the stony walkway they’d crossed to keep up. Amma slipped between the topiaries, and Laurel was right behind, Kaz keeping to her heels.
“Believe me, Laurel, I thought about it. A lot.” At that, Damien almost accidentally knocked himself right out of Kaz’s consciousness. “But it’s a lot more complicated than that. I haven’t told you everything. Not to mention I’m, you know…”
“Oh, as far as I’m concerned, that engagement is absolute rubbish!”
Finally, thought Damien,someone in Faebarrow worthy of Amma’s friendship.
Amma groaned in the back of her throat but came to a stop. Before her, there was a building made up of glass tinged deeply green, its roof and doors included.
“Which reminds me, I haven’t told you everything either. Guess what else I’ve been doing while you were away?”
Amma didn’t take her eyes off the greenhouse. “Probably something sinister.”
“No, just acquiring a fancy set of poisons.”
That broke Amma of her long stare at the glass building. “No, you didn’t.”
The half-elven girl was grinning in a way that reminded Damien a bit too much of Anomalous. “It’s just a backup plan, for you-know-who.”
“Laurel, you absolutelycannotdo that. Are you mad?”
“Of course I’m mad! You’re my friend. Am I supposed to just let him get away with—”
