“You can just ask,” he says with a sigh.
Confused, I look down at the leaf-covered stone walkway. Perhaps he means that I can ask him for help preparing to speak with the council? It isn’t a terrible idea, as he might have more insight into how I should prepare for a meeting with them.
“You want to know about Bahira. I assume you’ve heard what happened between us.”
“That youlikeher?” It doesn’t exactly seem like information that needs extra clarification, and that thought must be painted across my face because, for a moment, Daje looks completely caught off-guard.
“You haven’t heard what happened at the Summer Solstice celebration?” When I shake my head, Daje snickers to himself. “You must be the only one in the kingdom who hasn’t.”
“And, of course, I’m nowwhollycurious about it,” I tease, earning a small laugh from him.
He runs a hand down his face before letting it fall to his side. “It’s not that interesting. I proposed to Bahira, and she was taking some time to answer. Then the magic chose her to go to the Shifter Kingdom, and she left—our future hanging somewhere in the balance.”
Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting him to saythat. “How did you propose to her?” I can’t imagine someone needing time to answer a question like that. Even with my anxiousness at becoming a future queen of the Mage Kingdom, if Nox proposed to me today, I already know that I’d say yes. When I cast a glance his way, he is grimacing like the memory causes him pain.
“Maybeproposedisn’t exactly the right term. I gave her a choice.”
“A choice? I suppose that’s one way to word asking someone to marry you.”
“It’s not— We havehistory, and Bahira seems so intent on making herself suffer when she doesn’t have to.”
My mouth twists to the side. “No onechoosesto suffer. Or at least to do so without reason.”
The training grounds come into view up ahead, the grass bright under the unobstructed sunlight. Warmth caresses my skin as we step past the shade of the trees, my magic stirring in response.
“It’s hard to explain. Bahira is smart—brilliant, actually. She’s tenacious and driven, her mind as beautiful as she is. And sheisbeautiful. In a garden full of flowers, she would stand out amongst them all. Nothing compares to her.”
“Did you tell her all of that?”
“Of course I di—” Daje chokes on a breath, inhaling deeply before dropping his gaze from my own. I watch as a range of emotions flickers over his face, each one a little more devastating than the last.
We continue trodding across the thickly bladed grass field to where Cassius is waiting, a small gathering of curious children surrounding him. His blue magic glows in his hand as he lifts water from the small pond next to him and shapes it into different animals mid-air, all to the children’s delight.
“If you didn’t know about Bahira, then why did you keep looking at me like you wanted to ask something?” Daje asks quietly at my side.
“Oh, it was actually about your father. I was going to ask if you had any tips on winning him over when it’s time for me to speak with the council.”
He laughs nervously as his hand rubs the back of his neck. “If I ever figure that out, I will let you know.” I blow out a breath and smile slightly, our steps slowing as we near Cassius and his group. “How did you convince Nox to let you talk to them,anyway? The council, I mean. He seemed pretty dead set on not letting that happen.”
I shrug as I look up at him, his sapphire-blue eyes rivaling the beauty of the sky above us. “I just told him why it was important to me that I try, and he listened.”
The children surrounding Cassius are from the orphanage in Galdr, a place that Cassius has special ties to. He told me that his mother had grown up there and that she had spent a lot of her free time volunteering any way she could until her death when Cassius was fifteen. He tries to give the children there as much of his free time as he can as a way to honor her memory.
They were practicing making shields with their magic, and when one little girl was left without a partner, I volunteered to step in. Truth be told, I needed the practice as well. The little girl, Starla, had beenlessthan enthused by our partnership. She let her displeasure show with her sharp tongue and by occasionally blasting past my flimsy shield to pelt me with her magic. Despite her fiery disposition, she carried a sadness that seemed much too heavy for a child her age.
“Do you know her story?” I ask Cass after the lesson ends and the children leave with the other instructor, Dilan.
“Her mother died two years ago from an illness. No other family came forward to claim her, so she went into the orphanage.”
“No father?”
Cassius uses the leverage of his arm on me to guide us towards the archery area. Wooden targets with blue and red paint are stationed at increasing distances across from the table that holds the bows and arrows.
“No one knows who he is. When her mother started getting sick and neighbors stepped in to help, they tried to get any information they could from her, but she was apparently very tight-lipped. Starla says that her mother told her what he looked like and that she would know it was him when she saw him. Of course, Starla is keeping that information to herself. Honestly, it seems like a shitty thing to tell a child.”
My fingers drag along the smooth wood of one of the curved bows as I think his words over. “Perhaps she just wanted Starla to have a memory of him. In case someone ever came forward?”
“Maybe. Still seems like a lot of unnecessary pressure,” he says, rolling his shoulders back and then gesturing with his toe where he wants me to stand. “I’ll be going to the orphanage to hang out again in a few days if you want to come. I’m sure they’d love to see someone other than me show up.”
