Haylee smirks, grabbing a canteen of water and taking a drink. “I take it you finally gave him an answer.”
My time away had given me clarity I didn’t know I needed in many areas of my life. I don’t want to question Haylee’s intentions as my friend—considering she has been in my life for nearly as long as Daje—but I can’t deny that there were times I could have used her support, unwavering and in a way that spoke to the ease of the friendship I thought we had, and instead, I had been met with a snarky comment. A push towards what I so clearly didn’t want. A lack of the support I so desperatelydid. Even now, I turn the intention of her comment over and over in my mind, wondering if there is something hidden there beyond just genuine curiosity. “I did,” I answer simply.
“He isn’t taking it well.” A statement, not a question.
I eye her as I wipe the sweat off my brow with my sleeve, grateful for the gust of autumn-chilled air. “You don’t have to act as if you haven’t spoken with him.”
“I haven’t since the night you told him,” she says, her hands bracing on her dark brown leggings, her white form-fitting shirt soaked with sweat. “But one doesn’t need to engage in conversation with the man to realize he is hurting.”
I clench my jaw and look out to the obstacle course built on the west side of the training field, pops of colorful magic bursting in the air from the mages that navigate it. “This is the consequence of the terms he set. He demanded something I cannot give him.” My gaze moves back to hers. “And I’m done talking about it.”
She raises her hands in front of her, surrendering to the seriousness in my voice. “Fine. Then tell me how your brother is doing at least.”
I sigh. I don’t want to talk about him either. Not the way he slipped a note under my fucking door last night nor how his actions will set off a chain of completely avoidable events. I don’t want to recall the way my parents’ faces fell as I handed them the letter. Their pity for him was my bitter anger. I know Nox is hurting, that being away from Rhea while she is likely in dire circumstances is eating away at him like a sickness. I know, but I can’t understand his recklessness. I can’t forgive it. Not at a time like this.
Our family’s legacy is balanced in the hands of men who seem all too eager to crush it, and Nox has given them all the ammunition they need to squeeze and squeeze. Because last night, he left on a mission to save Rhea. Alone. Without magic and still healing from whatever ailment has drained his strength. He left his family to go on a suicide mission, and he had done itknowingwhat it would usher in.
When I give Haylee a look that relays I’d rather talk about anything else, she groans and plops down on the ground, leaning back on her hands. “You have to give mesomething,Bahira! We have hardly spoken since your return from the Shifter Kingdom! I don’t even know what you did there or how you liked it. No one else will tell me anything about youorNox, despite the fact that we’re practically family.” She shakes her head, a small grin lifting the right corner of her mouth. “Friends are supposed tosharethings with each other.”
“Then share something with me,” I counter, taking a seat across from her.
She tilts her head in thought, as if rifling through an imaginary filing cabinet to find the right thing to tell me. “Well, Arin and I had another fight.” I roll my eyes. That is nothingnew. The two had been linked together for years but were never more than a couple of convenience according to Haylee. “Beyond that, my uncle forced me to attend more council meetings than ever before. He’s convinced it will help me learn to love thepoliticalside of things. You know how he is with his plans for me.”
I hum as I nod my head. Haylee’s parents passed away from illness when she was only five years old, and her uncle, Councilman Borris, had taken over her care. He is an irascible man, one that often causes contention when there is no need for it, but he had done well raising his niece. Haylee, by any measurement, is strong. Smart. Cunning in a way that only a woman surrounded by powerful men can be, and while she had never expressed that she wanted a life in politics, neither had she shied away from any of the training her uncle signed her up for.
“I even attended the meeting they held to question Rhea.”
“Really?” While, technically, anyone has the right to sit in on the questioning of a potential partner to a royal, it isunusualto have Haylee attend, considering the council wants her to marry Nox instead. Something I had been surprised and a little hurt to learn from my family and not from Haylee herself.
My expression must relay my emotions because Haylee leans forward and rests her elbows on her knees. “It wasn’t that I was keeping their plans a secret from you; it’s just that I hadn’t really expected my uncle, let alone the council, toenforceit like they have.” Her gaze falls to the soft pillow grass, her fingers tugging on the blades as she continues. “Nox and I have only ever been friends—”
“I’ve seen you act more like siblings,” I interject, lifting a brow.
Her responding laugh is choked out. “I don’t know about that. He’syourbrother, and just because I didn’t want to discussthe intimate details of how I viewed Nox with you, doesn’t mean that I harbored only benign feelings about him.”
Stunned, I sit up a little straighter. “You like Nox?”
“It sounds so silly to put it that way, but what is there not to like? He’s strong. Powerful. Loyal to a fault.” Her eyes finally lift up to mine, light pink staining her cheeks. “I’d have to be without my faculties tonotbe attracted to that.”
“Does he know? How you feel?”
“No,” she answers quickly, going back to toying with the grass. “He came back already in love withher, so it seemed a lost cause to tell him. What would a childhood crush matter in the face of the love of a woman who held his heart as if she had pulled it from his chest herself?”
I study her and the sincerity of her words. But what can I say as someone entangled in my own mess of relationships andfeelings?
“Anyways, enough aboutme. It’s your turn. Tell meanythingabout your experience in the Shifter Kingdom,” she says, gesturing with an elegant roll of her wrist.
“My time there was flawed,” I begin, watching as a group of people led by Dilan walk onto the grounds, emerging from the thick forest. “On the way there, the ship was attacked by sirens, and somehow, I was lured into nearly jumping off the deck.”
A line forms between her brows. “From the siren song? They only affect males, though.”
I shrug, unable to explain it myself. “I’m not sure, but I felt the call of it in my mind. It was this undeniable urge to go to the sea. The magic washed over me as if I were caught in a giant wave, and I was only able to surface again when Kai pulled me away from their song.”
“Kai?”
“The shifter king,” I amend. Her eyes widen, her mouth forming a perfect “o” as she smacks my leg with the back of her hand.
“So you and the king…”
