“Oh, busy, as usual.” Linnea’s lap companion began to squirm, so she helped him stand on chubby legs before she let him wander off toward the elf standing by the refreshment cart. They both watched him babble before the elf nodded sagely and handed him a sugar-free juice pouch.
“I’m thinking of taking a sabbatical.”
Camille turned her surprised gaze on her friend, who was still watching the little boy messily suck on the thin straw of his juice pouch. “What? Why? Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine,” Linnea was quick to reassure her. “I’m just feeling a bit… I don’t know, restless, maybe?” She let out a wistful sigh. “With all the change happening, it makes me realize how much of my life I’ve spent caged in here.”
Camille nodded. “I get that.”
She knew that Linnea experienced a similar level of isolation as she had, though for markedly different reasons. Whileshewas sequestered because her mother was a pariah and refused to play nice with the main family, Linnea was not only a halfling, but a magically gifted one. Her specialty was warding, or protective barrier magic, and she was in charge of teaching young elves the basics of the craft.
In fact, she wassorare amongst their kind that she was exempt from all but the most basic martial training for fear of harming her. Linnea had been swaddled and smothered from the moment she threw up her first effortless ward.
The only reason Camille got the chance to know her at all was because her father ran the Dia-Solbourne household. They’d known each other their entire lives and despite their initial disparity in rank, were good friends.
“What are you thinking of doing?” She asked, worry for her friend’s wellbeing and sympathy for her situation tightening her voice.
“Traveling. Meeting new people. Getting into trouble.” Linnea’s eyes, a deep, dark pink that bordered on red, glowed with enthusiasm. “I want to see the UTA and know what life is like outside ofthis.Doesn’t that sound like fun, Cammie?” She gasped, momentarily drawing the attention of the assembled toddlers. “You could come with me!”
“Thatdoessound fun,” she hedged, struggling to imagine the sheltered, happy-go-lucky Linnea running wild in, say, the New Zone, “but I don’t think I’m going to be able to join you.”
“Why not?” Linnea leaned over to gently but firmly discourage one of the toddlers from testing her fangs on another’s arm.
“Well, I’m…” Camille trailed off.
Gods, she really didn’t have a succinct way of describing the mess that was her life lately, did she?
Linnea sat back on her hands to stare wide-eyed at her friend. “Wait… the rumor isn’t true, right? You’re not contracted toEpifanio Luzare you? You are legally obligated to tell me if you are!”
Camille reared back with surprise.“What?No! Where did you even hear that?”
“It’s all the buzz around the Tower,” Linnea answered, unblinking, as if she feared she would miss some vital clue in Camille’s expression if she dared close her eyes for even a moment. “I heard from Darren, one of the receptionists, who heard it from Julia, the fey who works on the Luz PR team, who heard it from— oh, nevermind, you get it. Anyway, I didn’t believe it, of course. He’s way too old for you. But if you’re too busy to travel the UTA with me, then…”
Camille stroked the silky curls of the toddler in her lap in an effort to soothe her irritation. Clearly, Elio Luz had been running his mouth. Considering she had already decided against his son evenbeforethe complications with Viktor, she knew she’d have to deal with that sooner rather than later. No matter what happened with her consort, she wantednothingto do with the Luz family.
“I amnotgoing to be Epifanio Luz’s spouse,” she firmly announced.
“So youcantravel the UTA with me.”
“I didn’t say that.” Camille shook her head, wondering if Linnea really grasped how caged she was. Would her parents even let her go? Would the nursery? She doubted the social pressure to stay would belight.
“Then what? Are you taking a class or something?”
“No, I’m… Iamnegotiating a union.” Her lapmate began to squirm, so Camille gently let him go. Chunky legs took him all of a few feet before he settled down amongst his fellows and began to chatter away to himself, claws reaching for the foam blocks with more determination than skill.
“Oh.” Linnea gave her a studiously blank look. “What about Vikt—”
Camille felt her cheeks heat with a dark blush. “Whatabouthim?”
“I just mean that you had a thing with him when you were teenagers, right? I always got the feeling that you and him had more than you let on. I guess I just figured that with this whole thing with the Sovereign and his healer, you’d…” She made a vague gesture with her hand. “Live a little, maybe?”
Live a little, indeed.She’d done more than alittleliving last night, and the day of the Summit, too.
Before she could come up with some noncommittal response, Linnea drew a toddler that had begun to fuss into her lap to rain kisses down on her soft cheeks.
Baby fangs peeked out in a wide grin and a rattling, high-pitched purr bubbled out between squeals of laughter. Playfully popping her out of her lap and back onto the grass, Linnea wistfully continued, “I always thought shifters were dreamy. They do courtship so much better than we do. An elf is all grabby andlet’s just do it before I flip out.When shifters meet their mates, I hear they writelove letters.Can you imagine?”
Camille stilled. “Yeah… Icanimagine.”
