Oh,Atria thought, chest tightening.She remembered that he’s a carnivore.
Frances was gone just as quickly as she came, her expression stony, like she didn’t want to be caught giving her grandson special treatment.
Atria glanced at Kaz, who seemed to reach the same conclusion with a wildly different reaction. She felt a heaving wave of confusion and guilt crash over him as he looked down at the plate.
Gently taking his hand, she guided him to sit back down before she began to pluck at those prickly feelings, unwinding them in the way a scuba diver might free a sea creature from a tangled net — carefully but quickly, so as to cause the least amount of disturbance possible.
Kaz’s tense expression eased. Taking a breath, he asked, “How is Bina? Last I heard she was working as an adviser for the Seagrim clan.”
The table finally set, Tosun pulled out a chair and plopped onto the cushion with a pleased exhale. Frances and Suhana did the same, with varying levels of enthusiasm. “Oh, she’s doing great,” he answered, “thoughadvisermight be pushing it.”
Frances nudged the platter of sandwiches toward Atria, who hastily snagged one. “More of a damn handmaid.”
Atria’s eyes moved over the faces of her hosts as she nibbled on her sandwich. Inevitably, they were drawn to Suhana, who had lost a considerable amount of her sparkle. The bubbling joy had fizzled out. It was replaced by a startling upswell of despondency.
“What do you mean?” Kaz pressed, unaware of his aunt’s stark emotional downturn.
Frances poured herself a cup of iced tea. “She was appointed to Astrid Seagrim’s entourage last year, but she’s wasted there. Everyone knows Sigrid won’t let her daughter have any real power. That means her advisers don’t either.”
Atria was startled out of her observation by the mention of the Iron Chain’s queen. “Whoa, wait— your daughter works for the princess of the Orclind?”
Tosun swallowed a bite before he proudly answered, “Yes. She’s got two degrees — one in political science and another in inter-territory relations. She was a shoe-in for a spot.”
“Lot of good it did her,” Frances muttered. “The last time we spoke, she was staying up late writing yet another proposal the Chain’ll ignore because it didn’t come straight from our illustrious queen.”
A sour tang of sorrow clung to the back of Atria’s throat. Her eyes moved back to Suhana, who was staring down at her plate with a tight-lipped expression.
Hoping to clear some of the misery from the air around her, Atria tried to change the subject. “And what about you, Suhana? Are you going to school?”
She summoned a smile, but Atria didn’t need her abilities to tell her it was fake. The poor thing looked like someone had taken a pin to the balloon of her good mood. “I’m taking online courses,” she answered, all false cheer. “And I’ve been shadowing Mitch— our vet. When he has the time, I mean.”
Kaz narrowed his eyes. “Last time we talked, you said you wanted to get into the Grand Rapids veterinary program. What changed?”
Before Suhana could get a word out, Frances announced, “There’s nothing in the Packlands she can’t get here on the ranch. Apprenticing with Mitch is just as good as whatever the vets in the universities could teach her. There’s no point in going.”
Another sharp burst of emotion clouded the air — a potent mix of frustration, fear, resignation, and hopelessness.
Atria’s eyes darted between the orcs. Her stomach sank.They won’t let her go.
Tosun’s expression had lost its joviality. He looked at Frances for several seconds before he let out a small sigh and moved his attention back to his plate. Suhana did much the same.
The grooves of a well-worn argument were all around them.
Atria had spent many years counseling the heartsick and angry. She knew the signs of conflict when it was laid so plainly before her, and she also knew when it was her place to get in the middle. This was not one of those times, no matter how much her heart ached for Suhana. In all likelihood, a suggestion or comment would only make the situation worse for the young woman after they left.
Kaz, on the other hand, either didn’t see the signs or simply didn’t care.
Wiping his claws on his napkin, he stared Frances in the eye when he asked, “So you’re forcing her to stay home, Frances?”
His grandmother’s lined face darkened. “I’m not forcing anything. Suewantsto stay on the ranch.”
“Does she?” Kaz ignored the way Atria was frantically squeezing his knee beneath the table. It didn’t seem to matter how much calm she pumped his way. The challenging gleam in his eye only got more apparent when he asked Suhana, “Did you apply to the program, Sue?”
She sent a wary glance at her glowering mother, but still answered, “Yes.”
“Did you get in?”
There was a lengthy pause, and then, “…Yeah.”
