“Showing our daughter a little care after all she’s been through is not arrogance.”
“Oh, is itlooove?”Her tone was mocking.
Whatever had transpired between my adoptive parents while I was gone was plainly huge.I was no longer the expert at interpreting their actions I’d once been.
Afterthree hundred and thirty-threeyears, not even the familiar remained recognizable, apparently.
I would have understood Teo perfectly, however.I’d always known everything about him, and he’d always known me in a way that transcended explanation.
“Actually, yes.It is love,” Alonso said.“Not that you’d be able to recognize the emotion.”With crisp movements, he crossed one leg over the other.“Or any emotion, for that matter.”
Rafaela laughed like ice cubes tumbling from her open mouth to shatter on the floor.My skin pebbled.
“Are you calling me a cold-hearted bitch, darling?”
“No, I am not.”
Rafaela leaned forward more, so that when she spoke, her words snaked out with a suffocating touch.“Only because you don’t want to feel my wrath if you do.”
“No, that’s not it.”
She laughed again; more ice cubes shattered.
Alonso glared.She stared back.Her glower was a hundred times more ferocious than his.As if she’d never been tame, when she’d been raised in a royal family, in a castle, always intended to be married off as someone’s queen.
Eventually Alonso sighed and diverted his eyes toward the windows and their curtains, currently drawn against the bright light of midday.
As if I weren’t a witness to their interaction, Rafaela continued glowering until he sighed again.
His shoulders deflated.He sank against the settee.
“Peace, Rafi.Peace between us.”
She snorted, as if to suggest that were an impossibility.
Before, perhaps there hadn’t been anything resembling a perfect peace between them, but they had worked together, and well, for the most part.They’d been partners, if only to advance the needs of the kingdom.
Alonso met her eyes again.“What kind of welcome is this for our daughter who’s finally come back to us after all this time?”
“The kind that is real.We lost Mateo.We lost our daughter for nearly three-and-a-halfcenturies, Alonso.No mother should have to endure that agony.”
Alonso didn’t look away until she added, “Noparentsshould have to suffer so.”Anger flashed across her face again.“And now we’ll lose her for good this time.We’ll lose them both.”
Alonso’s entire spine buckled, as if he were already losing me when I sat at his side.
“Why would we lose her again?”
“Because you spoke too soon.Even now she’s thinking of what she needs to do to take off after Alobaz, and whatever it is, whatever preparation she’s considering, it isn’t nearly enough.Not forhim.”
“Tell me about him,” I said.“Tell me everything.”
“It will only make you angrier, and you make reckless decisions when you’re angry.I don’t want you putting yourself into unnecessary danger.”
“I’ve been facing down danger since long before you first found me.Tell me.”I dared to add, “Now.”
I expected a denial or at least more argument.Rafaela either got her way or made you regret not doing what she wanted.
But she capitulated, waving a hand absently in our direction.“Go ahead.Tell her, Alonso.”Her voice was like caressing velvet.It made it too easy to forget, only minutes before, she’d been at his throat.
