“I do,” Ris said decisively. “He’s not starting over again from scratch. He’ll be moving with his family. It’ll be new for all of us.”
“True. And no steps would be a bonus. If nothing else, this will get you closer to the clubhouse, right?”
She exhaled at the mention. “Right.”
The group had voted on whether to keep the name, and she had been surprised when her original, clumsy idea was unanimously approved.
Colloquially, though, they all called itthe house.
The house that didn’t exist yet, maybe, butthe housenonetheless.
She and Caleia, it turned out, worked surprisingly well together. Those early fears that the dryad would steamroll and take over had proven unfounded. She had dozens of ideas, had done in-depth research into each one, provided loads of data, and had a memory nearly as long as Cambric Creek itself, but she was nothing if not collaborative.
“Passive fundraising is the way to go. If we want to do a few dedicated events or drives throughout the year, I think that’s fine, but let’s not stress everyone out before we even have anything tangible.”
“Please,” Ris had agreed, laughing. “Just saying ‘fundraising’ out loud gives me the hives.”
Caleia worked and lived at Saddlethorne Farm, which Ris found initially surprising, until she learned the dryad was in charge of record-keeping. Every crop, every soil rotation, every drop of rainfall, she was there, with a spreadsheet. She was voluntarily bound to her tree, the old ways, she’d called it, but doing so increased her already considerable lifespan. Ris thought she understood why the dryad was so eager to find a community that would last.
The benefit of working for the largest agricultural supplier in the community was that Saddlethorne had a long reach, and she and the owner, a recalcitrant centaur named Cal, who had flirted with Ris shamelessly the first time she met him, had a close relationship, born from the land they shared and solidified in respect for what each other did.
Having the opportunity to do fundraising through Saddlethorne was a huge boon, and the early success buoyed the others, the encouragement they all needed to seek out their own inside tracks. They quickly learned whose employers offered corporate matching for employee charitable donations, where they could post affiliate links, and how best to leverage the strengths they didn’t even know they had.
It had been several years of meeting at the community center, several years of continuing education lectures and hobby chats, classes, and coffee clutches. Individual friend groups had naturally bloomed, and although they were a long way off from Cevanorë, they were growing, slowly but surely. They’d more than tripled their numbers from that very first community center meeting, and although Ris knew it was small beans compared to the Elvish institution in town, it felt monumental when she considered those three friends from yoga who’d come to her very first event.
Ris had just been about to point out another Ainsley-friendly Cambric Creek fact when she did a double-take, nearly giving herself whiplash as she spun around. Letting go of Ainsley’s hand, she walked back half a dozen paces. She recognized the back of the Elvish woman who had passed them, her shiny waterfall of chestnut hair neatly secured off her face, cinched with a bow at the back of her head, matching the identical little girl walking beside her.
“Silva?” When their long-absent coworker turned, Ris felt herself instantly overcome with emotion. “Silva!”
She rushed at the younger elf, engulfing her in a hug before she could turn away. “Oh my stars, we have missed yousomuch! Silva, it’s so good to see you!”
Silva’s face heated, flushing a deeper purple, her eyes filling with tears. “It’s good to seeyou. I’ve missed you all, too.”
“What are you doing here?! Are you just in town for a visit? Please tell me it’s more than just a day or two; wehaveto get together. I insist.”
As she spoke, her eyes turned down to the small girl clutching Silva’s hand. Ris felt her stomach drop out of her body.Well, shit. That’s a revelation.
“No . . . I’m not home for a visit. We’re in the process of moving. Actually, I just got an interview callback today fromthe office,” Silva laughed. “I haven’t worked since I left, and ironically, it’s the only callback I’ve received so far. They didn’t have anything for me to do while I was there, but they’re willing to take me back, I guess.”
Silva’s eyes followed Ris’s, her mouth turning up in a soft smile. “This is my daughter, Aelin. Bunny, this is my friend, Ris. Can you say hi?”
The little girl gave Ris a shy hello, burying her face in Silva’s side, her wide, honey gold eyes peeking out just a moment later.
“I’m so thrilled to hear that, Silva, you have no idea. Wait, the office office? Hello, I’m HR! I’m pushing you straight through. Go to the interview to meet the team, but I’ll email the manager to let them know . . . We’ve all missed you so much. Is-is Tannar also coming—”
“We’re not together anymore.” Her voice was still Silva-soft, but there was a slightly harder edge that Ris didn’t remember existing previously. “So, no. He’s not.”
Ris swallowed as she nodded, keeping her smile in place, unable to tear her eyes away from the little girl still peeking out from the side of Silva’s skirt, Tate’s tiny miniature with Silva’s coloring.Oh, I’msureyou’re not together anymore.
“Are you back in the enclave with your parents?”
At that, Silva laughed. Again, it was a Silva laugh, one Ris recognized well, high and light, musical in its cadence, but again — a sharper edge, a shard of glass amongst the polished crystal. “No, but actually, we might be neighbors. I’m moving into the condos over by the trolley stop. Are-are you still over there?”
“I’m not. We actually live in the city, we have for a few years.”We have since Tate disappeared and wrecked everyone’s lives. Ainsley fell apart and so did you, remember?
Ris watched Silva’s eyes flicker up, darkening at whatever they found.Which is probably your boyfriend.“But we literally just discussed today, like ten minutes ago! Uh, potentially movingback to town, so who knows! I’m just so happy to see you. We have so much catching up to do.”
“I think my happy hour days are mostly numbered. But I’d love to get together for coffee. Whether I get the job or not.”
