“I hear you are skilled in the art of Raicanya,” he said, watching me like a hawk. “Caelan speaks highly of you.”
I parted my lips to speak but a knock at the door startled me. Ash called for them to come in.
Saryna and Caelan entered, followed by Eli and Riya.
“Ash! My man, what up? How you been? It’s been like two hours since I saw you last,” Eli crooned, approaching Ash and clasping his hand and bumping shoulders.
Isabella raised an eyebrow while Roslyn’s face went white as a sheet. She stepped forward, as if to intervene, but Ash stayed her with a brief glance.
“I take it you two have already met?” Isabella asked, shooting Eli a bemused look.
Ash, despite the way he tensed up at being greeted with so much physical contact, handled the culture clash with grace.
“Eli! You found your way here,” Ash said. “From the look you were giving me when I gave you directions, I was certain we would have to come and retrieve you.”
“Nah, man,” Eli said. “I had Riya. She led me straight here.”
“Ah,” Ash said, grinning ear to ear. “Now it makes sense.”
Riya shook her head and was glaring so hard at Eli I thought she might set him on fire. “Straight here is hardly how it was. It was only after considerable effort that I convinced him that the meeting was this evening. Then, I had to argue about each line Roslyn wrote in Valyrian script because he couldn’t read it.”
Eli was shaking his head with his lips pressed together and waving his hand dismissively at Riya.
“She’s having a rough day,” he said. “Y’all can ignore her. So, are we making this a regular thing? Ya know, to beef up our everi?”
Roslyn laughed and patted Riya on the shoulder as she glared at Eli. “We wanted to spend time with you all. All of us chose an Adept we found to be the most promising to join us today. We want to offer as much insight into your training as we can and help your everi attune by being around individuals from the Realm.”
Eli made himself comfortable on one of the velvet sofas and became interested in a candy dish on the side table, gently lifting the glass-speared lid and peering inside. He took one of the candies by pinching the paper wrapper with his index finger and thumb and returned the lid. He then carefully opened the paper, finding a bright red hard candy. He tilted his head, giving Ash a side glance.
“Hey, Ash, this isn’t gonna burn or explode in my mouth or something if I eat it, right?” he asked, highly skeptical. “Because Caelan gave me something once that gave me tremors the rest of the day.”
Ash shook his head. “It is sweet, I swear.”
“Uh-huh,” Eli muttered, popping it into his mouth.
I watched him suspiciously as he sucked on it before his face slid into a wide grin.
“This stuff is amazing,” he said. “Tastes like cherry pie.”
I frowned, displeased nothing more interesting happened. I crossed my arms, tuning everyone out. I could be in my room sulking, but instead, I was here.
“Anna,” Caelan said. “How is your affinity training going?”
I glared at him. They knew I didn’t want to be here. Was this an intervention or something?
“Fine.”
Moving across the room, I sat in one of the armchairs and zoned as the others chatted and laughed. I hated to admit it, but being here did feel a lot better than sitting in my room crying. These people—they were like me. Back home, I had Katie and Eiryn, but I ‘d never felt like I was a part of their group. It felt good. The little things made me smile, though I was trying to hide it. Things like Roslyn’s expression of disapproval at Caelan’s inappropriate joke about how short he thought Saryna’s dress should be, or Isabella’s ability to speak far longer than a person should be able to without taking a breath.
Which was true.
Good lord, it was true.
I couldn’t help but giggle when Caelan leaned down, kissed Ash on the cheek, and started talking in a high-pitched voice. He was pretending to be Riya, who had been casting nervous glances at Ash ever since she got here.
Roslyn glanced at me with a small smile and I lifted my cheeks in forced look of cheer. Caelan was prattling on about something of interest though, so I sat up and listened.
“I mean, how could he have been an actual dragon?” Caelan said.
