Ada was silent for a moment and then said, “I think we’ve all felt that at some point. We’re all curious as we grow up.”
Tendrilling to check someone else’s strength and compatibility wasn’t the norm, at least not once you left your teen years. When children Manifested during puberty, it was almost impossible to resist checking the connection with others, to see what it felt like to have two magics entwined.
But once you were an adult, Tendrilling was typically only done between courting couples or those who were seriously considering courtship. So when Terila had done it during a dance with him? Well, he was pretty sure that she’d been angling to net a High Prince. He shouldn’t have responded. But he could never resist a challenge. Maybe he’d been drinking too much, and she’d seemed more beautiful than annoying in that particular moment.
He’d allowed his own magic to surge out his fingertips and Tendril with hers. And thesecondthey’d twined together, he’d known beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no connection between them. It had been the exact opposite, in fact, like they’d mashed two opposing forces together that were desperate to flee.
He was sure Terila had felt it, too, though she’d passed it off with a brittle-sounding laugh. He assumed she’d been hoping to discover they were wildly compatible and push for a marriage. But maybe she did it with everyone. Hehadwitnessed three separate occasions at that particular ball, and he wasn’t sure if that had been designed to show him that she thought nothing of him and his incompatibility or if she’d really been on the hunt for a partner.
Common gossip had it that she was looking for marriage, and she expected it to be someone who was Extraordinary and to whom she was perfectly matched.
Tor had nothing against someone knowing what they wanted, but it seemed as though she was eliminating a lot of possible people needlessly.
Ada laughed when he tried to articulate that.
“But Tor, that’s exactly what you’re doing. You decided that she isn’t what you wanted after one dance.”
“But I’ve actually met her!” Tor protested. “I’m making an assessment based on her behavior and our Tendrilling, not on her sphere of influence or position. If there’d been a way for her to make the two of us compatible, I swear she would have done it, Ada. Instead, as soon as it became apparent that weweren’t compatible and I wasn’t interested, she dropped me like a hot potato.”
“For which you’re very grateful, or your pride is bruised?” Ada asked with an arched brow.
After a moment, Tor acknowledged wryly, “Perhaps a bit of both?”
Ada’s expression softened, her lips quirking up. “That’s what I thought. You want your cake and to eat it, too?”
“Uh, I think I want to eat the cakeandreject the cake,” Tor said, smirking at how ridiculous he was currently being. “I will settle for rejecting the cake—I just have to figure out how to do so in a way that will leave Varex feeling that it’s a good thing.”
“Ideas?” she asked.
Tor frowned. “I’m more than a little concerned that if it appears that I’m interested in her, she’s going to decide that, incompatible or not, it’s the best thing that could have happened to her.”
Ada leaned over to tweak his arm. “Conceited.”
He stuck out his tongue, making her laugh. “Realist. Do you really think she wouldn’t?”
She sighed. “It can be a lot of pressure, to do what is good for your realm and your people.”
“I can still get rid of him,” Tor offered.
She rolled her eyes. “But we’re going with the option that won’t end in you being banished by Var, remember?”
“Right, right,” he grumbled.
“So… you’re procrastinating?” Ada suggested.
“I’m visiting my favorite sister,” Tor corrected.
She snorted.
He was definitely procrastinating, but at least here, there was no Varex or Fernila or Yomil to judge him and act as though he was doing the wrong thing.
Spending time with Par and Hena made Tor feel like he was flashing forward to the future, to what it could look like when Cala was older, to the fun that he could have with her—as long as he figured out how not to marry Terila but also how not to be exiled.
It wasn’t normally this complicated to navigate through his life, Tor thought, and it was definitely complicated by the absence of alcohol.
“I don’t know,” Ada drawled when he admitted this. “It’s kind of nice to see you sober.”
Tor blinked at her. “You’ve seen me sober.”
