Eva stiffened, then slowly shook her head.
I could have left it there. But something was gnawing at me. I swallowed. “Maybe we should have.”
Eva whipped around to face me. “What?”
“You have to be safe, Ev. That matters more.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Can you?” I whispered.
Her eyes flashed, and she turned from me and stomped away.
Every step up to the house was a weight. When I caught sight of Eva’s silhouette in the greenhouse, I angled toward it.
“No,”the monster said.“Give her a moment.”
“I just—”
“A moment, little death-touch.”
Dejected, I stuck my hands in my pockets and passed the greenhouse over, leaving Eva to fume. When Hyssop saw me from where she was playing in the yard, she made a dash for the bushes.
I slipped inside and toed off my shoes in the mudroom.
“Arthur?” Jack’s heavy steps made the floorboards creak as he peered down the hall.
I stiffened and tried to smooth my features. “Yes, sir?”
“We need to talk.” Jack’s low-drawn brows did nothing to reassure me as he nodded for me to follow him.
Shit.
I hesitated in the doorframe to the kitchen. The fixings for tea were out, splayed across the countertop. The kettle, the jars full of multicolored petals. Honey, gleaming in the light. I didn’t know what it was about their honey I found so alluring, but my mouth watered at the sight.
Jack sat on the edge of a chair, frowning. “Take a seat.”
I sat stiffly, my camera banging against my thigh. Jack’s eyes dropped to it.
He’d seen our things at the pond, hadn’t he? He’d seen our things, and now he was deciding how slowly I should die.
He passed me a cup of tea. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Eva this summer.”
I choked on the scalding liquid. “Y-yes, sir.”
“Hmm.”
So, this was how it ended. Over tea.
“Maybe he won’t mind that you were… you know.”
My neck burned. Maybe Jack did care for me, a little, but thatdidn’t mean he’d let me stay if he knew I was sneaking around with his daughter. Why had I riskedeverything?
There was more on the line than a crush or a kiss. This place was a home. As long as the Moreaus let me borrow it, I could pretend to belong here, just as starlings did whenever they found a suitable nest. The Moreaus had burrowed through my defenses and shown me what a family could look like. I didn’t ever want to give that up. I wanted to be here, on the farm. I wanted to feel, even for a summer, like I belonged somewhere good.
“I’m glad she has you,” Jack said, and I blinked, surprised. “It’s hard for a girl like her to grow up in a town this small.”
I nodded cautiously, still waiting for my lecture.
