“In part, at least. We have clearly bonded physically. But I can’t remember that happening. And that has left me confused and unsure how I should feel.”
“Regardless of how youshouldfeel, how do you feel? Do you care for him?”
“Of course. I always have.”
Martyn’s brows rose. “Are you attracted to him?”
I shrugged, but the gesture was far more overblown than I’d intended. “Lookat him!” I whispered, unable to resist a gesture in Wilder’s direction. “Of course I am attracted. Who wouldn’t be?”
Martyn chuckled. “You were possessive of both of the Gregory brothers, when you were younger. You considered them both yours—”
My face flamed like a bonfire. “I did not!”
“—and you would pout like a toddler if either of them so much asglancedat another girl.”
“I do not recall the pouting,” I mumbled. “But Idoremember frequent roving glances.” And more-than-glances. “That bit has not changed. Wilder is ravenous for attention, and it is becoming clear that mine may not be enough for him.”
For a moment, Martyn sipped his tea in silence. My father was always quick to jump in with an opinion, which was no doubt where I’d inherited the trait. But my stepfather had a particular way of letting me stew in the echo of my own words. It was vexingly effective.
“Is that an objective assessment?” he finally asked. “Or might it be driven by overwrought sentiment?”
“You’re asking if I could be overreacting?”
He smiled. “I would not quarrel with that phrasing.”
“—cannot fathom what could have led to her acceptance.”
The whisper floated to us on an ocean-scented westbound breeze, and I stiffened on the bench, loathe to turn and see who was speaking from the courtyard behind us for fear of silencing the speaker.
Martyn also went still and silent.
“No one trusts her,” the voice continued. “Her voice is virtually painful to experience, and there’s no telling what she can hear that we cannot, if her ears were altered as well.”
Whoever it was, he was talking about Varrah.
A brief flash of relief washed over me when I realized I wasn’t the target of such distrust and suspicion, but I felt immediately guilty for that.
“You think she’s a spy?” another voice whispered.
“Or a scout?” There was a pause. “I can’t imagine why else a citizen of the unified provinces would come to the Alchemary, when they don’t acknowledge alchemy as a valid study. Perhaps she is an asset of the Crown.TheirCrown.”
“Unified Eria doesn’t have a crown,” the second voice said, and from my left, Martyn chuckled again softly. “It’s comprised of half a dozen independent city states, each ruled by a figure of a different title. Some positions are elected, others are inherited. So even if she’s an agent, it wouldn’t be forallof Eria.”
“I think you comprehend my point,” the first voice grumbled. “It’s difficult to trust someone who can hear things we don’t intend to be heard, and who could be saying things we can’t hear.”
Finally, my patience wore thin, and I turned to find that the original speaker was a young man from Varrah’s cohort. He was speaking to a woman a few years older who resembled him closely enough that she had to be a sister or a cousin.
He noticed me looking and tugged his relative off toward the festival.
“They’re talking about a classmate from the provinces?” Martyn asked.
“A Fundamentals student. She’s very sweet and shy. She shows a lot of promise, but most of her family disowned her for enrolling at the Alchemary, and her cohort hasn’t been very…welcoming.”
“How awful.”
“Yes. That’s her.” I nodded at Varrah and Erikka, who sat on a blanket on the edge of quadrangle, watching the festival but largely removed from it. “The woman with her is her cousin, the only family member she still has contact with. They’re from Reachan. She mentioned to me that she loves those little fried dough balls my father came home raving about when I was a child. Do you remember?”
“Do I remember?” He huffed. “I tried to replicate them for—” Martyn suddenly stood. “I have an idea. Would you mind distracting your friend, while I borrow her cousin?”
