I smiled despite myself. So, he wasn’t ready to tell me, but he wanted to talk. “I carved bones and antlers into weapons or jewelry. I guess you could say it was both a job and a hobby. I enjoy it. Sometimes I would hunt with my father to get the animal. It would feed us, and we’d use its furs and bones. Nothing is wasted where I’m from.”
“Ah, so that’s why your father called you Aesira the Bonecarver.”
“Yeah. Would you like to see something I made?”
“I would.”
I sat up and pulled open the drawer next to my bed and took out the dragon earrings. I tugged back the curtain and sat on the end of his bed, curling one leg beneath me. The twin earrings waited in my open palm. He smiled and took one of them, running his fingertips over the smooth surface.
“I remember you wearing these. They’re very good. How long have you been doing this?”
“Since I was seven. My father started me with wood. It’s easier to carve. My first carving was a pony. I still have it on my shelf at home.”
“My sisters would like these. Penny would say they’re exotic. Oriana would’ve paid well for them.”
“How many sisters do you have?”
“Two.”
“I have one.” I grinned. “Kayda. She would hardly believe what I did tonight, hiding in the tree and killing that vampire, I mean.” I slowly frowned at the memory of Kayda shoving me into the stairwell wall. That was the last time I’d seen her.
My eyes snapped to him as it dawned on me that he’d spoken about one of his sisters in the past tense. Had something happened to her? Maybe I heard him wrong. “Does your family visit you here? Will I meet them?”
He shook his head with the corners of his mouth pulled down. He’d mentioned his parents blaming him for something.
“What did you do before this?”
“Not much. Just a spoiled kid from inside the wall,” he drawled and winked.
“There is more to you than that.”
He set the bone earring back in my palm. “Whatever would make you think that?”
“For one, Celine and Taewyn said you used to fight in an underground fighting circle at the academy.”
He smirked and leaned back onto his pillow, staring up at the ceiling. “That feels like a lifetime ago now.”
“So it’s true?”
“What do you think?”
“Did you win often?”
“Often?” He smiled. “Always. Except once, but that’s a story for another time. Your new name should be Bonecarver. You could even cut the bones out of a vampire and make a necklace. Or pull their canines.”
I scrunched my nose. “Wouldn’t they need to be alive to do that? That’s gruesome.”
“It is. I imagine you would earn quite the reputation by doing that.”
“I get squeamish even when butchering an animal.”
He let out a soft chuckle. “A bonecarver who is squeamish getting the bones she must carve?”
I lightly shoved his leg. “Don’t laugh at me. My father or brother usually did that part. I cleaned them at least.”
“So, Bonecarver. Do you like it?”
“It’s perfect actually.”
