“Of course,” Tasia said as she looped her arm through mine. She started walking without waiting for me to comply, and Amalyss was quick to take up my other arm. I cast one last glance over my shoulder at Orin and the Waterstones. He nodded to Ossanna before placing his hand between Issa’s shoulders, speaking into her ear. Her laugh carried toward us on the soft breeze, and a prickling discomfort skittered down my back.
“Don’t worry about the Waterstones,” Amalyss said under her breath, her eyes cast to the ground. “Orin won’t let them near you.”
I’d thought the same about the Starglens, but clearly no one had anticipated that.
“Things between the families are...” Tasia struggled for a moment, opening her mouth to summon words but somehow struggling to get them out. She wrinkled her nose in frustration before blowing out a hard breath. “Let’s just say they’re always tense.”
We willnotdrag the past into this.The memory of Orin’s warning—and the heated display of power that came with it—surfaced in my mind. Maybe the girls were too scared to reveal anything about their feud with the Starglens.
“Because of Lorelai?” I asked. In the wake of the Starglens’ attack, I’d been too overwhelmed by the truth of blight’s reach to ask about anything else. Dagas’s daughter had been the furthest thing from my mind, and only now with the tension so obviously rekindling did I remember her name.
Amalyss stumbled as we strolled down the hill, but she recovered quickly. “How do you know about her?”
“I overheard some attendants talking about her.” I glanced between them. “What happened? Is she why the Starglens were so mad at Orin?”
Tasia and Amalyss shared a weighted glance before the former slowly exhaled. “She was Orin’s heartbond decades ago.”
“She died,” Amalyss said a breath later. “Orin said it was blight.”
“Oh.” I looked over my shoulder, but Orin and the Waterstones were nowhere to be found. “Why were they so mad at him, then? It’s not like anyone has been able to find a cure.”
“True, but Dagas never got over it. Especially since she deteriorated after moving here.” Amalyss scratched the side of her neck, and I imagined blight-ridden pustules bursting with the action. Thank the gods for glamour. She never met my gaze, only studied her fingernails for a moment before letting her hand fall lax by her side.
Deteriorated?From what I’d gleaned, Evers’ blight seemed like a slow, painful progression. Plus, with their glamour acting as a bandage to contain the spread, they managed to last years, whereas humans died within minutes. My mind whirred.
“Orin has... a lot of magic.” Tasia’s words felt strangled, and she frowned at nothing in particular as she cleared her throat. “He’s powerful.”
“I’d gathered as much,” I said with a hum as I recalled the cocoon of magic blanketing my brothers and preserving their very lives. Still, it wasn’t enough to cure them. Not yet. I chewed on my lip as I looked between the girls. Tomorrow, I would try blending our remedies. But if that didn’t work . . .
Speak it into existence and it just might happen.
Seville’s words were either an omen or a blessing. Either way, they felt like my undoing. But before I could consider it further, we’d found our way to Rorik and the ancestor tree. With Ywena perched on his shoulder, he nodded to Amalyss and Tasia by way of dismissal before rounding on me. They both gave my arm a squeeze and left without another word. I watched them go as I sifted through the morning’s events.
Rorik cleared his throat. “Ywena.” He held out his hand, and Ywena fluttered to his open palm and danced about his fingers. “Please go back to Edira.”
As I stared at the creature waiting to rejoin me, the fete came flooding back to the forefront of my mind. My dance with Rorik and the way he’d asked me to lie. The feel of his hand on the small of my back, and the unfamiliar twinge of irritation at the sight of it on someone else’s waist. That same hand drenched in Dagas’s blood hours later.
You’re beautiful.
His exclamation was a safe truth that meant nothing and everything. He’d used me that night for his own amusement, like a pawn in a game I didn’t understand. I was tired of being his toy. I was here to train. Nothing more.
Gently, I beckoned to Ywena and welcomed her delicate feet against my skin. She lingered on my fingers for a breath before returning to her preferred perch in the crook of my neck. I brushed aside my locks to give her space, and I swore I heard her sigh.
“Welcome back,” I muttered to her.
“Don’t lose her again.” Rorik stared at her for a long moment before finally dragging his gaze to my face. “Understood?”
“I didn’t lose her.” A flicker of indignation sparked in my chest.
He slipped his hands in the pockets of his pants as he leaned against the base of the tree. “You started the night with her and ended it without her. I’d call that losing her.”
“Orin was responsible for that.” I glared at him.
His answering stare hammered into me with far more intensity than I expected. “I know.”
I threw up my hands in frustration as I blew out a sharp breath. “You’re impossible.”
“Not as impossible as you.”
