“Raef,” Daegan says, rubbing a hand on his jaw.
“What?” Raef replies. He knows exactly what. I may still loathe Daegan a little, but I’m enjoying watching the dynamic between them unfold. Raef pushes Daegan on purpose, and I have to say, I think he needs it.
He simply side-eyes him and shakes his head, just barely.
“Neither have I,” I announce, winking back at Raef. I don’t know why I said that out loud. For some odd reason I’m starting to feel giddy, rather than sad. I should probably get some food into my belly.
Daegan’s gaze flicks to mine, and that heavy-lidded intense stare is back. He doesn’t find it funny, apparently. I’m sure he’s far more experienced than me, in every sense of the word.
All of it suddenly makes me feel self-conscious. He must see me as an innocent little flower that needs protection. I can’t fight, I’ve never seen most of the world, and I’d bet he can somehow tell that I’ve also never had a male in my bed. Or a female.
For some reason, though, he’s willing to trust me and even work with me as allies. I’m not sure why. Maybe they think I know even more than I lead on.
Daegan clears his throat and looks away, and an awkward silence settles over the table.
At last, the innkeeper returns with our steaming, delicious smelling food, and we all perk up again.
There’s hardly any chatter as we scarf it down, and the lightheadedness I was starting to feel from the ale is subsiding.
He returns to clear our plates, and we wait for our dessert with excitement. Raef and I do, anyway.
“Just wait. I came here with my father when I was younger, I still remember that delicious taste on my tongue,” I tell Raef.
He smirks.
Daegan glances at me as he leans back in his chair, saying nothing, of course.
“Do you ever smile?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says simply. With a straight face.
“He does,” Raef says, nodding. “I mean, you won’t find him strutting around Torrynth with a grin on his face for no reason as he takes a leisurely jaunt around the town square, but… he does.”
I laugh as the scene unfolds in my mind, then I take a sip of my second serving of ale that Raef talked us into during our meal. I was in a state of such bliss to finally have hot food in my stomach that I couldn’t refuse.
I glance between the two of them. My new allies. The ones I need to trust, and who I’m realizing I want to trust me. “No one else has ever even tried. In over a thousand years. Not that I’ve ever heard of, anyway.”
Daegan, realizing I’m about to say something important, leans in.
“What are we talking about?” Raef asks, sipping on his third drink.
“The witch…” Daegan starts.
“Besides the mystery person who killed the witch, yes. No one has tried this way, that I know of.”
“Many people have forgotten, you know.”
I stare at Daegan. “What?”
“It’s been a thousand years. To some, this is just the way the world is. Not everyone has access to the biggest library on the continent. In some regions, the knowledge of the world before the curse has been lost to time. Or it’s a bedtime tale parents tell their children, not realizing how true it is.”
“I…” I’m dumbfounded. “I had no idea…”
“Yeah…” he looks away, mindlessly watching the room.
“Okay, what happened with the witch?” Raef asks.
Daegan clears his throat, taking the lead on this one. “The witch Ethmarel. The one who cast the curse all those years ago. After they won the battle at Torrynth, thanks, in large part, to the water elemental elves.” His gaze flicks to mine for a moment before he continues. “The elf king Oshenor convinced her to cast the curse. How? I don’t know. It’s said that she was desperately in love with him, and he manipulated her into serving him.” He shakes his head. “He kept her close at his side for hundreds of years after that, until she outlived him. Not long after that, a random, nameless Dothronite killed her. It’s thought that they believed it would break the curse, but alas, it remained.”
