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So she waited, and her traitorous heart hoped Jael would give her a reason to stay, a way to mend all that had gone wrong and a reason to forsake the life she was bound to live.
The life she no longer wanted.
Perhaps it would be easier to live that life if she had a memory, a whisper of something better to look back on.
Jael waited too, but she didn’t know what for. Was he expecting her to say something else? And when his head dipped ever closer, as if he might whisper something into her ear, and her ear alone, was he hoping she might encourage him in some way?
The seconds trickled by like grains of sand through an hourglass, inevitably dragging her closer to the moment when she realized he was not going to answer her at all. Her heart sank, buried beneath those tumbling grains of a missed opportunity, of a lost moment.
Fresh tears prickled in her eyes, but she blinked them away and lifted her chin with determination. It didn’t matter.
It wasn’t like she could have stayed no matter what he said. Her fate had been decided. If she didn’t go with Talos now, who knew what trouble he would cause—for Jael, for her, for her people.
Even for Dagmar.
If Anrid didn’t do what she was supposed to, then Dagmar could find herself in Anrid’s shoes, torn from her life and forced to marry a despicable husband.
Despicable.
The thought reverberated in her head as Anrid tried to wrap her thoughts around the fact her future husband was worse than she’d ever imagined.
Instead, she brushed past Jael without a word and fled for the doorway. Footsteps trailed after her. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed the tears away before casting an angry look over her shoulder to tell him to leave her alone.
But the goblin trailing fast on her heels wasn’t the one with the dark hair and haunted gaze, rather his fair brother with the sardonic smiles. Right now, however, Kora appeared rather grim and quite unlike himself.
“Please, leave me alone,” she said as she turned forward once again and continued her flight. “I don’t want to be teased right now.”
“I’m not going to tease you.” He sounded sincere. “Although, alas, it shall be a temptation most difficult to resist.”
She rolled her eyes and pursed her lips into a tight frown. If he were her own brother, she’d probably smack him just then. “Then why are you following me? Don’t you have anything more important to do?”
He came alongside her and matched her pace with careless ease. “Not particularly, no. And I’m following you because I want to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”
“You’re a fine one to talk.” She muttered the words out the side of her mouth as they hurried around a bend in the tunnel that led to the main stairway.
“What is that supposed to mean?” His voice lost a bit of its lightness.
She wished she hadn’t said anything and didn’t answer him. Picking on him to vent her frustrations about everything else that was wrong in the world wouldn’t make either of them feel any better.
Anrid took the stairs two at a time, out of breath by the time she reached the first landing and with a stitch in her side when she arrived at the upper hallway that led to the dormitory stairwell. She pressed a hand against her ribs as she climbed the last flight of stairs. She wheezed as she stormed into her bedroom, but Kora seemed unaffected as he boldly followed her inside. She shot him an annoyed look, but he grinned at her and leaned against the doorway with his typical casual ease. He crooked one ankle over the other and looked annoyingly good and aware of it.
She put her back to him and began to collect her few belongings. She didn’t have much other than a few painted rocks the children had given her. She would need to pack blankets and things for Medda, however, as well as food. She didn’t know what the elves would provide or if they’d have anything appropriate for a child. Better to be prepared. Laden with several blankets and her prized stash of rocks, Anrid swept past Kora and headed for the bathroom to look for bandages in the closet.
This time, Kora waited outside for her—thank goodness for that, since she needed to relieve herself anyway.
When she emerged, he matched her pace as they descended the stairs they’d trotted up just moments earlier.
“He’s doing the best he can, you know.” Kora’s words cut the silence between them. “It isn’t much, granted, but he doesn’t know a thing about women.”
At her sharp look, he shrugged. “It’s the truth. I’m not being mean. We all have our strengths, and the art of feminine interaction is not his.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m not mad at him.” No, she was mad at herself for getting into this situation in the first place. “It would just make things easier if he was more forthcoming.”
He snorted, nostrils flaring. “You’re not wrong there. I can’t speak to his reasons, but I can tell you there’s a lot he hasn’t told you. About that little soul-binding fiasco you two got yourselves tangled up in.”
Anrid missed the last step on the stairs, and he caught her elbow to steady her. “You know about that?”
He raked her with a condescending look. “I know about everything, dear girl. Which is more than you can say.”
