Xander strolled over to us, looking just as bored as I felt. “Keep this close to your chest, but we’re going to have a proper gathering after this back at the house. One where we like the people around us and the liquor is stronger.”
I slapped him on the back, a renewed excitement growing. “I like the sound of that. When can we leave?”
Jalisa sucked her teeth, eyeing him disapprovingly. “Why are we only now getting an invitation? We are the fun ones.”
This was news to me. I always enjoyed time with my Sunshine, but I would have never categorized her as the life of any festivities. I side-eyed her, and she caught my glance. She then rolled her eyes. “Fine, Ivan is the fun one. I’m fun adjacent.”
I nodded in agreement with both her points. “She’s right. Why’d we get the left-over invitation?”
Xander snorted. “It was just decided thirty minutes ago. Our housekeeper is getting things set as we speak. We’re leaving in an hour.”
“Good, that’s when we’ll leave.”
Jalisa sighed. “We can’t leave until we meet with the king and queen. It’ll be rude not to greet them. But they’ve been surrounded by other fae all night.”
“Well let’s elbow through them and give our hellos and go.”
“That would also be rude.”
“You nobles and your rules.”
Xander ran a hand through his black hair, looking around the grand space with pensive eyes. “By the way, friend, you need to apologize to Yosef after what you said to him the other day. He can be uptight, but heisour captain.”
I looked at him blankly. I had not one recollection of what he was talking about. I thought I was only losing my memory of events with people that were important to me, namely Jalisa. Was Yosef more important to me than I realized? “When did I say thisthingthat I should apologize for?”
Xander lowered his drink from his lips, eyeing me suspiciously. “You forgot that quickly? It was yesterday.”
“No, no, no. I remember. I just say so many wrong things it’s hard to keep track.”
Aaron walked over with Melina by his side. “Keep track of what?”
“The inappropriate things I say.”
He chuckled. “Now that’s the truth.”
Xander pointed at himself. “I’m the king of inappropriate, but I have limits.”
I narrowed my eyes at him in disbelief. “Do you really?”
He winked at me. “Not really, but the point is, you have to respect rank. Luckily, Yosef is a bit tipsy right now, so you can make amends at the gathering.”
Make amends for what, though? How could I forget something that happened only yesterday? What kind of ward caused this kind of memory loss? I refused to believe that, even subconsciously, I liked Yosef that much. There was no pattern to it. I could forget things that happened just a moment ago as well as things that occurred years ago. It was maddening. If the military knew of my issue, would they release me? I couldn’t be that kind of drain on Jalisa.
Aaron elbowed me in the side. “Don’t worry about it, mate. Just tell him the thing you said was wrong.”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, the thing. I will tell him thatthingwas wrong. Not a problem.”
Melina peered at me with judging eyes as she tapped her chin. “You have no idea what that thing is, do you?”
I looked at the group of eyes on me and then dropped my shoulders. There was no use lying to them. “Not a clue.”
Melina’s eyes turned sympathetic, which wasn’t what I wanted. “What are the doctors saying? That ward attack did more damage than we thought, didn’t it?”
“Yes, and I don’t know what to do. The doctors are baffled.” I looked to Jalisa who eyed me carefully, not wanting to betray any emotion of her own to worry me, then back to the others. “We think maybe going to another court for help might be our only option. Maybe even the human realm.”
Xander placed his empty drink on the tray of a passing server before speaking. “I’d start with the human realm. The witches could be helpful. Lila is part of a coven so she might know someone who could help. You’d need permission though, and the court isn’t too keen on giving Nodoorians access.”
“Think you could put in a good word for me to the king and queen?”
