I’d what? Like the company?
Appreciate the distraction?
Enjoy lying to her face for another week?
What would Ilyana say right here that would ease Tahlia’s worry, instead of feeding it?
“I’d like that,” I managed.
Her smile lit the room. “Thank you. Oh, I brought you some things.” Turning to her parcels, she unwrappedclothes, cosmetics, and books. “I wasn’t sure what you’d need, but I thought?—”
A throat cleared behind us. Tahlia froze midsentence.
I glanced back. Zane leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, darkness eddying around his legs. Beside him, Finn stood with Nibs perched on his shoulder. The mouse sniffed curiously at the steam rising from a teapot.
Finn lifted the tray in a flourish that made the porcelain rattle. The tea service chimed softly as he steadied it. When I looked his way, he gave me a small, crooked wink.
Tahlia blinked. Once. Twice.
“Oh,” she breathed. “You didn’t tell me your Devotion is…hot.”
Finn offered a tiny, smug nod, the kind that said Tahlia had merely spoken the truth aloud. Zane gave a sideways smile, all sharp lines and quiet danger.
Heat crawled up my neck. “Tahlia, this is Zane and Finn. My Devotion.”
Finn’s expression softened, easygoing and welcoming. Zane extended an acknowledging tilt of his chin.
Tahlia’s eyes widened in delighted disbelief. “They’ve been here the whole time? You’ve been hiding them from me.”
“I have not?—”
A voice erupted from the next room. “Oh, flower! Don’t I get to meet her too?”
Tahlia jumped. “Who was that?”
I closed my eyes.Not now.
Another shout followed. “I brushed my teeth for this!”
“You did not,” I called back.
“Well, I could’ve if you’d told me she was coming.”
Sighing, I stood and stepped aside so she could see into the adjoining room.
Noir beamed at her with manic delight. “Introduce us! I promise not to stab anyone unless it’s funny.”
Tahlia turned a wide-eyed look my way. “My sister has been living withthat?”
“We’re courting,” Noir said with a dreamy sigh.
A blur of black and white fur shot across the floor. Boris barreled after a panicked rat, claws skittering on the floor as the rodent darted under a chair.
A black cat launched itself from the windowsill in pursuit. A burst of frantic thought slammed into my mind.
“Mine mine mine mine. My snack!”
The cat’s paws thudded against the floor as it dove after the rat.
