He’s angry with me.
Guilt pools in my belly and weighs me down, threatening to derail all my good intentions ...
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, but he makes this acute hissing sound that slays my heart. “Shay, you don’t understand. I have to g—”
He flattens against my Safety Line, sending me tumbling back onto my ass.
“NO!”
The word shatters out of him like it was forced through a throat that wasn’t built to shape words.
My mouth pops open in silent shock as I look up at my friend, heart in my throat, eyes wider than they’ve ever felt before.
That sable gaze softens, a squeaking sound leaks out, and then he wilts ... folding into himself until he’s no longer hanging over me. His face vanishes behind that smoky veil, and I taste his shame in the air between us.
“Shay, it’s okay,” I say, lifting off the ground in increments. “I understa—”
He shrieks, darting through the trees.
I spin to see Baze charging across the vast grounds with storms in his eyes, and I panic, flinging the mouse in Shay’s general direction before sweeping my acorns into the empty jar and kicking the evidence of my shucking beneath a pile of leaves. I shoulder my bag and stand, muttering a long line of profanities as I stalk into the open with my stare stuck to the ground.
I know I can’t avoid him, but perhaps he’ll take note of my body language and let me pass without luring me into a conversation I don’t want to have.
“We need to talk, Orlaith.”
This day can go to hell.
“I have no interest,” I mutter, barging toward the castle.
“I rescued Tweddle Dick and Tweddle Dumb from your ...Tangle.”
My feet stop of their own accord, mimicking the motion of my heart. I spin, hands bunched into balls as I strike him with a venomous stare. “And?”
His eyes widen, a muscle in his jaw pops, and it’s hard to ignore the shock of his tired, disheveled appearance—like he’s wearing all my internal bitter on his outside.
His shirt is crumpled, hair a mess, pants stained ...
“You’re spiraling.”
“I’mfine.”
Arms crossed, he pins me with a scrutiny that digs all the way to the bone. “You’ve never been very good at lying, you know.”
“Unlike you.”
My words are arrows, and I can tell they find their mark by the way his attention spears to the rumbling sky.
He sighs, studying the turbulent clouds, and I can sense Shay watching from a puddle of shadow between two gnarled trees.
“Hovard just left a gift in your tower,” Baze drudges out, turning wary eyes on me again. “Something Cainon instructed him to make in your size.”
I frown. “Well ... what is it?”
“A gown,” he says, brow arching. “Fashioned from cobweb silk that’s stainedBahari blue.”
All the fight drains out of me as my shoulders drop ...
Shit.
