“Didn’t peg you for the type.” She waved her hand dismissively. “It’ll all be fine. I’ll figure it out.” She glanced around. “Alright, I’m gonna head back to the hotel.”
“Head back? How?”
“I’m a big girl,” she assured him. “I’ll find a way. Bye and see you never.”
Maldenis watched her walk away, not really sure what to say or think.
This has been one strange evening.
And he still hadn’t even begun to process the revelation from earlier in the evening. About his father…
He pushed that thought aside, and focused his gaze on Liora’s retreating figure. It was too bad things didn’t progress any further between them. He had been looking forward to exploring all the ways he and Liora were different and the same.
But now, as he watched her get smaller and smaller in the distance, there was a feeling in his gut, one that wouldn’t go away.
Just forget about it. Forget about her.
And she was right. There was nothing to worry about.
As it turned out, there was plenty to be worried about.
“Maldenis, do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Maldenis was in the middle of stocking the shelves behind the bar when the familiar voice of his mother rang across the room, the tone echoing in the nearly empty, cavernous space. It was, after all, only one o’clock in the afternoon. They were still closed and no one was around, not even his cousins.
The voice made him pause for a moment, as memories flooded his brain. Memories of fury and disappointment.
You’re not that youth anymore, he reminded himself. Unfreezing himself, he turned around. “Hello, Mother,” he greeted. “Nice to see you back. How was the mission? Went well, I presume?”
By the way, when were you going to tell me my father was Zeus?he wanted to add, but there was no time as Melora sailed across the room, the bar the only thing stopping her momentum.
“How could you act so casually when you’ve once again caused a disaster?” Golden eyes so much like his own blazed with anger. “I cannot believe you would do this.”
“Excuse me?” He gripped the edge of the bar. “What are you talking about? I haven’t done anything.”
“Oh really?” Melora brushed away a single lock of red hair that had loosened from her perfect coiffure. “You have no idea what’s going on?”
“Really,” he said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Her eyes narrowed into slits. “You know nothing about a certain sacred spring?”
Maldenis felt all the blood drain from his face. “Um, well–”
“And you know nothing about the sacred matrimonial ritual? And the fact that you are apparently married?”
Fuck.“Oh, that sacred spring.” He slapped a hand over his forehead. “I thought you meant something else.”
“Maldenis…” she said with a warning tone, one that all mothers used when they grew impatient with their children’s antics.
“How did you know anyway?” He kept his mouth shut, and he doubted Liora mentioned it to anyone.
“I was summoned by the elders and the Council of the Wise. They said you allowed your wife to leave Solkaris without being presented to society. Which not only is a signal that you have broken your vow, but that you do not take the ancient laws seriously. You were acting recklessly, and some of them said you might have done it on purpose.”
“I didn’t?—”
“It doesn’t matter. Now the news has spread and because of this, our family has been shunned.”
“Shunned?” He crossed his arms over his head. “First time I’m hearing this. No one’s shunning me.”
