The woman gave her the sharpest look she could muster.
Briar raised her arms and dropped them at her sides, sighing.
“Are you trying to say that this heart is more important than Seraphina being able to speak again? Eat and drink properly?”
Sister Margaret nodded, then shook her head.
Idris reached into his satchel and pulled out a pen and paper.
The woman looked at them, pursed her lips, but eventually accepted and wrote something quickly.
DO NOT GIVE THE HEART TO MOTHER SUPERIOR
Briar rolled her eyes.
“What are we supposed to do, then? Break into her quarters and steal Seraphina’s tongue?”
I’LL DO IT
Briar lifted an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Idris, who shrugged.
“That works, I guess,” she said. “If I’m not needed here anymore, I’ll go check on them.”
Her mother grabbed her arm to stop her, once again shaking her head. This time, there was regret in her eyes, as if she knew that the silent advice she was giving Briar would hurt her.
“I think she’s right,” Idris said softly. “Seraphina talked a lot about Rune. She never said anything… explicit, but–”
“She left him!”
“She punished herself every waking hour for it. She cares about him. I don’t know if her feelings are reciprocated, but maybe it would be sensible to give them some space.”
Briar rolled her lips, barely holding back. Everything she’d been through, everything she’d done to bring him here, toconvince him to stop punishing himself for things that weren’t his fault. Now she was asked to step aside. Remove herself because the man had never been hers to care for, get close to, touch, kiss…
He didn’t want her. Had he wanted her, he would’ve pulled her in, not said,“You lost your balance.”
Earlier, she’d seen how he’d run to her, found her by following her voice, reached for her and pressed her to his chest, as if she belonged in his arms. He’d never reached like that for Briar, and they’d spent days together, in such proximity that they knew the smell of each other’s skin.
The floating feeling in her stomach turned heavy. It made her shoulders drop and her feet drag as she walked to a chair and sat, elbows on her knees and head in her hands. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do now. She’d done all she could, all she’d known, yet somehow, she felt like she’d failed.
Chapter Twenty-One
Her hands knew him; her eyes were now learning him.
Seraphina touched his face, ran her fingers over the scarf covering his empty eye sockets. When he tried to shy away from her, she sank her fingers into his hair and pulled him closer, her lips inches from his.
“Can you see me?” Rune asked, and she inhaled his breath greedily.
His hands traced up her cheeks, the tips of his fingers pressed lightly into her undereyes, brushed over her eyelids. She closed her eyes and made a sound deep in her chest, something between a moan and a sigh. She nodded hard enough to be sure that he understood.
“I’m sorry–” he started.
She shook her head.
“You see now how deformed I am. How ugly.”
She shook her head harder and opened her mouth to say “no”, but only an “o” came out. The only letters she could pronounce were the vowels and the lip consonants.
“I should turn away,” he said. “Why can’t I?” His hands cupped her face, his thumbs grazing her lips. “I shouldn’t touch you.”
