“That must have gone as well as I expected.”
They were just chatting about it—without me. “Why was it offered to me?”
“Because our people don’t believe in making choices for women. I mean, most of us don’t. Some very much still do.”
“You all think I can’t handle myself.”
“Quite the contrary. Do you think I’d hand a blade to someone who can’t handle herself?” He had this aggravating way of wording things. “One minute you’re convincing me to weave flowers for your nephew’s nursery and the next… you’re trying to take me on with the blade like you’re twice your size.”
I couldn’t handle it. “Don’t go soft on me, Fyn.”
A cough escaped him as his eyes widened. “I fear I’ll be much too bored when you leave.”
“You will survive it.”
“If this is what you choose, your sister will come to peace with it,” he said. “I’m going to have someone fix this door. So if you change your mind, entirely on your own, you won’t have to bruise yourself to open it.” He turned away from me, calling back before he stepped around the corner. “I can’tmake the baby stop crying though. He does that an awful lot.”
I was relieved he didn’t look back at me.
The plans were quickly made.
I waited for my feelings to waver, but they didn’t.
Billowing fabric spilled at my neckline. My sister’s old riding tunic swallowed me in places it shouldn’t and stretched too thin in others.
An amber leather bodice hid the way it wasn’t made to fit me. I never knew how much I hated shades of green on me until it was almost all I had to wear.
It made my blonde hair even more lifeless.
I never mentioned my thoughts about what I didn’t have here. It always seemed so trivial.
The gown I wore when the war broke out was torn when we fled the human realm. I never asked for it to be repaired. It was too painful of a reminder of the life I left behind.
I grabbed my sword before I yanked the door shut one last time.
It popped open.
Hopefully, someday someone would actually fix it.
Vines trailed through the castle halls. My sister brought each one to life with the magic that ran through her veins. I admired them, skimming my fingers over the slender leaves as I stepped further down the hall.
The baby’s cries echoed down the corridor, breaking my trance.
Aelira’s uneasy laughter rose above it.
I would miss them both. Terribly.
But my decision was practical.
Humanity.
Security.
A bedroom with steady light and a door that latched.
There was no promise of those things here.
It wasn’t time to let my emotions get the best of me. I rarely let them win. But if I did, I knew I may never have another chance to return to the human realm.
