She nodded, not looking at him.
Ger sighed, and bent down to brush a brief kiss to her forehead.
“You can talk to me too, you know. When you’re ready. I’ll always be here, Ade, when you want me to be.”
And with that, without pushing her any further, he turned and strode away.
???
She was going to talk to her mother.
She was.
Shewould, even if she didn’t yet know what to say, how to explain that she’d put an end to her foolish romance with their Merrow ally. How to explainwhyit had ended without betraying Kai – because for all that her mother had changed in these last few months, she couldn’t see Selma forgiving his deceit, even if it had amounted to nothing in the end. Eisalaan waseverythingto her, and no threat against the Silver Kingdom could be tolerated.
With no plan in place, Adeline had sent a note to the Queen’s rooms that afternoon, asking for an audience.
Mother,
I’m sorry I haven’t come by in a few days – hope you haven’t gone hungry without my lunchtime visits.
Maybe I could deliver you some dessert this evening?
Adeline
She’d yet to receive a response, but at least it gave her time to think. Maybe too much time – too many thoughts.
She ate a quick supper standing at the kitchen counter, Marie watching her with her grey brows deeply furrowed, though she said not a word. And for that, Adeline was grateful. After washing up, she retreated to the library again, settling in her shadowed alcove and picking up the book she’d set down on the table the night before. She was eager to get lost in the story, to switch off her aching, worn out brain–she’d know what to say when the moment came.
Or she hoped she would.
But Adeline must have exhausted herself spinning circles in her mind, because she woke in the dark with her book in her lap and her lantern barely glowing, a faint orange ember. She was lost for a moment, barely aware of where she was or what had woken her - until the soft echo of footsteps in the main library turned down the corner of her row, and her stomach lurched. Was this the response she’d been waiting for?
She stood, hurrying forward to meet her mother’s valet in the shadow of the shelves. But it wasn’t the valet.
Kai stopped short just a few feet before her, his face so open and hopeful it set her stomach crumbling into an open, yawning pit.
“What are you doing here?”
She hadn’t quite meant to blurt it out like that, but the hopeful look reeled itself in, his face suddenly carefully blank.
“I just meant–I’m expecting a message,” she said.
“Oh.” Kai glanced back over his shoulder. “I haven’t seen anyone else, but I don’t know that you’ll receive it anytime soon. It’s just after two in the morning.”
A little shock jolted through her at that.Two in the morning. Goddess, she’d been asleep for hours; no wonder she felt like she was dreaming.
“I was waiting for you by your rooms. When you didn’t come back I thought you might be here.”
They looked at each other for a long moment, each waiting for a cue of some kind.
This silence was all wrong; Adeline wanted to reach for him. She wanted to turn away until his footsteps retreated and faded out beyond the book aisle. She did neither, but finally, gently this time though not with a note of weariness she asked; “Whatareyou doing here, Kai?”
“I’m leaving.”
Adeline sighed, too tired to hold her exasperation pent up in her chest.
“You don’t have toleave, I’m just saying you’ve come looking for me for a reason –”
