With Rorik’s departure signaling the end of a dinner that never even began, Lydia, Clesian, Amalyss, and Tasia followed suit. Seville stalled long enough to force down some fruit before coming to Mavis’s side and gently escorting her from the room. Which left me alone with Orin.
He didn’t touch his food. “I didn’t anticipate that to be so...”
“Hostile?” I offered. I nibbled at a piece of bread, suddenly too aware of the way the crumbs clung to my lips.
“Hostile is sort of our default setting.” His shoulders sagged as the last of the tension stiffening his frame dissipated. “Still, it’s hardly acceptable.”
I set aside the bread and reached for my spoon, dipping it in my soup to twirl the broth. Orin watched without speaking, but his eyes said more than enough. Frustrated. Defeated. It must’ve been difficult to keep his family together with the prospect of Mavis’s death, by a disease that shouldn’t have affected her at all. Blight was an affliction they were wholly unprepared for. The need to comfort him swelled in my chest until I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer.
“One time, when we were young, Noam got into an argument with a neighborhood kid over some bunnies.” A small smile tugged at my lips as the scene replayed in my mind. “There was a burrow with a mom and a few babies, and this kid wanted to flush them out so he could trap them.” I let the spoon fall against the side of the bowl as I stared at the swirling broth.
“Noam wouldn’t stand for it. He told the kid to go trap something else, to leave the family alone. And this kid just started hitting him.” I sighed as I propped my chin in my hand and glancedover at Orin. “Noam never fought back. He just sat there and took it.”
Orin had gone completely still, his eyes locked on me. “What happened?”
“I happened.” I chuckled. “Usually Nohr was the one who always stepped in, but he’d gone off to help Dad with something, and I saw the whole thing through our kitchen window. I tried to break them up. Or maybe I didn’t try as hard as I should have; I just remember being so angry. I saw Noam’s bloody face, and I couldn’t think of anything else.
“I managed to pull the kid off Noam, but instead of letting that be the end of it, I went after him. I wailed on him like he wailed on my brother, until my knuckles were red and aching. That’s when Nohr and Dad rounded the corner and saw us and put a stop to it all.”
“You beat him?” Orin’s brows raised in shock.
“Me.” I leaned back in my chair, a sad smile teasing my lips. “I wasn’t exactly sorry, either. He’d hurt Noam, and that was enough for me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I get it. Hostility, that is. It’s hard not to feel that way when family is involved.”
“And the boy?” Orin was looking at me with an emotion I couldn’t place. It was both terrifying and exhilarating, and my pulse quickened in time with my breath. Ywena jolted me in response, and I adjusted in my seat as I regained control of my emotions.
“He was fine,” I said, a creeping bitterness coloring my words. “Even so, my mother was less than pleased. And it wasn’t like I could use my threadmending abilities without being discovered, so I couldn’t fix his injuries. Not that I would have, and she certainly wouldn’t have asked that of me. But she had me make a salve with her and tortured me by cooking my favorite meal—rotisserie duck with the most amazing orange marmalade—and not letting me have a single bite. Instead, I had to deliver the medicine and food to the boy and his family.”
Orin laughed, a deep rolling sound that reverberated through my bones and straight to my heart. “Was the crime worth the punishment?”
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant defending my brother.” I shrugged and pushed away from my meal. “Plenty of ducks in the world, only one Noam.”
The corners of Orin’s eyes crinkled with his smile. “They’re lucky to have you.”
“I know,” I said quietly. “I just hope by the time we make it out of this mess, I’ll still have a few years left to spend with them.”
“You will.” Reaching over, he grasped my hand. “I’ve never met someone as determined as you.”
Orin’s gaze hammered into my soul, and I found myself leaning toward him. Seeking comfort from his touch. He’d disrupted everything from the moment I met him.
He swallowed thickly. “I hope you understand me orchestrating the fete is not due to a lack of belief in your abilities.”
“No, I understand the need to exhaust all avenues.” I gave his fingers a reassuring squeeze. “Though I am curious: Is this the first time other Ever families have attended the silver fete? I know it’sthesocial event for the townsfolk. I don’t really know much about it other than that.”
“There used to be more Evers, but we’ve lost touch with some over the years.”
My mind wound back to the bloodlines detailed inFable or Fact: A History of Evers. There were so many families detailed across those pages, it wasn’t hard to believe that they couldn’t keep up with them all.
“What happened with the Starglens?” I asked.
At that, Orin grimaced. “That is an age-old feud I’d rather not drag you into. All that aside, I do have a request to make.” His expression softened, and he smiled as he ran his thumb along my knuckles. “The tailor. Seville will take you tomorrow and havethem make you a few dresses fit for a queen. You can pick any style, of course, but . . .” He seemed sheepish. Boyish. It was impossible to look away. “For the first night, maybe something green?”
I grinned. “Are you asking me to dress to match you?”
“It’s a thought.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” It didn’t matter that green wasn’t my favorite color, or that I’d never attended a fete before and would likely make a fool out of myself. Orin had woken something in me that was warmer than hope and just as terrifying. He made me want to think beyond the immediate future, to ponder the possibility of a life—no matter how short—with someone else. Someone like him.
It was a tantalizing thought, so I clung to it as I walked to my room after wishing him good night. The soft, warm feeling was almost enough to stave off the tingling sensation of watching eyes that always seemed to occur when I hit the top of the stairs.
