Page 61 of Sky’s Edge

She came to sit in the window seat at my feet.

“Are you all right?” she asked gently.

This was Tanyn’s other mother, assuredly. Or at least a favorite auntie. I could not lay all that was messing with my head on her.

Therefore, I lied, “I’m fine.”

“Catla, dear, Tanyn tells Manny everything.”

He did?

“I might be breaking confidences, but looking into your eyes, I believe that’s necessary,” she continued.

So I wasn’t hiding my feelings.

Terrific.

“Tan told Manny what he did, arranging this marriage with your father,” she carried on.

I pressed my lips tightly together so I wouldn’t say anything.

“I really have no idea why he didn’t simply court you, except to say, from when he was a wee lad, he was decisive. He knew what he liked and didn’t. What he wanted and what he could do without. There was never any vacillation from that boy.” She smiled a wistful smile. “You should have heard him when you asked what he wanted for his birthday, Summer Solstice or Dead Winter. He knew exactly what it was, piped right up and never changed his mind.”

Although I found this intriguing, for obvious reasons, I didn’t find it surprising.

She patted my knee and said, “I can imagine this is a great deal for you to wrap your head around.”

I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “To give up everything I know and love to be queen of a foreign land that is not my own, yes. You could say that.”

She smiled at me sympathetically and said, “I can’t help you with that. I also can’t advise on it, because Manny courted me. We knew when we wed that we wanted the same things, that we fit into each other’s lives perfectly. And we had time to figure that out. What I can say is, both me and Manny, and okay,”—another smile—“mostly it was me who fretted about Tanyn going to the pens. I know he intends to go to his mother’s grave, and we’ll go with him. That isn’t the same. She just rests there. She didn’t die there. You two glided right by where her body was found, and he knows where that was because he ordered Manny to take him there.”

Now I was pressing my lips together for a different reason.

“I don’t know how you managed to get him through that, to break that seal and have him come home more himself than I’ve seen him since we lost her. But whatever you did, I thank you for doing it.”

The fact I accomplished this (however I accomplished it) made me even more confused, because I felt such pride about it. I wasn’t sure I was prouder of anything I’d done in my entire life.

“I like him,” I divulged.

“Well, that’s good,” she said slowly.

“I don’t want to like him.”

“I can imagine giving up everything you know for a male you don’t really know would be daunting.”

“Daunting doesn’t quite cover it,” I mumbled.

“He will give you whatever you want,” she announced with such surety, I felt my eyes round. “Except let you go.”

My eyes narrowed.

“I’m sorry, luv,” she said gently. “But I’ve known that boy since he was unsteady on his feet and still in nappies. I know he’s gone for you, and because he is, he will never let you go.”

My chest began to feel tight.

“But he will give you time,” she went on.

I blinked as her words made a thought occur to me.