Page 66 of Escape from the Green

I wondered if the same could be said a year from now.

Of Amy.

Would she still look like she would often host high tea, had rubbed shoulders with royalty?

Or would she start to look more like Smoky, more rugged, more weather-beaten, her body a map of her own scars?

"She'll be fine," Sal told me, coming out of nowhere. Last I had seen him, he had rushed ahead to do a circle around us, making sure we weren't being followed.

He and Smoky took turns, Smoky going up to swing between the trees, getting a better vantage point.

Both of them created a protective circle around us, knowing what was at stake if we were captured.

And even if Smoky maybe had her own motivations, it felt nice to have people around you who had your back, who were looking out for your interest.

It had been so long since I knew what that was like.

"She's not used to the kind of life my kind lives," I admitted to him.

"The Winters live in a giant compound full of servants," he seemed to agree with me.

"Yeah."

"You saw her place in the city, Drake," he told me, shrugging when my gaze went to him. "If you spread your arms out, you could practically touch all the walls. She went from a giant estate to a little hole. She went from having everything handed to her to having to work for it. I think she is more adaptable than you are giving her credit for. She just wants a life on her own terms, with freedom to choose what she does, who she associates with. If that means she will have to put some labor in, I think she will be fine with that." He paused, letting that sink in. "I think she is more worried about the social aspect of it."

"How so?"

"My kind, your kind, we come from communities, from groups of people who think similarly, act similarly. Amethyst comes from a very solitary upbringing. The Winters, while feared and maybe begrudgingly respected, have never been popular members of any society, happy to keep to themselves, foster their secrets, plot their schemes. She spent time in the human realm, likely studying their ways, so she felt relatively comfortable going into that world, connecting with those people. She knows nothing of your people, doesn't know how to act with them, doesn't know if they will think less of her, look down on her."

He was right.

She was worried about being accepted, having connections, fitting in. About having to be alone again. Without a friend in the world.

I understood that.

Having been alone for so long, without anyone I could call a friend, I knew that desire for more. And I also knew I was guaranteed to find that when I went home.

Amy didn't have that guarantee.

And I couldn't even promise it to her.

I didn't know who would still be around.

I didn't know who she could build bonds with.

All I could promise her, I had.

She would have me.

No matter what happened, no matter how much she may struggle to find connections elsewhere, she would have me.

And maybe I could find a way to get messages from my land to her brother or sister.

In fact...

"Would you ever be able to get messages to the Light Court?" I asked Sal, noticing his gaze pinned to the back of Smoky who had been ignoring him for hours after some kind of dispute on where the better area was to gather berries in summer - of all things.

"For Amy?" he asked, shooting me a knowing look. "Yeah. I could drop by every now and again to carry some messages to and from the Seelie Court. My family is always on my case about paying my respects to Ang more often. They'd be happy to know I was there more frequently. We could work out an arrangement. The first day of each season or something. Meet where we met the first time."