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After a while, we break apart.

“Well?” shifting back to my side, she asks. “What do you think?”

I reach for a grape to cover the slight blush on my cheeks. “I’d say we are quite compatible.”

She punches my arm.

I rub it, pretending it hurt. If she really wanted to hurt me, it wouldn’t be a punch.

“Does this mean…” she starts, and I save her the misery of trying to ask.

“That we are betrothed?” I finish for her. “No. Not really. It’s a silly tradition that has led to many different proposals after Elves returned home from war. But there is no specific rule we must follow.”

Her shoulders sag. “Oh. Um… good, I guess.”

Knowing that my courage is thinning with every passing second, I change the subject. “Tomorrow’s the last dinner.”

“Then we will get information from your father about the moon stone.”

“And be able to get out of here.”

Ramona shifts under the blankets. “Would it be so bad? To return here?”

I scoff. This would be the last place I would want to return to. “I wouldn’t like it, but I would do it. If it means that we get the information needed to help Akemi.” Ramona nods in agreement. “This is one of the three stones we need. If that means tying myself back to this wooden cage, then I’ll do what it takes. Even if it pains me to do so.”

Ramona swings her arm over my chest, snuggling into my side once more. It’s not strange or awkward or weird. Just us. Together. Like it should be.

“For what it’s worth, I think you’re really brave for doing this.”

A million butterflies flutter in my torso. I squeeze my fingers into her back, pulling her a millimeter closer.

We lay there, two maybe-more-than-friends, gazing at the stars, on top of the forest.

Ramona falls asleep within minutes. I shouldn’t stare, especially while she’s asleep. But I’m enraptured by the small swoop of her nose. Bewitched by each freckle on her cheeks. Captivated by long, dark eyelashes.

It’s hard to pinpoint the moment I became enthralled with Ramona.

I spend the next couple of minutes paging through the memories of us but come up short.

No.

There wasn’t one singular moment that shifted my feelings, but rather a trickle of small events, built brick by brick, creating a foundation for something new.

A home.

31

The Patch Returned

Ifound it odd that Lord Cadex was the one to escort me to Terraguard, but I didn’t question it. So when it was him who came bumbling out from the stone walls of the underground caves beneath the Watch with a toothy grin, I masked my disappointment. Or at least attempted to.

It was even stranger when we arrived at the royal house in Baiabella to find only General Damaris leaning against the black stone walls of the foyer.

Damaris slaps me on the back so hard I cough. “Nice to see you again, Akemi.” Their words are welcoming, but by the strain in their voice and dark circles under their eyes, something is wrong.

“What is it?”

“That obvious, huh?”