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Bright orange and red flowers bloomed across bushes that sat between other bits of greenery that darkened with green and graying leaves. Brush that had clearly prospered much better in the spring and summer seasons instead of the prickling cold fall that was ushering itself in.
Several trees reached up toward the sky creating small patches of shade. The nearest of which was cast over a stone bench with a slouching, cranky warlock seated on it.
Ace purposefully closed the doors behind her with much more gentleness than Shelby had offered Rehan’s home. Guilt churned in her stomach, eating away at her like acid. With a small cough, she tried to clear her throat to keep it from rising up like vomit.
Broad hunched shoulders stiffened as Ace’s shadow followed her to the covering of the nearest tree. A few leaves were turning golden amongst the green, teetering with the promise of colder months. Idris, god of changing seasons could be felt if one were to focus long enough. Not that Ace would offer him such time. As if in likeness to the leaves the wind carried a cold chill between the pair, creating an icy shiver that danced over Ace’s skin.
Have we sunk so low as to coddle?Greshta teased, with Sylik’s rumble of amusement behind it. It wasn’t often the goddess of power poked fun without true insult behind it. Even less often did Sylik agree or even find it good enough to chuckle at.
I think it’s adorable how she cares,Mina, goddess of love, said more sternly.
There was another god present, somewhere in the back of Ace’s mind. Quiet and watching. She refused to acknowledge them but the harder she fought to ignore the god the more their presence weighed down on her. Not god but goddess. Nax. For the goddess of peace and harmony, she could be overbearing sometimes.
Silently she sat down next to Shelby on the bench, stretching her legs out in front of her. From the corner of her vision, she chanced a look at him. She still remembered the smirk she’d gotten from him this morning, the brief moment of playfulness. That was long gone since replaced by the downward curve of his mouth.
I caused that.That voice that always spoke the worst about her reared its ugly little head.
We did warn you.Greshta scoffed.
Rehan’s garden gave way to a small yard. The grass remained neatly trimmed within a modest wooden fence. Every blade glistened with dew that had not yet dissolved away with the kiss of day. It was all too easy to picture little kids playing tag or lounging in the shade while they yearned to dip their feet in the not so far off creek.
“You were in my bed last night.” Shelby focused on his hand in his lap interlacing his fingers and letting his thumbs rub against each other.
“I know.”
Ace took a deep breath, trying to steady herself for what she would have to say. To keep her hands from shaking or fidgeting too much, she shoved her palms under her thighs. The press of stone was cold and brought brief relief.
For several long minutes, Ace and Shelby listened to the rustling of the leaves and the babbling waters. There was too much to say. The twisting pressure that built inside of Ace’s chest told her Shelby probably already knew how this conversation was going to go. Even if she wished it didn’t have to be so.
“I look like a fool,” he muttered into the passing breeze. The words flew by Ace, there and gone, with no way for her to catch them and force him to take them back. Out of everyone Ace had ever known, Shelby was the least likely to be named a fool.
“No. I am the fool.” Her skin prickled as blood flowed back into her hands, the texture of the stone pressed into her palms, her hands scrubbing at her face before she turned to look at him. The weariness in her heart translated to wrinkles across her brow and brought tension to the corners of her lips. She felt as puckered as fabric pulled tight for synching.
“I should have told you last night.” She sighed.
“To find out in frontofhim. Like he said, I thought we were closer than that.”
Him. A word laced with a thousand different meanings.
“Rehan isn’t so bad.”
Shelby snorted, sending a dark glance under his furrowed brow over his shoulder to the closed doors. “Stuffy, do-gooder hero type who rides in, sweeps you off your feet, literally, and proposes marriage? It doesn’t feel right.” A seriousness smoothed his features. “Can’t you feel that?”
Lashes sweeping against her rosy cheeks, Ace stared down at the ground. “The gods brought him back to be my companion. My husband. He was literallymadefor me.”
The rise and fall of Shelby’s breathing paused. Ace tried to concentrate on the grit that wedged its way between her toes as she squirmed them into the dirt but couldn’t ignore the pull of irritation that forced his mouth further into a downward curve.
“Rehan is unfortunate.” He finally settled on as if this addition to their team was another minor inconvenience. “He is the lesser of the news I’ve received today.” Ace straightened as Shelby’s voice became soft. “Why didn’t you tell me about the queens?”
A crack of lightning shot through Ace’s heart. A piercing shock of fire that sent her pulse racing and her breath quickening before it retracted and left her with an open wound in her chest.
“Rehan—”
“I don’t want to talk about him anymore. I don’t care about him.”
Smooth dark fingers curled around Ace’s hands, now settled on her lap. What little breath she had caught in her chest with her thrumming heartbeat. Another piece of her shrank back, deflating as quickly as a balloon whose end was quickly let go of before it could be tied to keep in the air.
Rehan was a topic Shelby was so quick to dismiss. So why did Ace think that Shelby would care so fiercely that she had promised herself to Rehan? And why did it hurt so very much that he didn’t? She pressed her eyes closed, feeling the sting of his apathy all the way up to her tear ducts.
