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I hang my head in my hands. It wasn’t just us she’d left to eke out a living but her own kids, her grandkids. With extra money in the bank, Tabitha’s husband might have been able to take a different job, something closer to home, to let him spend time with the kids. Tabitha could get some help herself, maybe enroll the little ones in that new preschool they opened off Main Street.
Mark takes my hands in his. “We’ll fix this. Everything will go to you from now on. You can make sure it gets to Tabitha and Matt?”
“Of course.”
“Just do me one favor.” His hands tighten on mine. “It wouldn’t make Ma happy to know you put your life off for her.”
“I—”
He levels me with a hard stare. “You have. And you wouldn’t have if I’d been there or if things had worked out how I’d planned. We’ll make it right.”
Mark releases me, and I rub at the odd, burning ache in my chest.
“You could stay here if you wanted.” Once again, Hawke surprises me. “Once you win, once you go home and see to the care of your grandmother, you are welcome anytime.”
Turning my back on my family feels impossible, but the offer touches my heart all the same. I force a smile.
“I’ll think on it.” That’s the best I can promise. For now, anyway.
Chapter 24
Moriaguidesmetothe table she’s set up in their massive sitting room. Sigurd’s rooms are sparse—cold and formal compared to theirs. Here, life and history seep out from each gilded work of art, worn leather sofa, and rug showing years of wear and tread. Their pockets run deep, or so Hawke let on the night before last when I worried about Aunt Virginia’s waste of their gifts. They could afford to redecorate, but Moria insisted their home was perfect as is. Why replace comfortable things they like?
“What is all this?” I gesture to the assortment of plants, vials, bowls, and other stuff strewn across the long coffee table.
“You don’t know?” Moria says.
Some of the plants nag at me, pulling at threads, but they’re certainly not ones we grew in our yard back home. I pick up a branch with purple leaves and small, white flowers.
“Careful with that one.” She winks.
And then I know. I drop the branch as if it burns. It certainly can if the flowers are smashed. “Poisons.”
Moria pulls out some folded papers, the original set of information I was given to study and which Hawke took to make a copy for me in English. “I thought it might help to see some of them in person. Though some of these”—she scowls at the page—“are quite hard to come by.”
“This is okay? It’s not against the rules?”
She snorts and tosses her ruby-dipped hair behind her. “Of course not. They gave you the information to study. It’s only smart to get as familiar with it as possible if you want to win.”
I reach for a crystal vial but think better of it and pull my hand back. “You don’t think I need to drop out?”
“No. It’s not that I don’t want you to stay, but you should have a choice. Keeping humans in Faery against their will is something only the Unseelie do.” She stares daggers at nothing across the room.
“Unseelie and certain kings…” I grumble.
Moria levels me with a flat stare, and I wince.
I’d promised myself no more jabs against Sigurd, particularly when he’s not here to defend himself, but they keep slipping out on their own. The tug at my wrist has only gotten stronger, sometimes so forceful that it’s almost painful and hard to focus on much else and then easing just as quickly. He must be moving, keeping busy, but he hasn’t shown himself in front of me.
“Anyhow, I thought I’d help you study these for a bit. We don’t know exactly what the game is, but the more you know…” She shrugs then grins. “Then perhaps you’ll let me help you pick out a dress for the champion’s ball?”
It’s so hard not to groan. The ball was announced after the last game, though we’d missed the announcement with Sigurd’srescueof me from the stage. Another tradition of the games. All the remaining contestants are to attend, plus their families and previous champions, along with some of the royalty and nobility of the court.
Basically, it’s one more opportunity for me to feel like a fish out of water and have fae shoot me dirty looks. Just peachy.
“You sure I can’t skip it?” I ask.
“Nope. Though you don’t have to stay long. Make an appearance, be introduced. It’s usually a good time though. A lot smaller and more civilized than the finale celebration.”
