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“Is there anything else you need?” Lucy asked, moving back to the door.
I shook my head. “Thank you,” I made sure to tell her.
She stopped, startled. “Oh,” she said. “You’re welcome.” She shrugged, giving me a lopsided grin. “Welcome to Bloodmoon Academy.”
Adrya
“That’s a lovely piece.”
Uncle Taskier, sitting across from me at our private dining hall in my father’s rooms, offered me a kind smile. He nodded to my neck before picking up his goblet of freshly squeezed orange juice and bringing it to his lips.
Despite my best efforts, my cheeks pinched and I pressed my fingers flat against the chain of my necklace, trying not to remember what it felt like when Matthyw placed it around my throat. I swallowed.
“Is it new?” Taskier asked.
“Oh.” I scrambled for something believable. Despite my father’s vicious insults and the snickering that followed Taskier wherever he went due to his status as a Dwarf, he was one of the keenest men I had ever met. “No. I believe it was one of my mother’s I found, going through her jewelry box.”
His pale green eyes narrowed slightly before he nodded again and brought his cup to his lips.
“I see you started without me.” My father’s low voice caused my spine to stiffen naturally. I glanced at him over my shoulder, making sure my hands were nowhere near my throat. Technically, I could have removed the piece of jewelry completely — I wouldn’t have had to worry about anyone noticing it then — but I couldn’t bring myself to do just that.
I didn’t want to think about why.
“Actually, we’ve just poured the juice,” I said. “We haven’t touched our food.”
He sneered at my uncle as he slid in his seat to my left, at the head of the table. “Yes, well, perhaps Taskier should have,” he muttered. “I suppose you both heard of the girl.”
“I don’t believe there’s anyone whohasn’theard of her at this point,” Taskier said, leaning over and grabbing a roll. “My student wouldn’t shut up about her, and that’s only with me walking through the main dining hall while they break their fast — and the fact that Byron was assigned her Alpha.”
“Who cares who her Alpha is?” I asked.
“I care,” my father said. “I would have liked to have taken her under my wing. Rarely do we get humans at the academy. Even rarer do I get assigned to them.”
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, curious why he would care about a human. He didn’t seem particularly interested one way or the other of their kind or their presence at the academy. Granted, I knew fathers never told their daughters everything, but still.
“Perhaps you should put in a request,” Taskier said, tilting his goblet in my father’s direction.
My father’s eyes narrowed into slits as he looked at his brother. I couldn’t possibly see how Taskier’s comment could be construed as an insult; then again, my father tended to take everything as an insult.
“I hear Matthyw should be joining us by the full moon,” my uncle continued genially.
I nearly choked on the eggs that I had placed in my mouth. My fork clattered to my plate and I coughed a couple times in order to chuck the eggs and swallow them.
My father raised a pointed brow in my direction but said nothing at my reaction. After a moment where his stare could settle in, he turned his attention back to his brother.
“And where did you hear this?” he asked. “Your little birdies?”
Taskier recognized the glib insult but said nothing. “Something like that,” he said. “I heard he was spotted at the The Tulip in Gardenia.”
My heart began to hammer against my chest. No one knewIhad been there, right? I chewed my bottom lip, grabbing the utensils sitting next to my plate. I wanted to look at my uncle, to see if he was looking at me differently because he knew where I had been, but I didn’t want to give myself away. And I knew if he looked at me, I would give myself away.
Somehow.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” my father drolly said as he picked up a grapefruit and began to peel it with his leather pocket knife. “He tends to go there after a k– mission.” His eyes flickered over at me before down at the fruit. “Relieves tension. I’m sure you know what I mean.”
Taskier laughed but there was no mirth in it. “Because that’s the only place I can find companionship?” he asked drolly. “At a brothel?”
“My daughter is sitting –”
