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I pace around her small room, unable to sit still as I wait for her.
Are you actually excited to see her?I think to myself. My lip curls at the prospect that anyone has managed to get me excited about anything.
No, it can’t be. I’m just restless. I haven’t worked out in a while. I need to burn off some energy.
After about ten minutes of waiting, I start to root through Neveah’s things. She will probably be insanely mad at me, but I need to keep myself busy.
Eventually, I find a children’s book in dark elvish. It is clearly one that belongs to the Ilnais family library. In fact, I think I recognize it from my childhood.
I flip through it until I hear footsteps coming down the hall. The door to Neveah’s room opens, and I stand up expectantly.
Neveah walks in and stops dead in her tracks, though she doesn’t squeal with surprise the way I was expecting her to.
The way I wanted her to,I amend the sentence.
Instead, she stands there, her face emotionless before she rolls her eyes.
“What do you want?” she snaps. I cannot help but smile at her snippy attitude.
Anger looks good on her.
Just then, the little iypinnit, the one I have heard her call ‘Echo’, slips in through the door of her bedroom.
Neveah watches as the little creature comes up to me and sniffs around my ankles. I lean down to pet it because I am quite sure that making friends with the little worg-like thing will help me with Neveah.
But the iypinnit dances away from my touch and gives a rasping bark before trotting over to Neveah.
The iypinnit winds in and out of Neveah’s legs, curling its tail around her ankles.
When I look at Neveah, she is looking at me with skepticism on her face.
“What did you do to Echo?” she asks me suspiciously.
“What do you mean?” I ask her, genuinely confused.
“I mean, Echo never shows herself to anyone. But now she’s comfortable around you.”
“She isn’t letting me pet her,” I point out, slightly shocked by the normalcy of our conversation.
“Yes, but she’s showing herself to you. Have you fed her something? Have you been bribing her?” Neveah demands, her eyes bright.
“No!” I protest, and I wince at the sound of my voice which rose an octave.
I clear my throat then.
“No,” I say, my voice more normal. “I didn’t feed her anything.”
“Fine,” Neveah snaps and walks over to the bed, pushing me out of the way.
I loom over her, and when she turns to me, I grab both her arms.
This time, I am pleased to see slight fear in her eyes. I lift her arms above her head and throw her onto the bed.
She swallows, and her anxious eyes look me up and down.
“What are you doing?” she asks me in a hushed voice.
I lean down and place my hand around her throat. Her eyes widen even further, almost popping out of her head.
