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I waited for her to chuckle about the botanist’s endless griping, but she didn’t, Mirielle’s mind clearly elsewhere, even though she had closed her eyes again.
“You don’t want to go back to work?” I asked warily, wishing she’d give me a sign.
I suddenly wasn’t sure what to do or say. The nightmare had clearly left her very unsettled.
“No, I do!” she replied quickly, opening her eyes again. “That’s a great idea.”
I gave her a sidelong look and gathered her back in my arms, unsure if that’s all it was, but I didn’t push the issue. “That doesn’t mean we can’t spend some extra time together this morning, does it?”
Again, she fell quiet and buried her face in the spot between my neck and shoulder.
What was going on with her this morning?
But I didn’t give it much more thought until later.
* * *
Endora waitedfor me outside of the council meeting when the session ended, her black eyes somehow darker than usual.
“I’m going to file a protective order against you if this keeps up,” I joked, curling my fingers around my briefcase as the heavy door closed at my back.
“Are you sleeping with the trespasser?”
I stopped in my tracks, anger swelling inside me. Slowly, my head swiveled toward her. “Pardon me?”
“Mirielle,” Endora sighed, rolling her eyes heavenward. “Are you sleeping with her?”
“I’m getting a little tired of explaining your place in the kingdom,” I hissed, my temper flaring. “Don’t you ever question me like that.”
“If it affects everyone else in the kingdom, it’s my place to know, too,” Endora countered. “But I ask because she’s been distracted today. Lacroix—”
“Let me guess,” I interrupted. “He’s complaining.”
I continued through the long halls of my cabinet and burst through the main entry, leading toward the exterior, the gray overhead clouds still lingering in the aftermath of the storm.
“I think he has something to it this time,” Endora informed me, entering the vehicle ahead of both Calliver and Landon with her teleporting magic.
A spray of rain remained sprinkling over the city, but one of the guards had cast an invisible shield around me to protect my suit from getting wet.
A puddle splashed under my feet, but I barely noticed it as the guards unlocked the car and held the back door for me, the enchantress and I resuming our conversation.
“I popped by the greenhouse today, and she almost jumped out of her skin when I got there,” Endora explained.
I recalled how out of sorts Mirielle had seemed that morning.
“She hasn’t been at work since the attack,” I reminded her. “It’s going to take some time for her to get back into the swing of things.”
“Because you’ve been keeping her holed up in your mother’s old suite?”
I scowled furiously. “The castle is mine to do as I please,” I reminded her. “Moreover, one of the Order recognized her. It’s in everyone’s best interest if Mirielle is as protected as possible.”
Endora blinked several times at the revelation as the car began to move, heading out of Catalonia and back toward Silverhold Tower, a few miles away. “What?”
I frowned. “I must have told you about that,” I insisted. “The dark fae said something about looking for Mirielle.”
“They called her by name?” she breathed, shocked. “Her name really is Mirielle?!”
“Well, no…” I replied. “The fae was killed before I could get any answers, but they are definitely after her. I heard the exchange myself.”
