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“I’m so sorry, Elodie, I shouldn’t have done that.” She frowns and rubs her arm. I can’t help but think of Kastian and Wren when I look at her. She actually makes me happy, like my life isn’t a complete shithole.
“You’re welcome.” I wave her off dismissively. “Just invite me to the wedding, okay?”
Her eyes widen as Greysil comes around the corner with our drinks and usual orders.
“What wedding? I swear, I never get invited to those things.”
I glance at Naminé and watch her beg me with her eyes to do no morehelping. “Oh, just someone at the High Court. No one you know.” She takes my answer and smiles at Naminé before dashing back into the kitchen as more customers enter the café.
“We’re going to dinner tomorrow night,” Naminé mumbles as she takes a large bite of the sweet sausage. I indulge in a too-big bite myself and hum with delight at the swirl of flavors that dance on my taste buds. Savory and sweet, the food here never dulls, not like it does in the human realm.
“You're welcome,” I chirp before my next bite of eggs.
She laughs. “You’re absolutely not what I expected when they said I had to guard the Life Goddess.”
I’ll take it.
* * *
The steps to Arulius’s mansion are old and worn. Moss covers each corner of every tattered stone. I always take my shoes off just before I start my ascension. The feeling of the rocks beneath my feet makes me nostalgic for my forest.
I sigh and a blissful smile grows across my lips. I think of my shed—how I’ll never see it again. I miss the cozy way it suited me, Margo lying at my feet while I read a good book. But just because I can’t be there doesn’t mean that the image left in my mind isn’t still tangible. I close my eyes as I take each step slowly, my feet stealing the coolness from the stones.
I’m there, walking along the trail, Margo by my side, on our way to my parents’ house. We’re going to have a nice day at the lake. The air smells crisp, but there are no ponderosa pines.
My eyes flick open and my smile instantly fades. There are no pine trees here in Nesbrim, not within the walls.
I stop on the flat stone halfway to the mansion. Each side of the stairway is normally covered with lush greenery, but in the midst of winter, nothing but brambles and frost cling to the land. Atop the hill lies Arulius’s pompous manor. The stones themselves are black, onyx like the night, flaked with gold windows, doors, and pillars.
It’s a view I’ve seen a hundred times over, yet I still pause to take it in. Not for the beauty of it—and it is beautiful—but for how starkly opposite it is from Kastian’s haunted glade. From his brilliant white castle of death.
Death filled with so much life. I miss the plants that climbed the three-story-high ceilings and dappled over the glass panes.
I take a deep breath and exhale loudly.
“What’s wrong?”
My shoulders tense.Shit. Why can’t I have two seconds to myself?
I turn my head and find Arulius standing just a few steps behind me. His golden wings hang low and brush against the stones. A flash from his glimmering amethyst eyes catches mine.
He is every bit as beautiful as he’s always been. My heart doesn’t completely shatter every time I look at him anymore. That war ceased months ago when I gave in, but I still have the endless pain he gave me that will haunt me till the end of time.
“What do you want?” I mumble and level my gaze at him.
He kicks up a brow and one side of his lips. “Just thought I’d walk you up today. It’s cold and I knew you’d be taking your shoes offagain.”
I flinch and gaze down at my feet. They’re numb already from the icy stones. I didn’t know that he was aware I walked up the stairs barefoot every day.
His eyes meet mine as he takes my boots and dips his head, kneeling down to my feet. “Come on. It’s too cold today, love.”
I stare at him but lift my foot so he can slip my boot back on. It’s hard to hate Arulius, but I won’t give my heart the chance to have even a small hope with him.
“It’s never too cold. Not anymore,” I mumble.
4
Elodie
