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“Look, you’ve saved my life a couple of times, we talk about yummy men, and we’re pretty much each other’s closest confidants. I don’t know how to break it to you, but that’s textbook best friends right there, no matter what you argue.”
“Darla…” My tone was still terse, but I lost all of that bite when Darla set her spoon firmly down on her tray.
“Don’tDarlame. I don’t know why you feel the need to fight all the connections you have, from me to your fated one with our dear ol’ captain, but can we just not do that this morning? Frankly, it’s a waste of my time.”
“Shh! People will hear you.”
“So what if they do? You think they’re not gonna figure out what’s going on with you and Kai? It’s basically only a matter of when, which is exactly why I don’t feel like wasting my energy and precious free moments playing along with whatever martyr complex you’ve developed.
“I’m notstupid, you know. I’ve figured out you’ve got stuff happening under the surface, and that was before I heard your coven marms talking such shit about you. I may not have the details, but jeez, give me some credit!”
I couldn’t believe it. I was flustered. I was surprised. But I was also flattered at how unwilling Darla was to give up on me. It didn’t make any sense, and yet… and yet she was determined in our friendship.
It also made me feel seen in a way I wasn’t used to. Most people just assumed my prickly nature was just my personality. But Darla? Well, she’d already figured out that something fishy was happening well before anyone else.
Maybe I'd been underestimating her.
“I… it’s just complicated, okay?”
“Ayla, I just came from a week-long mission that was basically a tour through a chunk of your past. Believe me, I get that it’s complicated. You don’t need to explain everything to me right now, but please, let me enjoy my oatmeal without you trying to pretend that we mean nothing to each other.”
I…I guessed that worked, then.
But I wasn’t exactly chatty. I’d been far too lenient with myself lately and I needed to get my head on straight. No more fraternizing. No more friends. Just concentrating on what needed to be done.
That turned out to be so much easier to think than actually follow through on because the moment we walked into the meeting, and I saw Kai sitting among his advisors, my body and soul had a visceral reaction.
My inner wolf wanted nothing more than to go to him, to sit right in his lap and mark him all over until nobody could tell the two of us apart. It certainly didn’t help when we made eye contact, his gaze having its own gravitational pull that felt like it was genuinely trying to pull me in.
I resisted, but barely, tearing away my eyes by ducking my head. Despite how high the stakes were, it almost felt like middle school drama with me avoiding my crush.
Still, I managed to just stare at my folded hands while I sat, listening while Oren gave a much more sanitized and succinct version of what happened to us and why we’d had to leave, along with plans for the coming attack. I was impressed with how firmly and yet casually Kai’s righthand man spoke. It was like he’d known everything for ages and had meticulously planned out our response.
Then again, knowing what little I did of Oren, maybe he’d done just that when we were gone, coming up with dozens of plans and contingencies just in case.
But about halfway through, just when I was thinking about Kai’s thick hair and wishing I could run my hands through it, I realized far too many eyes were on me. I could feel them across my skin, a dozen little unwanted pin pricks that, while they didn’t hurt, absolutely made me uncomfortable.
Lifting my head, I realized pretty much everyone in the room was regarding me, whether with interest, shock, or with the banal disinterest expected in any official meeting. Brain scrambling, it finally caught up to the moment, and I realized that Oren was talking about the relic.
Thankfully, I didn’t seem to be expected to say anything, at least not yet, because Oren continued on, explaining how we were going to get all of the civilians in the closest settlements, towns, and cities to either evacuate or come to lodge in our base. These were going to be cramped quarters for a week or two, but they anticipated the coming attack, and none other than Mr. Shriek himself wouldn’t wait any longer than that.
It was all going so smoothly that I felt jarred by an officer cutting in.
“Do we actually know if this relic will do much good against the threat considering it couldn’t even protect the witch community it was meant to?”
Fair enough question, and yet guilt bubbled away in my stomach. Yeah, it should have worked, but I was willing to bet it was my curse that'd caused things to come apart at the edges. As usual, I was a walking cloud of misfortune wherever I went, and it'd spilled out onto my coven at a rapid pace.
“I’m not familiar on the specifics of this magic,” Oren answered calmly. “Medic Everton, are you able to speak on such a thing?”
I licked my lips, wanting to say no, or potentially just disappear through the floor, but I knew I couldn’t. So, clearing my throat, I straightened my seat and tried to look very official.
“The relic was quite taxed by all of the obfuscation and shielding tasks,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “Doing that for an entire town is a lot different from just protecting a fort and a battlefield.” I didn’t mention that my mothers and aunties at the coven had always told me, though much more begrudgingly than others, that I held a great deal of power for my young age—more than they ever did before their full maturation. Surely that had to count for something.
“Also, after a lengthy discussion with Officer Khan, we settled on a trifold arrangement of spells that should intermesh with much more synergy than the set up the Sanguis Coven had, and since we aren’t worried about the aforementioned obfuscation, there should be plenty of power to make a considerable difference. If…” I trailed off, losing a lot of my momentum as I realized the crux of the matter.
“If?” Oren prompted.
“If I can set it up correctly.”
