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She’d suppressed the urge to run ahead to leave him behind.
Within a few steps he was even with her, his stupid arm bumping hers. She’d hated that tingles raced along her skin every time it did, sending delightfully warm sensations through her body. Well, she’d wanted to hate them.
They’d walked along in silence, the breeze in the coupled with birds tweeting and warbling from their branches. Their steps had crunched along the roadway, and Auri’s laughter had burst out like music as she and Nix had walked arm in arm up ahead.
Brinna couldn’t appreciate there was music everywhere, her companion riled her so, but she had suddenly found herself hating the animosity that existed between them.
“Why do you dislike me?” she’d asked.
He’d come to a complete stop so that when Brinna had turned to face him, he’d been several paces behind her. “Dislike you? I don’t–” His brow had furrowed as he’d shaken his head, but he hadn’t been able to meet her gaze.
“Then why–”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he’d said, picking up the pace and passing her. “I don’t feel any given way about this or that.”
“Are you saying I’m ridiculous?”
Lucian had suddenly seemed flustered, his mouth opening, then closing. He’d shaken his head. “I just forgot,” he’d said, “I have somewhere… an appointment. I have to go.”
Then he was gone, had disappeared in that strange way that she’d seen Nixus do, leaving her on the roadway alone.
He’d reappeared suddenly, grabbing hold of her. “Not safe alone,” he’d muttered, and in the blink of an eye she was in front of Auri and Nix on the road, Lucian gone once more, leaving her more confused and annoyed than ever.
Now, she shook away her irritation and focused on what mattered. Her heart thumped with the rhythm of such a happy occasion, especially considering the chaos of late. With both Tarley and Auri losing their protective ribbons, the revelation that Nixus was the actual god of night and darkness, and that the horrid Dr. Rufus had been a horrible creature hunting Tarley for her blood, things had been stressful to say the least. Brinna had so many questions.
Grabbing hold of her own ribbon as if to ground her thoughts, she twisted it around her wrist, so the bow was on top. Her secret unease, which she was very good at hiding, receded some. Their mother was the only way they were going to get answers, and she’d promised to provide them after the wedding.
Mattias caught her eye as he skirted the dancers toward the inn. She didn’t like that her brother looked so unhappy—especially on such a night when celebration was in order. He was only nineteen, which might have been a factor. Brinna remembered the morose way Sevens and the Whitling Woods sank their teeth into her thoughts when she’d been his age. The horrible feeling that she might be stuck forever when there didn’t seem to be any other options. Perhaps they still did. And yet, as the party swirled around her, all the people, the vibrancy of both exemplified a broader world beyond where they’d been raised.
There was hope.
She started after her brother, if not to change his mind but to offer her moral support. That was who she was, after all. Jessamine was the perfect one, Tarley was the proper amount of sour to Brinna’s sweet, Auri was the realist, and Mattias was the baby and the only boy. So Brinna slipped into her role as the nurturer and went to look for her brother. Her sisters might not need her, but maybe her brother still did.
After bypassing the throng of people and entering the dining room where the feast had been held, she scanned the room. Only Mattias wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Evening, Miss Fareview.”
Brinna turned her head and smiled at Horance, one of the proprietors of The Copper Pot Inn. “Hello, Mr. Rose. A lovely wedding, though I think we’re long past evening,” she replied with a smile.
He nodded, grinning back. “True enough.”
“Have you seen Mattias?”
Horance glanced around, then shook his head. “Not for some time. Not since dinner.”
Confused, because she was sure Mattias had only just walked into the inn, she looked around once more, thanked Horance, and returned to the festivity outside. Spinning in place, she shivered, the chill of the night suddenly colder as she realized Mattias was nowhere to be seen. Worry climbed into her chest, adding to the weight of her unease, and she wondered if he might have left for the cottage. Knowing it would snap their mother’s nerves, Brinna couldn’t imagine Mattias going expressly against her wishes. Their mother had forbidden any of the family to be without one another for the sole purpose of safety—or so she’d said.
But Mattias was nowhere to be seen. He wouldn’t have just left, would he? Could he be in trouble?
Her heart thumped at the thought.
With a glance at her parents, she considered interrupting them, but they were dancing, and her mother was smiling. It seemed such a long time since Scarlett had smiled. Brinna let them be, turning back to the darkness beyond the fire, and though she knew she shouldn’t leave, her worry for her brother drove her forward. He shouldn’t be alone.
“Mattias!” she called, wishing they’d lit the lanterns along the main thoroughfare of Sevens, but every lamp was currently being used at the inn. Her voice sounded muted, as if it hit a wall and dropped back into the dirt. She wasn’t afraid so much as concerned for Mattias—and slightly annoyed at the inconvenience of having to look for him instead of finding an agreeable partner to dance with.
If she were being honest with herself, there hadn’t been anyone she’d been expressly interested in dancing with, even if there were some handsome fellows. Except for Lucian, who was expressly beautiful but horribly unapproachable. She ignored that she wanted to dance with him again; she refused to give him the satisfaction.
She hated that she’d waited for him earlier that day with that ridiculous hope fluttering inside her chest. Hated that she longed to see his golden face even knowing how aloof and uninterested he’d been the last several times they’d met. Except there was what had happened before the descent into the chaos of Tarley and the darkling. The dance she had shared with Lucian underneath the stars. She hated that she’d spent far too much time recalling that dance in the forest with him that had obviously met more to her than it should have. Hated that she’d dreamt of him nearly every night. Hated that of all the things she was looking forward to for her sister Tarley’s wedding, it was the thought that he might be there.
