AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What?
What did I say?
I wanted to protect him, that’s all.
And now I might have messed everything up.
His mom cocked her head to one side and peered between me and Dyrel. She sipped from her glass of wine and a small smile curled her lips.
“Well said,” she said.
Dyrel—and the rest of the family—released the breath they were holding and eased back into their chairs.
That was when Dyrel pushed his chair back and got to his feet.
“On that note, there’s something I want to announce,” he said.
Oh my God.
He was doing it.
He was actually going to propose to me…
And why not?
It was the perfect time to do it. His mom had just said she approved of me.
Dyrel reached into his pocket when a servant came over and whispered in his mom’s ear.
“Excuse me,” she said. “I have to take this. I’ll be right back.”
She hustled out of the room, leaving Dyrel deflated. He lowered back into his chair and peered over at me.
So close, his expression was telling me. So close, and yet, so far.
There was a lull in conversation after that. Family members split into different conversation groups, discussing various topics. At our end, next to Dyrel, his Uncle Brislax waved his glass of wine like he was brandishing it as a weapon.
“You mark my words,” he said. “There are more Changeling attacks every day. They’re up to something. They’ve never attacked us like this before. Unless I missed my guess, I would say they’re planning a full-scale attack. We’ve been too soft on them for too long. They’ve grown brazen. We never should have let it get to this point.”
“They don’t have the military to challenge us,” Dyrel said. “It would be suicide for them to attack us now.”
Brislax swayed unsteadily on his chair, his cheeks bright red.
“They never used to have a military at all,” he said. “But we supplied them with all the materials they needed to build their own. Just think how tragic that would be. They use the same raw materials that we sent them!”
His wife rolled her eyes and shook her head as if she had heard this story a thousand times before.
“We really don’t need to be hearing about your conspiracy theories now, dear,” she said.
Brislax slammed his meaty fist on the table.
Everyone hopped in surprise. His wife didn’t.
“It’s not—” He hiccupped. “—a conspiracy theory! Not when there’s so much evidence to support it!”
The other family members turned back to each other and resumed their conversations. They weren’t surprised it was Brislax that’d banged the table.
“War is coming,” Brislax reiterated. “I might not be the smartest tool in the box but even I can see that!”
