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‘It’s bad?’ he pressed, getting to his feet.
Again, she nodded.
Kipp pushed his auburn hair from his brow and started to pace. ‘Am I right in thinking we’re all on the same page at last?’
‘What do you mean?’ Thea asked.
‘That we’re doubting the nature of Hawthorne’s fall… and anything we might have been told regarding the state of the midrealms?’
Thea cast her damp towel aside and sat on the end of her bed, resting her elbows on her knees and hanging her head. ‘I think so.’
She looked up in time to see Kipp exchange a look with Cal, who grimaced before he asked, ‘What did Hawthorne say?’
Thea wet her cracked lips, trying to summon strength from her bruised body and battered heart. ‘He said I should have kept my name day gift.’
Kipp frowned. ‘He what?’
‘Said —’
‘No, I heard you, it’s just… You know, a weird thing to say when you’re half frozen to death in an ice dungeon.’
His words hit Thea like a blow. Wilder was in there because of her.
‘Maybe that’s why he said it… Maybe he wasn’t quite lucid…’ Even as the words left her tongue, she didn’t believe them. ‘What do you think it was? The gift?’ she asked them, not bothering to mask her pained expression.
‘Why don’t you find out?’ Cal replied.
Thea sighed, running her fingers through her damp hair. ‘I can’t. You saw me throw it away.’
‘I did,’ Cal allowed. ‘But…’ He surged for the door and left abruptly.
Thea turned to Kipp in question. But her friend shrugged.
‘Don’t look at me.’
Moments later, Cal came rushing back, closing the door behind him and approaching Thea with an outstretched hand. ‘I saw you throw it away, but you didn’t see me go and fish it out of the bushes…’
In his hand was the small box wrapped in brown paper. The lightning bolt drawn across its surface had faded, as had the wordsHappy name day.
Thea’s mouth fell open as she stared at Cal in disbelief. ‘You…’
Cal was still holding the box out to her. ‘Kept it, yep. Uh… don’t be angry, I guess?’
Thea threw her arms around him, hugging him hard. ‘Thank you,’ she croaked, tears stinging her eyes. ‘Thank you for knowing me better than I knew myself.’
After a moment of shock, Cal returned her embrace. ‘What are friends for, eh?’
A pointed cough sounded from the other side of the room. ‘This is all very touching, but can we open the fucking box now? I feel like it might be a tad important…’ Kipp said, arms crossed over his chest, foot tapping impatiently on the marble floor.
Palming a tear from her cheek, Thea took the box from Cal and went to the settee. Cal followed, sitting to her left, and Kipp took his place to her right.
‘I’m scared…’ she whispered, turning the small parcel over in her fingers.
‘I don’t think you have anything to fear from him,’ Kipp said quietly.
‘That’s not what I’m scared of.’
‘What then?’ Cal asked.
