Page 46 of Born of Ice

“Great,” Stella concludes. “Speaking of dinner. Are you enjoying yours?” she asks Electra, her eyes already assessing her thin frame, and it happens so fast, I’d miss it if I wasn’t already attuned to her on some weird level, but Electra flinches. She flinches as if she was caught red-handed.

“I am. See.” She gestures to her plate. Heruntouched platewith all of three pieces of that cauliflower fries that she took before. And it’s obvious that Stella doesn’t buy it either because she turns to me.

“Is she eating?” she asks me, and my first instinct is to say yes, because we did share a few meals already but then I stop myself. Electra looks thinner than she did when I first got here. And it hits me. I haven’t seen her eat. Not once since I’ve been with her has she eaten. Well, she did fight me for that lasagna but other than that, nothing.

And even that wasn’t an indication of her intention to actually eat it.

“Why are you asking him when I’m right here?” Electra protests.

“Because I don’t trust you. So?” She looks expectedly at me, but my eyes are on Electra’s pleading ones. Again, the emotion is so subtle, anyone else would miss it, but I don’t.

“She is,” I lie for her and those stiff, too-thin shoulders, relax.

“Happy now?” Electra snarks back, but Stella is unperturbed by her attitude.

“For now. Oh, Aurora!” Stella calls out when a petite blonde girl passes us in a blur. The girl—Aurora—who is also a waitress here by the looks of her uniform, turns around right away and her work appropriate face immediately morphs into a relaxed and then shocked one when she spots who exactly is sitting here. And unfortunately, I’m not talking about myself.

“Oh my God! Electra?” she whispers with a squeal and runs for my fallen star, slipping into her booth right past Stella—ignoring the old hag, much to my enjoyment—and wraps her arms around Electra’s frozen body.

I roll my eyes at her lost expression.It’s okay to hug people back, angry elf,I inform her with my eyes in case she forgot, and get a glare my way as an answer, but she does hug the poor girl back.

See, isn’t that nice?

Shut up.

“Aurora.” She gives her a soft smile. “How are you doing?”

“I’m okay,” she answers, tucking her blonde strands away. “And you?”

“Oh, I’m…okay too, I guess. Are you still skating?”

Is it just me or is it very awkward between these two?

Despite Aurora’s original joy of seeing Electra, it feels strained now. As if there’s way more to this than what I know.

But what else is new?

“Oh, um…” Aurora’s cheeks take on a soft pink hue as she bites her lower lip. “No. I had to quit a while ago.”

To my amusement, my little star who doesn’t give a shit about herself, looks worried and alarmed for Aurora right away. Why does that not surprise me?

“Did something happen?”

“Joey happened,” Stella grumbles from the side and the girls both look up at her.

“Joey?” Electra’s brows pull together. “What about him?”

“Oh, hi Stella.” Aurora stands up, straightening out her uniform. “Well, it was lovely to see you, I hope you come around more often,” she says and already starts her retreat when Stella stops her.

“Not so fast.” Aurora turns around like a soldier in the army and marches back up to her old trainer. Or at least I assume that’s who Stella was to her based on Electra’s questions. “Did you apply for that grant I told you about?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“And?”

Aurora shakes her head in answer, her green eyes filling up with tears that she is trying to hide from all of us, but quite unsuccessfully, I might add.

“What’s going on?” Electra demands.

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