Page 48 of Acedia

“I wish I had my harp,” I admitted. “I think they would love that.”

“A harp, huh? You’re very impressive.”

“She is,” Orabelle agreed, making me blush. “Where is Damen? He should be the one showering her with compliments.”

“Oh. Um, no.” I laughed nervously. “I think that was just a passing thing. That’s passed. He hasn’t visited in a while.”

“What?” Ophelia said sharply. “Why not? Did something happen? It definitely wasn’t a passing thing. He’s done something, hasn’t he?”

“No, no. Not at all.”

“He proposed,” Orabelle offered. “And Iris said no.”

“I don’t think you were supposed to mention that,” I mumbled, wondering how many parents would be hearing that interesting piece of prime gossip fresh from the nursery tonight.

“I wouldn’t have if he’d redeemed himself,” Orabelle sniffed. “As far as I see it, he deserves a little shaming at this point.”

“Lordy,” Ophelia muttered.

“The king is here!” Yara announced, sending the children into a tailspin again. Not just the children. For all my silent complaints about being left to my own devices, this was maybe a little too much interaction all at once.

“Sorry,” Ophelia said, raising her voice above the noise. “He’s just coming to collect me.”

“Nonsense. Son, sit down with us,” Orabelle commanded grandly. “What could you possibly be doing that’s so urgent that you can’t take a few minutes to spend with your mother, hm?”

“That feels like a trick question,” Allerick said dryly. “And I’m not going to answer it. What is this activity you’re doing?”

Fortunately, Ophelia was able to explain the purpose of knitting while I murmured some quiet words of encouragement to Eadlin that convinced her to at least stop hiding against my shoulder. I was fairly certain that she understood me a little more now, even if she couldn’t respond in a language that I could understand.

“This is… nice,” Allerick said eventually. “We should perhaps do more things like this. For those who have only ever seen the human realm as a place of death and destruction—thoughnecessary for us to feed—it might be good to see a different side of it. Certainly, Austin’s concerts are popular everywhere he goes.”

“Iris plays an instrument too,” Ophelia added enthusiastically. “It might be a little trickier to get it here—they’re quite large. Maybe Sebastian would be willing to help—he’s pretty eager to impress at the moment.”

She fell silent suddenly, probably realizing she’d brought up the name of one of the new Hunters who I was being very intentionally kept away from.

“Iris knows all about that,” Orabelle said dismissively. “Ophelia, when are you going to tell your husband that Damen proposed to her?”

“What? When?” Allerick asked sharply. “Has it been a month since you arrived, Iris? I told him he had to wait a month.”

“You did?”

Had Damen wanted to propose right away? That was… romantic. In a fairy tale kind of way. Perhaps a little misguided, but very romantic.

“Doesn’t matter,” Ophelia replied. “Iris said no.”

Allerick was quiet for a moment. “Actually, I know the exact day it happened. He’s been in a strange mood ever since.”

I sighed at that, a little forlorn. I didn’t want him to be in a strange mood.

“Well, what are we going to do?” Orabelle demanded. “He’s been licking his wounds for long enough.”

They debated among themselves, and I half listened, wondering why they all seemed to think that Damen would be too unmotivated to take action on his own. From what I’d seen of Damen, he wasverymotivated when he wanted to be.

“Can’t I go and visit him?” I asked, making everyone fall silent. “I asked if we would still be friends and he assured me we would, but now that I think about it… Well, it might be a littleembarrassing for him to have to seek me out after I’d turned him down. Maybe it would be best if I sought him out instead?”

The more I spoke, the more confident I felt in the idea. I wasn’t in hiding anymore. It was time for me to be taking more decisive action.

“Of course you can,” Orabelle said crisply, breaking the silence. “Allerick will escort you there himself. I would, but my knees hurt and I want to lie down.”

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