Page 33 of Elemental Affections

Twice. Then remembered that they weren’t friendly. Barely even spoke.

Her hand froze in the air. The abrupt, abnormal greeting had brought Ezzyn to a standstill, a confused frown furrowing his brow.

Dropping her arm back to her side, Dae spun around and hurried back to her house.

Chapter 13

Sidlinguptothelaboratory’s door, Dae peeked inside. Empty. No Ezzyn. She stepped inside, casting a wary glance toward the open connecting door to his office. Also empty. She let out a quiet, relieved breath. The awkwardness of yesterday’s encounter, of her egregious dropping of her guard, of her waving and grinning like a fool to Mr. Low Interaction, was still fresh in her mind. It was too soon to be in close proximity and hope that she could focus on anything besides the fraught silence separating them. Because such a silence was inevitable. He wouldn’t ask about her lapse in their mutual intentional disregard, and she wasn’t going to volunteer an explanation.My sister and I aren’t fighting anymore about me pursuing my dreams.To the man who’d uprooted from his life and work within his home country as a favor for his brother, she was rather pathetic in comparison.

Dae scanned the workstation for her usual list of tasks and came up empty. Nothing tucked onto one of the shelves or at her makeshift desk in the corner. She even chanced a look at Ezzyn’s desk and still found nothing. The pad he usually wrote on was bare.

Returning to the lab, she sought out the research log for his current experiment. Might as well start transcribing now since he’d assign it to her later anyway.

With fresh paper and pen, she set about her work, pausing only to slide her ongoing list of comments and questions from her bag and place them on the desk. Ezzyn was running a battery of tests to measure different applications of fire magic and its effectiveness at purifying various degrees of poison saturation. Such results were sadly only temporary, the magic-infused poison weaponized by Eylle having proven to resurface no matter how thorough a cleansing seemed. Still, Ezzyn’s work in concert with grovetender soil treatments was edging toward the longest fallow periods, inviting interdisciplinary research. A few of the soil samples were showing promise for the first time in years. Ezzyn would be pleased.

The thought made her stomach swoop. For reasons other than the general good for the world that such results entailed.

“Ana?”

Her head snapped up, one hand sweeping her personal notes beneath the official log. She caught the frown that wanted to form on her face, schooling her features to polite puzzlement instead. “Brint? What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you.” He walked into the lab and helped himself to a stool. “I wanted to hear about how seeing Calya again went.”

Her eyes swept over him. He looked, well, not bad—Brint was conventionally good-looking and took great pains to remain as such. But there was a haggardness to his edges, a hint of bruising beneath his eyes, his Graelynder light coloring veering toward pallid.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

He blew off her concern with a shrug, eyes widening as an easy grin spread across his face, the embodiment of innocence. “Never better. Tell me about Calya.”

“Why?” she said, the word coming out as confused as she felt rather than rude.

“Looking out for you. I know she was pretty mad at the way you left.”

Quite the feat, seeing as he hadn’t deigned to uphold his end of the agreement and be there to support her decision to leave. But they were supposed to be past such grievances, Dae giving him the benefit of doubt. At Sylveren, he’d been true to his word about changing. It was unkind—unfair—of her to hold on to her memories of the past. If not for Brint then for herself, for she was so tired of being on edge around him.

“We worked things out,” she said. “Calya mentioned being here to see you. Something about a joint project between HNE and AG?”

Brint gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Oh, that’s nothing. Standard protection agreement. We’ve been handling it from afar, no problem.”

That didn’t track with Calya’s thoughts on the matter, though Dae suspected the truth could be somewhere in the middle. She was out of touch with the business of either company and didn’t relish the thought of stepping back in. Still, the recent reconciliation and the joy it brought stirred in her a sense of sisterly loyalty.

“Caly mentioned something about communication troubles?” Dae said, voice tentative so as not to sound accusatory. “It must be hard given the delay with the post up here.”

A generous out, considering that Calya had been paying for expedited mail service even if Brint didn’t return such courtesy. Even relying on the slower weekly mail boat didn’t explain Brint’s choosing which of Calya’s questions to answer.

Irritation flashed across Brint’s face. “No, no. Just not as expedient as she’d like. You know how the capital is. I’m making connections up here, but the pace isn’t the same. She mentioned the project to you?” He leaned forward, all innocent curiosity once more.

“In passing. Something about a new route?”

“Using one of HNE’s newer light transports.” Brint nodded. “Did she tell you about the route?”

“No. I’m not involved with HNE anymore.”

“Of course, of course,” Brint said quickly. He sighed, a touch too theatrical. “I thought she might ask. You know the strain she’s under. How the gossip goes back home, and of course some of the less scrupulous papers like to burden her with your concerns.”

Dae’s eyes narrowed. “What concerns?”

“Leaving the family business for Sylveren. Studying magic on a whim. Their words, not mine.”

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