Page 108 of Feathers of Ash and Hope

“Nothing you have to worry about.” I smile, but he doesn’t look convinced.

“Why doesn’t that ease my mind when it comes to you?” He ruffles his already mussed hair, making my fingers itch with thewant to run them through his hair as well. Nope, not going there. I have much bigger problems at the moment.

“I don’t know. Why doesn’t it?” I try to look as innocent as possible, walking around him.

“How come I didn’t bend the rules before you got here, and now I find myself with both feet over the fucking line all the time?” Tate growls at my back.

I send him a sunny smile over my shoulder. “Coincidence? Luck? Take your pick.”

“I think it’s more about the current company,” he says, and I laugh at his resigned tone.

“No. I don’t take the blame for that. I didn’t drag you into it, not once. Actually, I do my best to keep you out of it, like right now.”

Tate groans.

I chuckle and dive into the crowd of runners and riders still leaving the auditorium. I have no intention of giving him the time to question me or to figure this out by observing my reactions.

Livia leans against the wall next to the auditorium door, her eyes fixed on me, and I don’t like the look of satisfaction on her face.

“Summer, a word, please.”Tate’s voice is all business when he calls out to me the following morning before I can exit the sparring hall. Calix looks at me questioningly, but I shrug and tell him to go ahead before walking over to Tate.

When I reach him, Tate holds out a letter to me, but I only stare instead of taking it. My eyebrows rise when I recognize my brother’s painstakingly accurate handwriting. I even glimpse his seal now that Tate moves the letter in front of my face.

Shit, how does he know I am here?

“Where did you get that?” I look up at Tate.

“Jared met Sloan at the gate. She seemed anxious to get this to you,” he says, I look around worried someone might listen in and realize we’re the only ones left in the room.

Awareness gathers between us until the air seems to hum with it. My eyes dart to his lips and then to the letter in his hand. The letter I just know he will have questions about.

“Why, thank you for hand-delivering my mail.” I snatch the letter out of his hand and step back, hoping it will dispel the tension. “Now, if that doesn’t make me feel special,” I joke and wink at him before shoving the letter into my bag.

“Don’t you want to open it?” he asks. Is that disappointment I see in his eyes?

I shake my head. “No.”

“It looks official.”

“It looks like an officially annoying letter by my officially nosy family trying to make my business officially theirs,” I joke. “So yeah, pretty official.”

“It’s stamped by the headquarters.” He tries again. Damn his attention to detail.

“Well, I never said that my officially annoying family doesn’t hold annoyingly official positions, did I?” My smile is a little strained now, and I turn to leave. I’m worried now—without even reading the damn letter.

“Didn’t I earn your trust by now?” His quiet question makes me pause.

I do trust him. But enough to risk not only my life but also my family’s? And if I’m honest, I’m afraid of his reaction, too. Mostpeople grow up with us being the monster in their bedtime story. Gods, not even I am sure that I’m not.

“Are you ready to spill all of your secrets?” I play the ball right back. The way his jaw tenses is answer enough.

How can we ever have a chance together with all the secrets between us?

I smile at him sadly. Maybe it’s foolish to even hope.

“See.” I shrug. “And neither am I.”

I hurry out the door and nearly run into Calix, who is hovering in front of it.

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