Page 93 of A Promise of Peridot
“I thought it would make you happier!” Mari’s voice had risen too many octaves. “But I get it now. You don’t truly want human connection with anyone. That’s probably why you haven’t told Fedrik yet.”
“Mari,” I warned.
“Told me what?” I cut my gaze from her to Fedrik, but only confusion rippled in his eyes.
Griffin saved me an unintelligible answer. “Come, now, witch. That’s not—”
“And you.” Mari whirled on him. “Talk about emotionally stunted. Holy Stones.”
Before she could further tear into the man who had just killed for her, I cut in. “Give the commander a break. You’re one to talk about leading people on.”
Griffin stood, his fisted hands nearly shooting clean through his pockets. “While you two fight like whining alley cats, I’m going to go find some...” He took a ragged inhale. “I don’t know. Some peace and quiet.”
“Nobody was talking to you anyway,” Mari huffed. Griffin just pinched his brow in a practice of patience and made for the wet palm fronds. “We arefriends,” Mari spit at me.“A word I am beginning to think you never understood the meaning of.”
“And what about Ryder?”
“What about him?” She was nearly shrieking.
“You, like everyone else in the world, are totally enamored of him.” The words stung me, too, as I said them. Another person who preferred my shiny, charming brother. The sibling that wasn’t scarred and bruised and broken. “Did you forget how he left me to risk my life when my family fled Abbington?”
I was surprised by the venom in my words. I had never realized how much that hurt. That he had allowed me to practically walk to my death.
Mari straightened, as if preparing to say something she hadbeen debating for a while. “No, I never did. And you should tell him that you haven’t, either. But it’s easier not to, right? To hold everyone at arm’s length so it won’t all hurt so much? I mean, Arwen, you barely even mourned the loss of your own mother.”
“She wasn’t my mother.” The words slipped from me before I could process them.
Mari flinched as if hit.
“She wasn’t... Not really.”
“This is exactly what I’m talking about.Of courseshe was your mother, Arwen. Whether or not she gave birth to you is beside the point. I never knew my mother, but if I had, I sure wouldn’t come up with a reason to say her death didn’t matter.”
“Ineversaid that.”
“No, but you act like it. And worse, like yours won’t matter, either.” She shook her head and patted down the fabric still bunched in her arms as if our argument had wrinkled the fabric. “I’m going to go find Griffin. He can’t see well in the dark.”
And with that she stalked off into the forest.
Somewhere in between a senseless squabble about boys and Mari’s analysis that I didn’t so much as mind my mother’s brutal murder, the rain had ceased. The smell of soaked leaves stung my nose, and the rustles and chirps of forest creatures no longer seeking dry shelter filled the silence between the remaining three of us.
Kane stood from the tree he had been leaning against and quirked a brow at me. “Nobody knows that about Griffin.”
“Yeah, well.” I sighed, rubbing my face in frustration. “She’s very observant.”
I could feel both Kane and Fedrik’s eyes on each of my movements.
“She’s just taking her anger about the Stones-damned amulet out on me,” I said. “It’s fine. It’ll be fine.”
Kane’s jaw feathered in thought. “Actually, I don’t think that’s what she’s upset about.”
The softness in his voice made me want to wring his neck. I crossed the campsite to him and drove a pointed finger into his chest. “Don’t even start. I wouldn’t be dealing with any of this if it wasn’t for you.”
Only a warning danced in his eyes. “Are you finding that denial to be working very well for you, bird?”
“Hey, don’t talk to her like that.”
Kane turned to Fedrik, his voice terribly calm. “I will end you.”
