Page 183 of A Baron of Bonds
“Don’t. Just forget it. We’re best friends. We always have been, and we always will be.”
“I don’t want to forget it.”
We stopped in the middle of the dancers. He let go of my hand, my waist, and took a step back, shaking his head. “Don’t, Sae. You don’t need to feel like you have something to prove here. You don’t need to find some way to make me happy. I am happy. I’m happy being here every summer with you. There’s nothing more you need to do.”
“Thevin, I?—”
“It’s okay,” he interrupted, his voice breaking. “You’re still my favorite person.” He shrugged, sniffing slightly. “I’ll continue to irritate you, and you’ll continue to tell me where to go. Nothing changes, just like you said.”
He moved forward, pulling me close, his chin resting on my head pressed to his chest.
I should have reversed time. I should have gone back, and my first words at us meeting on the dance floor would be, “Thevin, I love you. I have loved you all my life, and I want to risk all of what we’ve shared if it means I get to be with you.”
But I didn’t.
And then I couldn’t.
Too much time had passed as he hugged me to his chest, and I pressed my cheek against what was solid, and warm, and home.
“Sae?” Pah-Pah tapped my shoulder. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but your mother is calling for you.”
I broke from where I wanted to stay and nodded.
Thevin gave me a small grin, brushing a thumb on my cheek. “Meet me at the meat pies when you’re done?”
I drew breath to speak, but Pah-Pah interrupted.
“I am sorry, dearest, but she is insistent.”
His face was pained as if he could hear the words she spoke to him in command, loud as thunder across the darkening sky.
I looked up to the clouds billowing in, knowing the guests would soon be drenched by a summer rain.
My eyes locked back on Thevin.
“Go, Sae. I’ll see you after at our fort in the grove.” He leaned forward and whispered, “I’ll grab a bottle of wine if you can manage the cheese.”
There he was, as he always had been.
The same Thevin with his taunting mischief written across his face, no sign of his confessions to me the day before..
I lied with a grin, nodding and following Pah-Pah, wondering how my seventeenth birthday had gone so terribly wrong as my name lifted through the rumble of the incoming storm, traveling along the wind.
Chapter 82
Karus
It really was a beautiful party.
The silk banners were strung across the trees in shades of red, gold, green, and blue. I knew Clairannia had chosen them all to represent each of the people she loved most here in Felgren, and I knew she’d never admit it.
The celebration was small, just for those of us who resided in the forest with the addition of Clairannia, Figuerah, and Nyeimah.
Pompeii and Mychael laughed together, dancing to music that played from a spell Clairannia had learned in the Spire.
Moira had shown up on time and had been dressed in a gown of crimson petals, newly green maple leaves fluttering at her waist every time she flew.
Ilyenna was finally able to keep food down and finally showing some growth, her pale cheeks now continually rosy with the glow of motherhood.
