Page 13 of A Storm in Every Heart
I file into the room behind Jett, and find that Fox has beaten us there and is already sitting at the table. He raises his blonde head and nods at us in silent greeting.
Without waving back, Jett grimaces and sinks into the empty chair. After a moment he slumps forward and puts his head down on the table. I glance questioningly at Fox, who unsurprisingly says nothing.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” I ask, walking around the table to my usual seat. “I know you’re not this exhausted from flying back from the harbor—even if you did go faster than usual. What’s wrong with you?”
Jett lifts his head slightly to meet my eyes over his folded arms. “Do you have any idea how much sailors drink?”
I bark out a startled laugh, my memory immediately casting back to hearing the sounds of merriment coming from the deck of my father’s ship while I lay awake in bed wishing I was old enough to be included. “As it happens, I do.”
“Well, let’s just say I wouldn’t have been able to get half the information I gathered without hanging around the right taverns.”
“Did it ever occur to you to pretend to drink?”
Jett’s brow wrinkles. “No.”
I hide a smile. “Well, maybe next time it will.”
The door swings open and Alix walks in, clearly flustered. It looks as if she went back to the house to change her clothes because she’s now dressed in a mishmash of Fae and human clothing, with a corseted top that looks to be from Ellender and a pair of stretchy leggings from the human realm. Her long brown hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail and her smudged mascara has turned into a smokey ring around her eyes that looks almost intentional.
“I see you all wanted to get started right away too.” She looks around, seeming confused for the first time. “Where’s Kas?”
I don’t answer.
I also noticed that Kastian was missing the moment we entered the room. He’s usually the first one to these meetings—always the overly responsible golden boy—now, I can’t help but wonder what he’s doing.
The door opens again and I look up, expecting to seeHis Majesty. A biting comment is on the tip of my tongue, but it’s not Kastian. It’s Aurelia.
Like Alix, she’s also dressed in a mix of human and Fae clothing, with a purple gown and a gray hooded sweatshirt on top. Her dark hair is tied back in a slightly messy braid, showing off the row of gold and silver hoops that decorate her pointed ears. “Morning,” she yawns, blinking blurry eyes at us.
Alix reaches down the front of her corset and pulls out the large gold watch that Daemon gave her when she kept complaining that the time change between the human realm and Ellender was giving her something called “Jett’s lag.” She smiles at Aurelia. “It’s nearly 2:00 p.m.”
“Oh, is it?” Aurelia frowns. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve been working all night…and the morning too, I suppose.”
“Are you joining us for the meeting?” Alix asks.
Aurelia shrugs and sits down across from me, next to Fox. “I thought I might.”
“What have you been working on?” I ask.
“Weather,” she says cryptically, a spark of wicked excitement in her eyes.
Sometimes I forget that Aurelia and I are similar in age, and that she’s decades older than Alix. There’s something about her petite frame and excitable personality that gives the impression that she’s in her early twenties. Now, sitting next to tall and muscular Fox, she looks especially tiny.
Jett raises his head off the table. “What kind of weather? Controlling it, or…”
“That’s a dangerous idea,” Fox says flatly.
As always happens when Fox speaks, all eyes turn to him. He talks so little that everything he says holds so much more weight than it would otherwise.
“Why do you say that?” Aurelia asks.
He just shrugs, looking away from her. I frown. If anyone else reacted that way I’d assume there was something wrong, but with Fox’s silent nature it’s hard to tell.
Before anyone else can speak, the door opens for a third time and Daemon walks in. He stops in the doorway and looks around, his brow furrowing. “Where’s Kas?”
“I said the same thing,” Alix replies, gesturing for Daemon to sit down.
Daemon’s frown deepens. “I don’t want to have this conversation without him.”
