Page 36 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
But Hattie wasn’t laughing now. Nor was her blush the color of raspberries.
Her current expression was elemental: pure ice in her blue eyes, a wildfire blazing across her face. Her freckles might as well have been sparks drifting on a hot wind. Her mouth—a deliciously deep mauve speckled with a few of those sparks—was screwed up in the prettiest scowl he’d ever seen. He felt both chilled and heated by her presence, a hum in the air between them like imminent lightning.
He was a bastard for enjoying her rage, but they’d both grown up in such acontrolledsetting that, to him, her expressiveness had been pure rebellion. No matter how hard her family tried to train the emotion out of her, no matter how hard Hattie had tried to hide her feelings in mixed company, she was still the most emotionally honest person Noble hadever met. And in a life ruled by decorum and lies, it was refreshing to witness the range of her feeling. After all, the uncontainable version of her was the purest version of her. It didn’t matter that the more she emoted, the more Noble had to rein his true feelings in; the burden of holding it together for the both of them had always been worth it to him, just to see her be herself.
“How are youhere?” Hattie exclaimed, touching her temple as if his presence pained her (It probably did, he thought bitterly). “This has to be a cruel joke organized by the Fates themselves.”
“If only,” Noble muttered.
Phina shifted her weight, eyeing the two of them. “Am I missing—”
“You’re an herbal alchemist?” Hattie was shrill, fuming, as if he’d stolen something that was meant to be hers. “How is thatpossible?”
“Metalworker, actually,” Noble corrected, folding his arms across his chest.
Hattie’s eyes tracked the movement, lingering on his biceps.
It was a stark reminder of the tenuousness of their reunion. The last thing they needed was Phina—or anyone else—catching on to their…familiarity. Noble’s father’s reputation spanned the continent; connecting Hattie to Noble’s family could lead someone to deduce her true identity, and that wouldn’t just put Hattie at risk, it would endanger Raina’s future, too.
Thankfully, Hattie was too angry to linger on whatever remnants of ill-advised attraction she still felt for him. “Your Oath tattoo implies you’re a knight, not an adept,” she stated, jutting her chin in the direction of the faded black ring around his neck.
“Retired knight.”
“And which Order was that again?”
“Nice try.”
She scowled.
He couldn’t tell Hattie his former Order even if he wanted to—and besides, that was off topic. Sort of.
“I’m not an adept, either.” He lifted his wrist, showing off his Oath of Allegiance tattoo, which was thinner and more faded in color than the mark of an Adept Oath. “I’m just here to utilize the forge.”
“You’re as much a part of my team as anyone else,” Phina said, gesturing to the sprawling lab below, before regarding Hattie again. “Noble is our lead metal alchemist on this project, just returning from a year-long apprenticeship in Waldron—though I take it you know him better than he let on?”
“It was my job to keep to myself,” Noble reminded them both coolly.
For a moment, Hattie looked…caught. “We don’t know each otherthatwell.” Her eyes flicked to his, narrowed. Then she rested her fists on her hips. “He probably downplayed our familiarity because he was embarrassed to admit that he never tipped his barkeep.”
A small, surprised cough burst out of him at her blatant lie, but rather than defending himself, he shrugged. “You got me.”
Phina watched the exchange carefully, as if she were trying to make sense of his and Hattie’s dynamic.
Good luck with that.
“I always forget how insular small towns can be,” Phina remarked finally.
“That’s one way to put it,” Noble mumbled.
Hattie’s arms fell to her sides, limp. “Why didn’t you tell me, Noble?”
Her anger was dissipating, leaving behind an ashen pallor. She was hurt, he realized. More hurt than a stranger ought to be about another stranger’s secrets—but when it came to their friendship, she’d always been a terrible actress.
Noble itched to comfort her, tell hereverything, but he had to keep up the chilly act. Keep her at arm’s length. He clenched his molars, assuming a stern expression. “Wasn’t my place.”
“He was under strict orders,” Phina added. “No one outside the program was permitted to know why he was in Waldron.”
“Is Richold part of the program, too?” Hattie asked. “Is that why you were studying with him?”
