Page 73 of Dark & Dreadful Brutes

Tears flooded my eyes, and I squeezed them shut.

Veil, I needed a distraction.

Sleeping more wasn’t going to do me a damn bit of good.

My stomach rumbled, and I placed a hand on it, silently shushing it.

“I can take you to the dining hall,” Coarse said, his voice low and rumbly in my mind.

My first instinct was to turn him down just because I remembered how angry he had been the first time I saw him. But, I wouldn’t be able to find the food on my own, and it wasn’t really safe for me to leave alone.

“Okay,” I whispered back, wiping the tears quickly. “Thank you.”

It took me a few minutes to wiggle my way out from between Ravv and Gleam, and Ravv made a few grumpy noises when I did, but I eventually broke free.

I wrapped my arms around my middle as I followed Coarse out of the room, both of us peeking both ways before we slipped into the hallway. The doors swung shut silently behind us, and my feet didn’t make a sound on the hard, smooth ice beneath them.

“Thank you,” I repeated to Coarse, as we walked.

He only grunted in response. It wasn’t much different than what Ravv would’ve done, I knew.

“Stay close,” he told me as we turned a corner. “I don’t know who will be in there. When we’re inside, I’ll let you know which fae to avoid.”

It felt too repetitive to thank him again, so when he glanced at me, I nodded.

He didn’t seem angry at all anymore. Just a bit growly, and I could handle growly.

We stepped into a room fairly similar to the dining hall back in Jirev, and I looked around at all of the tables scattered through the room. Most of them were made of ice, like the castle itself, but all of the chairs looked much softer and cozier. There were a few rugs on the floor too, warming the space up. Though I questioned the wisdom of a rug in a dining room, it brought the space to life in a way I appreciated.

…and worried I might burn.

Veil, I needed to keep my magic under control.

There were only a dozen or so fae in the room with us, alongside their idorr companions, so at least it wasn’t too loud.

Elwynne waved me over, and relief spread through me.

She would prevent it from getting too awkward.

There was an open seat at her table, and one of the fae sitting beside her shifted seats at her request, his bonded idorr moving too. The man on her other side got up and walked through a door nearby, but his idorr remained sitting, so I assumed he was coming back.

I took the chair that had been vacated first, and Coarse folded himself into the space beside it, lowering his head to his paws but keeping his eyes opened and narrow.

He hadn’t been joking when he mentioned protecting me.

Elwynne introduced me to everyone around the table, and the man sitting beside her eventually came back with a plate of food. He was just as massive as Ravv, with dark brown skin, and deep crimson hair braided and tied up in a huge bun. He gave me a dramatic bow as he did, winking. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, my queen.”

I snorted.

As if I’d ever be anyone’s queen. Even if Ravv decided to pursue that whole life-partners thing, I would never be a ruler.

Elwynne gave the man a good-natured smack on the shoulder, grabbing the plate from his hands and setting it in front of me. “Sit down, Orvay.”

He grinned as he stepped back around her and took his seat again. “Can’t say I ever expected Ravv to fall for a squishy little human with red hair.”

My face warmed at the insults.

“Sometimes it looks orange,” Elwynne tossed back, winking at me. “And she didn’t used to be squishy. I think he takes pride in the way he’s fed her enough to soften her up.”

---