Never (Never, #1) (97)

I nod.

“Which dagger was it?” she asks.

“Oh.” I smile at her. “It was one Jamison gave me for my birthday, so I was pleased the minotaur returned it, actuall—”

“Gold and rubies?” she asks.

I nod. “I love it very much.”

“So does he.” She gives me a careful look. “I gave him that dagger.”

“Oh.” I frown. “Should he not have given it to me? Was it—”

“It’s his.” She flashes me a smile that looks a kind of tender I don’t know about. “To do with what he pleases.”

Rune flits ups and whispers something to Itheelia, who gives her a look, and I don’t know what they’re talking about.

“Finish that.” Itheelia points to my teacup before her eyes pinch curiously at me. “He hasn’t said anything to you?”

I look over at her curiously. “About what?”

“About…anything?” She shrugs like she meant nothing by it, but her eyes flicker over my hand. I glance at it confused before I look back up at her.

“No?”

She nods, thinking whatever it is she’s thinking all the way through.

“What?” I frown, not liking the feeling that she knows something about Jamison that I don’t, though I’m quite sure there is plenty.

His mother gives me a sympathetic look. “He keeps his cards close to his chest, doesn’t he?”

My shoulders slump a bit. “Impossibly so.”

“You had a spat,” she says to me.

“Just a tiny one a while back,” I lie. “But not anymore. It’s fine now.”

She nods.

“Did he tell you?” I ask her, but she just shakes her head as she walks over, picks up my empty teacup, and peers into it. Rune flies over, lands on her shoulder, and squints into it as well, both of them for a moment, then Itheelia looks over at me, back to the teacup.

“Hmm,” she says to herself and then takes it away, and right as she does, Rune flies over to me, and with her tiny little hands, she pinches my right cheek a million times.

“Ow!” I try to swat her away, but she just moves to my other cheek and does the same thing again. “Rune!” I growl, and she ignores me, flying behind me and tugging at my hair. “What are you—”

Then—

“Mum?” calls maybe the best voice in all the worlds, and I sit up straighter immediately and toss Rune a grateful look. She’s a better friend than she is a fairy, and she’s a phenomenal fairy.

I look over my shoulder only to catch sight of him as he walks into his mother’s house.

“Mum,” he calls again, and then his eyes land on me. “Oh.” He looks confused but not displeased. “What are y’doing here?”

I say nothing for a few seconds. I don’t know why? Because he’s so lovely to look at, sometimes words escape you.

“I had a fight with Peter.”

“Surprise, surprise,” he says, though he looks pleased.

I give him a look. “I just went for a walk.”

Jamison’s face falters. “And ye came here?”

I purse my lips before I nod.

He frowns a bit, and I like very much the shape his face goes when he goes like this. “No’ to town?”

I shake my head, not too sure what to say.

Itheelia appears behind me. “Just to your mother’s house, darling, so don’t be too vexed.” She gives him a look.

Jamison rolls his eyes at her before they snag on me.

In two steps, he crosses the distance between us, a hand on each of my cheeks as he pulls me into the light.

“What the fuck happened to yer face?” He frowns, but my heart skips a beat.

I shake my head a little bit but not too much, because I don’t want to shake him off.

“It’s fine,” I tell him. “I’m fine.”

He doesn’t let go, stares at me so intensely I swallow heavy, and something starts to pool in my belly.

Jamison breathes heavily through his nose. “Did he do this?”

“No,” I say as Rune trills away unhelpfully.

Jamison looks over at her, and I feel relieved that he doesn’t speak Stj?r too well.

“Who did this?”

I shake my head at him like he’s being silly. “It’s a long story.”

He spins me around to face Itheelia, his hands still on me. “Mum, fix it,” he tells her.*

“Darling.” She rolls her eyes. “Jammie, it’s a scratch.”

“It needs a stitch,” he says, impatient now.

“I don’t want a stitch in my face!” I look back at him.

“It’s deep, Daph,” he says, voice serious. “Ye sleep in a fucking tree. It could get infected.” Then he looks back at his mother, face all serious. “Make it, Mum, now.”

Itheelia walks over to her son, unbothered by how demanding? he’s being. She lifts an eyebrow. “I will make it if you drink a tea.”

He rolls his eyes and waves his hands impatiently. “Nosy witch,” he says under his breath.

“I heard that,” his mother calls back to him.

“Said it so ye would,” he tells her before he gives me a look, moving me away from his mum and Rune. His face goes back to serious. “Bo, why d?dnae ye come to me?”