“Careful where you wander unannounced out here,” I said, approaching her. “There are at least a dozen couples fucking somewhere in this maze.”
She laughed a little as she turned to me. A bit of my concern eased when I saw the overflowing plate of food in her hand. If she’d been empty-handed, I’d know we were really in trouble.
“Surprised you’re not one of them,” she said.
“Yet.”
That thought distracted me briefly. I was joking, but also, it wasn’t a bad idea.
She scoffed, then took a bite of a pastry. “That went well,” she said, through a mouthful. “The ceremony. The party, too. I haven’t seen anyone die yet.”
I wasn’t sure if that was the measure of a successful royal vampire party or an unsuccessful one.
But that thought faded away as I watched her. She was now carefully avoiding eye contact, looking very interested in the flowers.
“Thought you were done keeping secrets from me, Mish,” I said.
She stopped mid-chew. Then turned to me, wide-eyed, dismayed.
“She said she wouldn’t tell you!”
She?
My eyes narrowed. “She?”
Mische’s eyes widened more. “Fuck,” she hissed.
“Right. Fuck. Who’s she? Oraya?”
“I’ve got to go look at the—”
She started to turn away, but I grabbed her elbow.
“Mische. What the hell is wrong?”
She let out a long sigh, then turned back to me. “I just—I didn’t want to do this here.”
“Do what?”
I hated when suspicions were confirmed. Mische hadn’t been herself the last few weeks. She hadn’t been the same since the prince. Or—who was I kidding? She hadn’t been the same since the Moon Palace. My gaze fell to her arms, and the long gloves covering the burn scars she didn’t let anyone see—even me.
“What, Mische?” I asked, more gently.
She nudged food around her plate with her fork. “I’m… I decided I’m going to go away for a while.”
My heart sank.
“Away? Where?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Everywhere. Anywhere.”
“We already did that. You and I. We saw everything worth seeing.”
“We never made it to the Lotus Islands.”
“I have. They’re not that great.”
She still wouldn’t look at me.
“Mische, if this is because of the House of Shadow—” I started.
“It’s not,” she said, too quickly. “It’s—argh.” She winced, squeezing her eyes shut, then set her plate down on a stone wall.
“Whatever the House of Shadow does, we will deal with it,” I said, voice low. And fuck, I meant that. “We’ll protect you. I’d never, never, let them—”
“I know,” she said. “Trust me, I know. It’s not about that.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well—” She shrugged, opening her hands. “You have to. I was never meant for staying still, Raihn. You know that. Not even—before.”
Funny how hundreds of years later, she still stumbled over it every time she referenced her Turning.
But she was right. I did know that. That’s why Mische and I had made such good companions for so long. We were running from a lot together. Content to spend eternity letting the wind take us where it would.
“I thought that, too,” I said. “But…”
My voice trailed off. Because I hadn’t really thought about it this way before—that I actually felt like I had a home now, beside Oraya. I didn’t have to run from anything anymore.
For all the times I’d reassured Oraya about her safety, I’d never felt safe myself. Not until, I realized, now.
“This can be good, Mische,” I said. “You have a home here.”
She smiled weakly. “You have a home here. This isn’t my home.”
But, I wanted to say, I thought your home was always with me.
But none of this was about me.
For a long time, Mische had been my little sister. I’d treated her as something to be protected. But she wasn’t a child. She was an adult, and a damned capable one.
“When?” I said.
“Not for a while still. I told Oraya maybe a few weeks—”
Oraya. Oh, I’d almost forgotten about that interesting little bit.
“Speaking of Oraya,” I said, “why do I have to start talking to my wife to find out what’s going on in your head?”