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I didn’t get a chance to bug Fallon for more information because Magnolia was speaking again now.
“So… Is Oaken… Is he here? Or…”
As if unsure what to do with her hands, she grabbed uneasily at her skirt, almost looking like she was about to pick up and start running if only she knew which direction.
“There was a problem,” Warden Tenn said. Behind me, the sound of something hitting the ground made me twist to see our human pilot unloading our bags from the shuttle before closing the door.
This is it. Now’s the time to turn around and get back on that shuttle.
A flash of heat went through my whole body, searing, sending sweat from every pore.
Last chance…
I didn’t take it.
“What kind of problem?” Magnolia was asking. I turned back around, watching her as Fallon’s gaze drilled into the side of my head.
“Oaken had trouble crossing the mountains to get here in time to meet you. There’s a lot of snow out that way, even this late into the spring,” Warden Tenn explained. “He broke his ankle trying to walk his shuldu through a rough patch of it.”
Ah. Shit.
Magnolia was probably the closest thing I’d ever had to a best friend. Pretty fucking sad if I stopped to think about it, considering I’d known her for less than a month. But I could see the crestfallen expression she fought to hide. I could see the subtle slump of her shoulders.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I feel so bad that he got hurt…” She looked away from the group, still clutching at her skirt. She blinked her long lashes rapidly, sniffed once, then swallowed.
“I guess I’m not getting married today, then,” she said in a quiet little voice that made my heart feel all shrivelled up inside. I was suddenly furious at this Oaken idiot for having the balls to not be here today, broken ankle or not. The man could have snapped every stupid bone in his body and he still should have dragged his sorry ass here for Magnolia as far as I was concerned. Fucking crawled here if he had to. She was worth it.
“Can I contact him somehow?” Magnolia suddenly asked. “Make sure he’s alright? And maybe get to know him a little…”
“His data tab ran out of power not long after he contacted me to update me about his injury,” Warden Tenn said, not unkindly. “Last I spoke to him, he was planning to keep moving forward even with the injury. But the snows are hard enough to cross for an able-bodied man. It’s possible he stopped and made camp to heal, or he has turned around to recuperate before attempting the journey again.”
“So you’re telling me we don’t even know if he’s dead or alive right now?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the Warden. I could practically feel my mother losing her shit across the galaxy at my bluntness. But I wasn’t about to beat around the bush, here. Magnolia was the one actually excited about meeting her man. She’d been promised a husband and he wasn’t fucking here.
“Oh, I’m certain he’s alive,” Warden Tenn said with a cool sort of confidence that in any other circumstances I might have admired. “He knows how to survive in the mountains. Not to mention the fact that he’s far too stubborn to die.”
Magnolia didn’t exactly seem comforted by the warden’s words. She was looking around, almost like she still expected Oaken to materialize somehow.
“Oh. Honey. It’ll be alright,” Cherry said soothingly, pulling away from Silar’s side to take Magnolia’s arm in her own. “You can stay with us until the snow up there melts. Then we’ll figure out what to do next.”
“Where will she sleep?” Silar asked his wife with a frown.
Cherry scowled at him, no doubt feeling a little salty about his tone. I couldn’t blame her. I was feeling the same about his unwelcoming reply.
“She can sleep in the bed with me and you can sleep in the kitchen if it comes to it!” Cherry said primly, drawing Magnolia protectively against her side. I didn’t know Cherry very well, but she was earning my respect real fucking fast.
And, it turned out, so was Silar. Because instead of complaining about getting booted out of his own bed, he accepted Cherry’s terms immediately without even a whisper of argument.
“Alright.”
“Oh, no. I couldn’t. You only have the one bed? That wouldn’t be right. You’re newlyweds!” Magnolia cried, shaking her head so fast it was kind of amazing that her braids didn’t come loose from their bun.
She’d been so excited on the shuttle, and now she looked so miserable that I wanted to cry. I hadn’t cried since I was six-fucking-teen.
I reached a tentative hand towards her.
“Magnolia-”
“She will stay with us!”
