Page 203 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

Cai cocked his head to the side, giving my brother one prolonged perusal. “You’re too handsome for bait. Perhaps…an offering?”

My brother smiled. “Still bait with a bow.”

“You’d look good with a bow.”

“Assumptions,” Eren hummed. “Do I assume you are presumptuous by character or good with your imagination?”

Cai’s mouth twitched at my brother’s words. “A bit of both?”

I slammed a hand on the table and then pointed between the two. “If you must be like that, do it when I am not present. I’m feeling that slice of lemon cake I ate back in my mouth.”

Cai pointed back at me. “Don’t do it to spite Kilian.”

That made me frown. Had he been recruited in Kilian’s little fan group? “You two friends now all of a sudden?”

My friend gave me a coy look. “You and Lazarus more than a short ride before dawn now? Emphasis on short.”

Eren’s eyes doubled in size. “You and that general—”

I raised a hand. “Don’t finish, please. And no, not anymore.”

My brother nodded and leaned back. “Does Kilian know?”

My temples throbbed. “I will pretend you didn’t just ask me that.”

“Kilian knows,” Cai said and turned to give me a wide grin. “Had the unfortunate opportunity to hear first-hand how Lazarus has handled you. Kilian would have grilled him. Almost grilled him. But the birdbrain was smart enough to back away first.”

Oh gods.

Thora blinked in wonder at Nia’s tales from Eldmoor. The two had hit it off immediately upon meeting. My sister was curious and Nia had a brain the size of an encyclopaedia. The two were a recipe for sleep inducing conversation.

“So,” my little sister said, arranging her cross-legged position on my bed. “You planted a poison in their borders? To nullify the veil around Red Coven?”

My friend who sat facing her nodded. “It will take a while to grow, but yes, essentially. Blue gyre is the opposite to mirk root when used carefully.” She pointed a finger over a tiny blue three leafed flower on her book. “It has to be planted with silver otherwise it will bear no effect. Before I dropped the seeds, I had them dipped in powdered silver. It will eventually weaken the veil enough for me to go through.”

Thora blinked half amazed and confused, flipping through Nia’s book. “There are material things that can nullify magic?”

“So many.”

My sister gaped a little. “How do you know all of this?”

“I wanted to be a healer once.”

“Once? You don’t want to be one anymore?”

Nia shook her head. “I was asked to heal a criminal during my apprenticeship, and I refused to help someone who deserved to rot for what he’d done. Apparently, a healer has no choice in whom they heal, the duty is to just heal. You cannot be selective, but I couldn’t help but be selective.”

My sister nodded vehemently. “I’d have to agree with you.”

I’d not said a word. Only listening to the two go back and forth about things as simple as life itself. And I listened. Stared. Until they’d both had fallen asleep after exhausting their voice cords with all sorts of conversation. Now wedged between Nia and Thora, I laid back on the massive bed with no desire to sleep while the two snored softly.

If I closed my eyes, would it all disappear?

Could one be afraid to be happy?

The little clear sparkling stone decorating my ceiling glistened and it was all it took for me to think his words. How had I forgotten him?

A shadow flickered on my balcony, and I immediately rose from the bed in its direction. Carefully stepping around Nia so I wouldn’t wake her. Flutters crawled my body with anticipation as I tiptoed outside.