Page 59 of Lured By Shadows

I had to look away before my thoughts wandered too far ahead of me.

That was when I noticed Eunice watching us. Her expression remained calm, pleasant even, but her eyes held something I couldn’t quite read. Curiosity threaded with quiet amusement, perhaps.

When she spoke, her voice stayed soft. “How is everything at school faring, dear?”

It took me a second to realize she meant me, and I straightened quickly, instinctively falling into polite conversation. “Oh, uh, it’s going about as well as I expected, honestly.”

Without thinking, my gaze flicked toward Culver, warmth slipping into my tone. “Culver’s been… really helpful. I’ll give him that.”

Eunice’s smile didn’t change, but something knowing slipped into her words.

“Culver can be a bit… careful at times,” she said, her gaze drifting briefly toward her son. “I hope you’ll look past that.”

“Careful” felt polished, a cleaner way of saying distant or guarded. I turned the word over in my head before shaking it off.

“I don’t really see Culver as quiet,” I admitted, glancing at him again. “I mean, yeah, he’s definitely antisocial on the surface, but…” I trailed off. “He’s been talkative with me, I guess.”

My voice softened near the end, and I held his gaze a second longer than I probably should have, suddenly aware of myself.

“I mentioned you to my mother,” he said quietly, his tone settling into something more serious. “I am not very talkative with most people. But you are… an exception.”

Exception.

Even knowing the only reason I was an exception was because I was my mother’s daughter, part of me still wanted to tuck the word somewhere safe. Another part recoiled instantly, reminding me how stupid I’d already felt tonight for reading too deeply into things.

Friend. Not friend. Something blurry in between.

I still didn’t know where I stood with him, and somehow that uncertainty exhausted me more than anything else. I rubbed my thumb along the edge of my sleeve, grounding myself in the texture before my thoughts could spiral again.

Julius spoke up then, his voice slicing neatly through the tension.

“Dinner was lovely,” he said calmly, “but I believe it is time to end early this evening. We depart for Ireland first thing in the morning.”

“Ireland?” I blurted, surprise slipping out raw and unfiltered. My head snapped toward Culver.

Of course, these people casually vacationed in castles.

He nodded, measured as always. “Yes—”

“Caerwyn Castle!” Anna cut in before he could finish, clapping her hands together as though she were already there.

It sounded straight out of a fantasy novel.

Liam leaned closer to her with a crooked smile. “Yes, and remember the last time you decided to play hide-and-seek?”

Anna laughed and nudged him.

“And you took your time finding me in that enormous castle,” she said before leaning in to steal a kiss that definitely did not need an audience. “When you finally did…”

I looked away before my face betrayed me, heat creeping across my cheeks. I told myself it wasn’t jealousy. It was discomfort. Definitely that. Still, the intimacy settled strangely in my chest, a reminder that this family shared a history stretching far beyond anything I could touch.

I turned back to Culver instead, folding my arms loosely just to give myself something to do.

“So… how many times have y’all been to Ireland?”

He paused as though sifting through memories rather than answering a simple question.

“Too many times to count. Mother loves it there. Each visit, we explore a different region. It would be dreadfully boring to always return to the same city.” He tilted his head slightly. “But Caerwyn… it has been some time since we visited.”