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“I don’t want to discuss this and you’re hardly a spinster.”
“I only want to know if the stories are true.”
“What stories?” I bit on her bait without thinking.
“Ha!” She pointed a jeweled hairpin at my reflection. “Now she wants to discuss it.”
“That was a cheap trick and I’ve changed my mind. Don’t tell me. You know what they say—comparisons are invidious.”
“Who says that?”
“Very wise people.”
She sniffed at that and fell silent for a few moments. “Have you heard from Walter?” she asked, in a much too casual tone.
“No one is going to hear from that idiot in a very long time.”
“Don’t call him that.”
I studied her face in the mirror and mentally reviewed some of her interactions with Walt. Another human immigrant, but far more contemporary to me, though he’d been in Faerie much longer—yet another time-flow conundrum—Walter was also able to work magic. He’d also tried to kill me in a duel. I’d happily won but had been unhappily tasked with sentencing him.
When he insisted on getting the kind of training I’d received…well, I hadn’t wanted to but I had finally agreed. I’d been a little freaked out about seeing my torturers again—and by Walter’s suicidal impulse to be trained by them—so I hadn’t really paid much attention to Starling as an “and Walter” scenario. But they had been talking up a storm on the way to Marquise and Scourge’s domicile of pain and humiliation.
“You’re not sweet on that little shit, are you?”
She thumped my shoulder with the hairbrush.
“Ow!”
“Oh, that didn’t hurt,” she snapped back. “And that was mean. Don’t call him excrement.”
“Walter is in terrible physical condition, smells bad, lacks all social skills and doesn’t even have very much intelligence. Plus he’s a humbug and will be lucky to come out of that training with his sanity, if he makes it out at all. He’s not for you.”
Starling put her fists on her hips. “You’re not usually cruel. What is your problem?”
“That’s not cruel—or mean. I just don’t want you getting starry-eyed and pining away for this guy who looks much more enticing for being physically and emotionally unavailable.”
She finished my hair in silence, hurt wafting off her. Maybe I had been harsh. What I’d said was the truth, but had I really needed to vocalize all that? There might be more balancing with this cat spirit than I’d considered. Her predator’s perspective left little room for delicacy and consideration.
“I’m sorry,” I offered, as she completed the final touches. “Walt hoped that the training would make him a better person as well as a more effective wizard—he said as much to me. Maybe he’ll emerge as a guy good enough for you.”
She didn’t respond immediately—and didn’t meet my gaze in the mirror, either. Then she wiped her nose with the back of her hand and I felt worse.
“Look,” I added, “if you want me to, I’ll use the crystal scepter to spy on what’s going on over there, see how he’s doing.”
Now she looked up. “Really? You would do that?”
“Yes, I will.” I said it firmly, to make the promise to myself not to back out of it. Never mind that it was a good excuse to get my hands on the scepter again. I felt much better now and I kind of itched to experiment with it.
“That means a lot to me. But I know how you feel about that place and…revisiting anything that happened there. Don’t look. It won’t change anything anyway. Besides, I doubt he’s interested in someone like me.”
The self-deprecation in her voice just about killed me. “That’s ridiculous, Starling.” I stood and took her hands. “This is exactly what concerns me. You are lovely and smart, so talented in so many ways, plus you’re a plain wonderful, caring person. This thing where you worry that no guy will ever want you is destructive. Don’t settle. Hold out for the best.”
“Like you did.” She sniffled a little, eyes filled with tears.
“Believe me. I was all set to settle before I got whisked into Faerie. It’s easy to do. Much easier than holding out. You have to wait for the right one to come along. Sometimes it takes a while.”
“What do I do in the meantime?” She nearly wailed it, as she pulled her hands away and started some rabid tidying up.
