“Gods, Ark, I’m sorry to just dump that all on you at once. You’re really easy to talk to, you know that?”
“I get that a lot, actually,” I laughed.
It was such a strange contradiction. Though I often felt like a spectator, an outsider looking in on the human experience, I had also studied it. My empathy became an obsession sometimes, an urge to dig deep. A selfish impulse to sink my teeth into what made other people tick, as if it might explain what I was lacking. And I could often taste the emotional wounds of others long before they ever revealed them out loud.
Though that was also why I had a tendency to keep to myself. It was overwhelming,feelingso much all the godsdamned time. I could never seem to turn it off. To then inadvertently collectthe burdens of others, to experience that weight alongside them whether I liked it or not, to feel their emotions as if they were my own… It was a lot.
Very few people that I had encountered in life were worth that headache. People like Laurel, like Kieran… they were exceptions.
“Lost in thought over there, Asher?” Laurel teased. “Or just very focused on capturing that mushroom with flawless precision?”
“Both,” I laughed, finishing up my sketch of an unfamiliar cluster of fungi. “Definitely both. Gods, I love mushrooms.”
“Um, I think you meanmajestic mycelium,” Laurel said with a smirk, mimicking Ezra’s mannerisms.
Wistfully, I wished I had brought my watercolor kit so that I could capture the pale lilac hues of the stalk and the vibrant, lacy little skirt that was a deeper violet. Instead, I tried to commit the colors to memory so that I could go look it up later.
“Okay, Asher. The lecture wrapped up an hour ago. I love you to death, but I’m starving, and I get the feeling that if left to your own devices, you’d stay here sketching until nightfall. Come on.”
Rising to her feet, Laurel plucked my journal out of my hands, ruffling my hair affectionately.
“If we must,” I sighed.
“We must,” Laurel replied, handing my journal back. She seemed much more at ease now that she had gotten some of that shit off her chest. “All this mushroom talk has me craving that chanterelle & thyme galette from the Arrowhead.”
At the mention of food, my stomach rumbled and I realized that, yet again, I had forgotten to eat breakfast. Laurel gave me a pointed look, as if she knew, and reached down to tug at my arm.
“Come along, bookwyrm. My treat.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kieran
Jeremiah and Hans were prattling on about something unimportant, or at the very least, somethinguninterestingagain. For a pair of grown ass men, they sure got themselves deeply invested in the Atlassian rumor mill.
I had distanced myself from the nonsense of the political elite a long time ago, and didn’t particularly care to reinvest my time or energy into that shit unless I absolutely had to. And sometimes I did have to, due to the nature of my work—but this was not one of those occasions.
Who the fuckcaredthat some heiress from Vindyrst had run off with another House heir? And who could blame her? The Zephirin family was not unlike the Mirkovics: it was filled to the brim with notoriously awful people.
I was about to say as much when I stilled, my ears pricking up when I heard a familiar, sparkling peal of laughter several paces behind us. Another round of louder giggles told me all I needed to know. That was most certainly Arken and her partner in crime, Laurel Ansari.
“Isn’t that your captain?”Laurel was whispering, in a hushed tone that was far from subtle.
I smirked at the way Laurel seemed to emphasize the “your” in that sentence—apparently blissfully unaware that the Conduits in my cadre of the Guard were trained to use our arcana for enhanced hearing. I paused mid-step, pretending to examine the available goods at a nearby stall, and resisted the urge to turn around. As much as I wanted to see her pretty face, I was having fun eavesdropping.
“Isn’t thatyourConduit?” Jeremiah parroted beneath his breath, nudging my shoulder as I pretended to listen to the vendor hawk his wares. Meanwhile, Arken and Laurel were deliberating on whether or not they should approach us.
“I think we should invite them.”
“Oh gods, don’t you dare,”Arken replied with a stern whisper.“He’s with his lieutenants, Laur.”
“So?”
“So leave them alone! They’re probably working.”
“I can think of a number of petty crimes we could commit to get their attention,”Laurel laughed.
“Do! Not!”Arken hissed.