Reaching Answers (Artemis University #8) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,16
them and they loved staying with me.
Mostly because they loved cooking and I ate it all. Or so I kept teasing them.
It wasn’t untrue though.
We headed through the portal and I could tell Neldor had a lot to say, but I ignored it, wishing him a goodnight and heading to help unload. I was pleasantly surprised to find it all done… Which left having a “talk” with Darby.
Balls.
I sighed and trudged up the stairs, feeling dread as I reached his room and raised my hand to knock. I tried to make myself, but my hand wouldn’t respond.
“Do you really not want to see me?” he muttered from the other side of the door, startling me enough that I jumped away.
I’d been so lost in my head I hadn’t even felt him there. “No, of course I do. I’m just not sure I have it in me for whatever kind of talk you want.”
He opened the door and adjusted his glasses before folding his arms over his chest. “That’s fair, but I promise I don’t want problems either. I was a jerk earlier and I have been. I wanted to apologize for that and see if we can’t get back on the same page.”
“I’m not sure I have the energy for all of that tonight, Darby,” I warned. “Finals were hard on me too.”
“And whatever just happened with Neldor,” he muttered, studying me closely.
“I wasn’t going to hide it from you,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest as well.
“Will you tell me what happened with Jordan Holmes and the others?”
“Not yet.”
He didn’t reply right away. “Why?”
I cleared my throat and didn’t say the words, but I knew he felt my answer when he flinched. There wasn’t really a nice way to say “I don’t want to tell you my crimes if I’m not sure we’re going to make it.”
“I love you.”
“I’m just not your agra anymore,” I whispered as I took a step away. “You fought so hard to win me back, but I’m not what you really wanted. You just didn’t want to be the one who lost me.”
“No, no, that is not what is going on here,” he growled, grabbing my arm and pulling me to him and into the room. He kicked the door closed and hugged me, kissing my hair. “You are my agra. You are. I felt stupid saying it when I’ve felt you slipping through my fingers. You get further and further away from me and it’s killing me.”
“You’ve been putting the space here,” I reminded him.
“I felt it here for a while and then with the thing with Mel—”
“You know, another woman would be pissed you didn’t side with your girlfriend and tell people that, but sure, snap at me that I went with Neldor without asking your fucking permission,” I bitched, shocking both of us from the way his arms loosened. I took the hint and pulled away. “I’m going to bed.”
“Wait, please wait.”
“You let me go.”
“I didn’t. I wasn’t.”
I shook my head and went for the door. Wasn’t he?
Weren’t they both?
I really didn’t fucking know anymore.
4
I slept because I was exhausted, my mind unable to calm down, so it was the fitful kind of rest that wasn’t all that helpful. I stumbled down the stairs after deciding against a shower to wake up and start my day since I didn’t know what the plan was. Plus, it was cold. I didn’t like having the heat on high in a big house and wasting energy, so it was colder than most would like probably.
And right then, I was whiney and suffering for it.
Which meant I was making cocoa with tons of marshmallows to start my day.
Instead, I found Craftsman cooking with the hobgoblins and my kitchen packed.
I sighed. Heavily.
“Good morning, love,” he greeted, coming over with an exceptionally large mug of cocoa and some sort of dehydrated fae fruit mixed in. There were so many marshmallows that there was a slim chance I’d make it to wherever I was sitting and didn’t drop at least one.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, blinking at the dedicant treat. “Nummy.”
“Yes, well, you’ve been having a very rough go of things and people haven’t been as understanding as they should be,” Irma said… While shooting death glares at Darby and Lucca.
So Lucca was there? Was he staying with me too?
I seriously needed to catch up on several things.
“Thank you for coming and helping,” I said to Irma and the hobgoblins. “Chief filled you in?”