“Do you two have some kind of history?”
His brows furrow. “History? Yes?”
Hesitantly, I scoop up the foreign dish, surprised that I actually do quite like it. “Maybe she’s not too pleased that I’m here.”
“Vera’s not like that.”
“Ugh, no, I mean, maybe she’d prefer it be you andyouonly.”
He squints at me. “What?”
“Never mind,” I mumble. God, he can be really dense sometimes.
Sitri turns smug when he notices I’ve eaten every bite of the lamalias. “Do you want more?” he asks, nodding to my plate.
I shake my head. “I’m fine.”
He proceeds to get up and disappear behind the swinging door anyway. As soon as Vera notices Sitri’s left, she bolts over to me. “Hey, how are you doing?” she asks, brow wrinkling with concern. She pats my hand and then grabs my wrist to study the fading red marks from the blood roots, face appalled.
I lightly tug my arm back and hide it behind the counter. “I’m doing okay.”
“I told you if there’s anything you need, all you have to do is ask. That still stands.”
“Thank you.”
“If you ever need me to send you anything or I don’t know what I could do, but if there’s anything you can think of, just let me know.”
The swinging door clatters as Sitri makes his way back in, and Vera’s eyes grow hard again, mouth pressing into a firm line. She gives my hand a couple of pitying pats before she stomps away.
He settles a plate with more lamalias in front of me. “Thank you,” I murmur distractedly, still puzzling over that interaction with Vera.
“Oh!” I gasp as I put it together, recalling what I’d confided in Vera the last time we spoke. I’d told her Sitrimurdered children. No wonder she’s acting so hostile.“Hey.” I kick him in the shin to get his attention while Vera continues slamming things on the other side of the kitchen. “I think she thinks you’ve…done something,” I whisper.
“What?”
“I mean, I might’ve said something to her…” I trail off, biting at my lip.
“What?”
“She might think that you murdered children,” I whisper sheepishly.
“What?” he gasps.
I grimace.
“You told her that?”
I shrink in my chair. “Yeah, maybe I did tell her that, um, on my first day here.”
His lips mirror his widening eyes.
“I thought it was true!”
“You haven’t bothered to correct her?”
“Forgot. And when you left the kitchens she was saying some things to me but she wasn’t exactly being forthcoming about it, and I didn’t really piece it together until now.”
“Gods. She really believed that?”