Renee takes on an air of indignant satisfaction. "It wasn't so hard."
I watch her incredulously. "I beg to differ. Do you know how many simple requests I've sent that man, only to be denied for the most random of reasons? When Caz and I ripped my cloak, I asked him to summon the tailor for a fitting. He denied my request on the grounds that cloaks were no longer deemedsuitable. What does that even mean?"
They encourage me with their bemusement.
"Or, when I asked to finally start training with the rest of you. You remember what he told me then?"
When Caz nods, there's an exhausted quality to the movement. "Don't I.”
“I’d been at Neveridge for months, and that whole time all he kept telling me was to make the most out of my new home. I didn’t think I could, but then I met you all, and thought maybe I had finally found some semblance of belonging and family, and just when I thought I could see myself in the Crimson Guard and was finally warming up to the idea of my new life he told me—"
"He said he couldn't trust you to be trained and not turn around and murder him in his sleep." My head jerks to Renee, surprised by her near-perfect memory. From behind lowered lashes,she adds, “He was afraid of you."
"How do you kn—" I eye her warily, catching the meaning behind her words and in the subtle ways that she shifts in her seat. "Don’t tell me… Do I haveyouto thank for his reconsidering?"
This time, there is no flushing to her cheeks. No embarrassment. No frustration. Only resounding pride.
Caz's mouth is unhinged beside me. Even Ursulette looks surprised, if not impressed.
Part of me always knew I had someone to thank, I just never knew who. At the time, outside of Caz and Ursulette, I hadn't made many friends at Neveridge. Renee and I had met and periodically interacted at one social gathering or another, but I wouldn't have expected it to have been her to speak on my behalf.
"How did you do it?"
Foolishly, I make no attempt to mask my wonderment, and in so doing, I spark a small flame of hope, the same one she always has at the ready, just in case of moments like these when I seem truly awestruck by her.
She is a lioness ready to pounce. "I can be very persuasive when I want to be. And I almost always get what I want."
The tension between us builds in the extended silence that drops like a fallen column in the room.
"Well," Caz says with an exaggerated sigh. Both hands slap on his knees as he hoists himself up. "I need another drink. Anyone else?"
Grateful for the interruption, I raise a finger. Renee does the same, but she stares only at me. When Ursulette shakes her head, Caz doesn't insist or wait for deliberation before continuing to the bar.
"I guess we should call it," Ursulette says, gently ushering Rhain up from her lap. "I think that's a night for us. As always, it's been fun."
"Some of the most fun we've had in ages," Rhain agrees, sitting upright. He takes her hand from his shoulder, dusting each knuckle with a kiss. "Let's not wait as long before the next convening, yeah?"
"Wouldn't dream of it,” I say before the guilt can set in.
While the two of them stand, stretching limbs that have gone numb from lounging for too long, Caz returns with a fresh round of the sangwine, and the faintest hint of red tingeing the fangs poking out from his lips.
"I know you passed up on my offer, but I'm a stubborn ass so I brought you each a drink and I expect it not to go to waste."
Rhain takes his without a second thought.
Ursulette, however, has never been so easily manipulated. In fact, of the few who I know to have tried, they’re all maimed or dead now.
With childlike impatience, Caz groans. "Ugh, please? Do it, for me?This could be our last taste of blood as a family before we make our way back to Neveridge."
Ursulette considers him, but ultimately takes a drink in one hand, smacking him upside the head with the other.
"Hey!" He winces, the remaining glass of sangwine almost lost.
"Don't you ever try to strong-arm me into doing something I said I wasn't interested in doing again. Understood?” He nods, and just like that, her ire is gone. She loops her weaponized arm through Rhain's, sheets of white hair tumbling over his shoulder like an avalanche when she rests her head."He's so unnecessarily dramatic. We’ll be hunting together tomorrow.”
A haughty snort escapes Renee at her brother’s demise.
"Not all of us." Caz gives me the side-eye, utterly oblivious of his grave mistake until it's too late.
