I don’t answer. I’ve always hated condescending nicknames.Sweetheart.Love.Baby.
“Damn, tight leash, Sebastian?” Nicasi asks. He’s clearly teasing, eyes bouncing from me to Sebastian. And still, I find myself seething.
What an asshole.
“I’m not a dog,” I snap. “Or do you even have those here?”
Sebastian curls his arm around my shoulders, tugging me sharply against his side. There’s a warning pinch in his grasp. A reminder that my leashis, in fact, tight.
Nicasi’s smile drops.
“Not human…and yet, not of the Echo,” he says. He tilts his head, eyes narrowing. “Is she?—”
“Nicasi,” Sebastian says, tone shifting. “Some questions are better left unasked.”
A heavy silence hangs in the air as I finally realize my slip-up. I roll my lips together, frozen as Nicasi studies us for a strained moment. Then, he turns, disappearing briefly into the attached bedroom. I hold my breath and look at Sebastian. He doesn’t return my gaze. His eyes are steady on the bedroom door.
He relaxes, only slightly, once Nicasi joins us again. The giant man drapes a collection of clothes along a short table and the adjacent couch.
“Look quickly,” he says. Any teasing from before has evaporated. “Be gone by the hour.”
With that Nicasi goes back to his bedroom. He starts to close the door, stopping when only a crack remains.
“You were never here, Sebastian,” he says, a note of warning in his voice that wasn’t there before.
“Understood.”
Sebastian keeps his arm around me until Nicasi disappears behind his closed door.
“What was that?—”
“Look quickly,” Sebastian says, cutting me off. “You’ve only got a few minutes.”
“He’s not worried we’ll steal anything?” I ask. I try to make my voice teasing, but it only sounds shaky.
“Quickly, Grace.”
I swallow, forcing myself not to say another word as I flip through the clothes. They’re not exactly my taste: they’re too bland, too beige, but they’re still better than the ill-fitting black options I had at the manor.
Once I’m done, I drape the clothes over my arm. Sebastian tosses a few strange metal coins onto the table, and we silently depart. We’re no more than a couple steps out the door before Sebastian holds his arms toward me.
This time, I let him carry me without asking twice.
12
DON’T YOU DARE
SEBASTIAN
“Don’t ask,” Grace snaps as she opens the door.
I’ve barely knocked, and she’s already there, glowering at me from the doorway. She typically sulks in the background, pouting while Cora details the progress she’s made—or more often,hasn’tmade.
Still, the last few sessions had been good. Grace moved a book from one shelf to another. She lifted a teacup and accidentally broke it against the ceiling. Today is different. Even if she hadn’t spoken, I would have known. It’s unsettling, the number of things I notice about her now.
I’ve been spending too much time with her. I blame the season. It’s almost spring, and work has fallen to a lull. I’ve already finished our budget, our military enrollment, and the schedule of building repairs, ordered by their greatest need. Now, I’m bored with too much time on my hands and the urge to give every minute toher.
I can’t explain it. Grace is pure, bubbling sunshine, and I should hate it. Instead, I’m growing a never-ending list of her preferences, cataloging them like I might one day need them. Her favorite movies. Meals. Clothes.
