*
Lily and Rowan didn’t even try to leave their snug nest until noon, when hunger for something more substantial than fruit drove them out of bed. Rowan helped lace Lily into a soft suede-like wearhyde dress with a fringe-hemmed skirt, and then braided a swan feather into her hair while she wrapped her feet and calves in a lovely pair of beaded moccasin boots. When they finally did emerge and made their way to the inner campfire to eat, Lily couldn’t bear to be more than a step away from Rowan. She knew she was underfoot, but she couldn’t help it. He’d just have to learn how to cook with her arms around his waist.
“You’re alive,” Caleb said, grinning at Rowan and Lily as he joined them around the fire. “We thought we were going to have to send in a rescue party.”
Rowan smiled while he worked, his face tilted down to hide what might have been a blush, but he didn’t take Caleb’s bait. The two Tristans had come with Caleb, followed closely by Breakfast and Una, and Lily noticed that her Tristan looked sullen and withdrawn. Rowan noticed, too.
I love having you close, Lily, but maybe for Tristan’s sake you should go sit down.
Lily nodded and reluctantly left him to join Breakfast and Una at the table. “What’d we miss?” she asked, tearing off a piece of bread.
“Well, three people came up to me and started talking in Iroquois like they knew me,” Breakfast said. “So that was interesting.”
Caleb turned to Tristan. “Who was that guy who looks just like Breakfast?” Caleb asked, frustrated that he couldn’t remember.
“I never met him,” Tristan replied.
Caleb let it go, but Lily got the sense that he was saying something in mindspeak, and Lily hoped it had something to do with cheering up. Caleb turned to Lily and changed the subject. “The sachem wants to see you when you’re ready.”
“Yeah,” Lily replied, suddenly frowning. “Whenever he’s free is fine, I guess.”
“I’ll see if he’s free now,” Caleb replied. He stood and left before Lily could come up with a reason to stop him.
Lily had no idea what she was going to say to Alaric. She stared at the ground, desperately trying to come up with a plan. She felt Rowan brush her shoulder and looked up, startled. He was holding a bowl.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
She shook her head and smiled at him. Lily took the bowl and stared at something that looked a lot like vegan chili, but her appetite was suddenly gone. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Rowan sat next to her and she leaned against him, not caring if Tristan was uncomfortable with it. A nameless anxiety was building in Lily, and she needed to be close to Rowan to reassure herself that he was real and that he was still with her.
“Lily! It’s good to see you again,” Alaric said. Lily turned and saw the sachem striding toward her in his halting gait. Juliet was by his side. There was something about the way the two of them leaned toward each other, a slight but ever-present favoring of any place in which the other stood, that gave it away.
Juliet and Alaric were a couple—a happy couple, very much in love. It only made what she had to do more painful, but Lily was past the point of tallying up future suffering. Everyone was about to get hurt.
Lily stood. Nerves fluttered in her stomach. “Can we talk in private?” she asked. She immediately heard seven voices all asking her the same question in mindspeak.
Why?
She held up her hands, blocking everyone out and keeping them out. “I want to speak with the sachem alone,” she said.
“Anything you say to me is going to get repeated,” Alaric replied, stunned. “I have no secrets from Juliet or from my trusted braves.”
“You mean my sister and my claimed,” Lily said, a rueful smile tugging at her lips.