Drew erupts with laughter so hard he has to step away. A scarlet flush races across my cheeks. I’m certain I’m redder than embers right now.
“Oh, Flor, out of all the things—you think I’d tell Mother?” He shakes his head. “Why would I tell her when there’s nothing to say.”
“Nothing to say?” I repeat softly.
“It’s not as if this infatuation will go anywhere.” Drew wounds me more deeply than he realizes. “Once the curse is broken, you’ll come back to Hunter’s Hamlet. Maybe we can go on one of those trips to the sea we always talked about as children. We’ll finally be able to leave.”
The writhing of my innards has stopped and now everything is painfully still. It hurts to breathe. My fingers are numb.
The coast… We’ll go to the coast someday. The promises we made as children when we didn’t understand the world. But they could soon be a reality. I would be free of Hunter’s Hamlet and the vampir, once and for all. I could go anywhere I wanted. I should be happy. Why am I sinking deeper into the void within me?
“What is it?” He senses my displeasure.
“I thought you’d be more disappointed in me with all I’ve done.” I can’t outright lie to Drew, so I focus on a half-truth instead. I don’t know why I hurt both at the idea of being something to Ruvan and of being nothing to Ruvan.
“I think I should be.” He sighs and puts his hands on his hips. The movement is awkward. He was expecting the holsters of sickles when there are none. I’ll be sure to fix that before he goes back to the Natural World. “I think I should feel and have opinions on a lot of things I can’t seem to make heads or tails of right now. Everything is happening so quickly. Perhaps that’s in your favor, Flor. I’m going along with things as they come.” He shrugs. “We’ll sort it out when all this is over, and the Raven Man is dead.”
I wonder if he’s also sinking into the abyss, allowing everything else to be carried away from him to a distant place where it won’t hurt so much. I don’t voice my suspicions. Some things are better left unsaid.
“I won’t bite into gifted gold,” I say.
“Just promise me one thing.” Drew grabs my hand. “Be careful.”
I nod. “I’ve been trying, as much as I can be.”
“These vampir might be on our side for now. But they’re still vampir and you are still human. When this is over, have your silver ready. Have your fun experimenting with your new freedoms here, learn all you can from them, but never forget that there may come a time where, yours or theirs, a throat will be cut.”
