It was fully dark by the time I got back to Seneira’s house, and she was there by herself. Rosie and Ferius were off doing their own investigating, and apparently Beren had been summoned to the home of Revian’s parents. It seemed they were no longer quite so keen on their precious son marrying the girl who they now suspected had given him the shadowblack.
‘Do you love him?’ I asked, as we stepped outside to the garden.
All through our conversation and my informing her of Revian’s condition, I’d tried to come up with ways of asking how she felt that wouldn’t make me sound like a jealous idiot. This was not one of the variations I’d practised in my head.
‘Do you love him?’ What a moron!
Seneira had been stuck here since we arrived in Teleidos, suffering from a condition she didn’t understand, unable to return to her normal life or even see her sick brother again. The last thing she needed was a bunch of stupid questions about the person she was supposed to marry – assuming the shadowblack didn’t take her first.
Reichis sauntered over to inspect a flower bed he was considering as a possible toilet. ‘“Do you love him?”’ he repeated, doing the best impression one can expect from a squirrel cat of a hopeless, lovesick youth. ‘When did you become part rabbit?’
Seneira was staring at me, eyes narrowed; I half expected her to slap me. Instead she said, ‘I’m sorry, Kellen, I should have told you Revian and I were betrothed. Our families … The agreement was made when we were children.’
In fact there was no reason in the world why she should have mentioned her marital plans to me. I’d only known her a few days and, really, other than the shadowblack, what did we have in common?
‘It’s not …’ She hesitated. ‘Revian and I, it’s not like …’
‘Not like what?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, that’s between Revian and me. I shouldn’t have said anything.’
Reichis lifted up his head, looking as though he’d caught a scent in the air, then wandered over to Seneira and sniffed at her. ‘Kiss her,’ he said finally.
‘What?’
He looked up at me through beady squirrel-cat eyes. ‘She wants you to kiss her.’
‘I doubt it. She’s …’ I stopped myself, mostly on account of the fact that Seneira was watching me.
‘Kellen?’ she asked.
‘Yeah?’
‘Please tell me you and your squirrel cat aren’t talking about me.’
‘Just kiss her already,’ Reichis said, sitting back on his haunches as if Seneira wasn’t even there. ‘Trust me: she likes you. Obviously if she’s supposed to mate with this other idiot then she can’t tell you that, so she’s waiting for you to kiss her.’
‘You don’t know that,’ I said.
Seneira looked confused, thinking I’d spoken to her. ‘Of course I don’t know what it is you imagine the animal is saying to you.’
Reichis tapped his snout. ‘I call it like I smell it.’
One of the skills I was going to have to learn one day (in addition to escaping chokeholds, taking a punch and not asking girls I had no business falling for whether or not they loved their betrothed) was how to simultaneously have a conversation with Reichis and whoever else was around who didn’t happen to speak squirrel cat.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said to Seneira. ‘I never should have brought it up.’
If I’d been hoping that Revian’s affections for Seneira might be unrequited – or that taking romantic advice from a squirrel cat made any sense at all – I was disabused of that notion by the look of concern on Seneira’s face. ‘The shadowblack … it must be awful for him. I thought that by running I could protect the people I loved, but all I did was bring even more suffering into their lives.’ She reached up a hand to the black markings around her eye, wincing as she touched them. ‘I wish … I wish you’d met me before all this happened, Kellen.’
I felt like this was one of those pauses in the music that Ferius talks about, so I asked, ‘What were you like?’
A trace of defiance broke through the sadness and self-doubt. ‘I was a fighter. I never sat around crying or waiting for other people to save me.’
‘Maybe you’re still a fighter,’ I said. ‘Maybe you’re just waiting for the right moment.’
‘When will that be, Kellen? And who am I supposed to fight?’
There was such desperate need in her voice, in the way she looked up at me, as if somehow I could give her the answers, but I couldn’t. I had no idea what was happening to the people of this town, and right now the only thought that kept going through my head was Dexan’s offer: They’re nice people, but they’re not your people.
I don’t know if Seneira was just tired of standing there waiting for me to say or do something, or if maybe she could sense what I was thinking, because a moment later she gave me a sad smile, said goodnight and left me in the garden.
Reichis started to follow her inside, then stopped just long enough to turn back around and say, ‘Should’ve kissed her like I told you. Moron.’