“Joss, I don’t th—”

“Can you do this for my parents, for me?” The silent ache that I saw deep inside him silenced any forthcoming arguments and all I could do was nod my head in agreement. He reached out and cupped my cheek, placing a quick kiss on my forehead. “That’s my girl.”

What was wrong with me? I must be the only girl my age not dreaming about finding a lifemate and starting a family. Maybe everything that had happened to me in the last year has made me more wary of happy endings and true love. Learning my mother was murdered when I was a child, being kidnapped the same day that Fenri asked to be my lifemate, and being tortured and almost killed on numerous occasions could definitely skew a young girl’s heart and mind.

Sighing in defeat, I grabbed a crate of fruit and followed Joss up the stairs. It was only when I saw that I was carrying passion fruit that I felt a pang of remorse that I never got to say goodbye to Avina and Berry or tell them why I had left to follow my father. Concentrating on them must have somehow conjured them because when I entered the Jesai family’s main hall I heard two screams fill the air. Shocked, I dropped the crate and watched as the passion fruit rolled across the floor to stop right in front of Avina’s boot.

“Thalia!” she screamed and ran to hug me.

“What? How?”

“Joss sent a messenger to the castle to get us,” Berry spoke up, coming to give me a hug as well once Avina had disentangled herself from me. “Although he never told us why.”

“Yes, Thalia, is everything all right?” Avina stopped flittering about the room and paused.

“Why, umm yes, I mean no.” I stumbled over the right words to say. But Joss came to my rescue and wrapped his arms around me, placing his chin on my head.

“Why, of course it is. We couldn’t have an engagement celebration without Thalia’s friends here, now could we?” More screams filled the rooms as they both jumped up and down in excitement, congratulating me.

“You’re going to let me make the dress for the ceremony, right?” Berry trilled joyously.

Avina and Berry chattered together and not much could be understood between the two as their excited, buzzy babble faded to the background. I saw Mona on her hands and knees picking up the passion fruit I had spilled. Her back was to me but it was stiff in anger. Apologetically, I quickly dropped to the floor and started to help pick up my mess that I had created. Gently, I touched her shoulder to hand her my fruit to put in her basket. But she stood up abruptly, turned on me and I saw hate burning there.

“Don’t touch me!” She snarled and whirled out of the room, her dark braid swinging after her. Mona must know about what happened to her brother, or she is jealous about the celebration tonight.  I scanned the room for Joss and saw him and Hemi deep in conversation and I could see the pale look on Joss’ face. Hemi must have just told him the events of this morning. Joss’ worried glance towards me that dropped to my torn shirt confirmed it.

“Girls, we have much to discuss but I think it would be better if we went to my room first,” I said.” The whole way up the stairs they couldn’t stop talking. They found everything fascinating.

“Can you believe the giant bird that flew the Skycage up to the city? I positively thought it was going to eat me for dinner. I have never been more scared in my life,” Berry gushed once we had entered my room.

What had started as a joyous reunion turned solemn as I explained the long chain of events that have led me to Skyfell and to lie about being engaged to Joss. It took hours and the afternoon sun became twilight.

“Oh, Thalia, we didn’t know,” Avina sympathized.

“Not many do, but I think we are close to finding the Septori and what happened to Tenya. I don’t know how, but I feel it in my bones.”

A knock came at my door. Avina rushed to answer it and came back with a sour expression on her face.

“Who’s the girl with the dark hair and eyes, the pretty one?”

“Mona?”

“Yeah, what bit her in the butt?”

I laughed out loud, “What are you talking about?”

“She came to the door all high and mighty and demanded that you be ready for the dinner that starts in an hour.”

“Oh my goodness! I completely forgot to get ready.” Jumping off of my bed, I rushed to my closet and changed out of my dirty clothes and did the best I could with the pitcher of water to clean the dirt off of my face.

“Relax.” Berry chimed in. “We’re here to help you. Plus, I brought a surprise for you.”

Berry’s surprise turned out to be a pale blue short dress trimmed in silver. Avina worked wonders on my hair and I entered the main hall with confidence and grace. My entrance caused quite a few heads to turn to me in surprise and a few positive nods my way. The main room had been turned into a joyous reception hall filled with colorful silk streamers that danced across the ceiling and blew gracefully in the wind. Silver bells and chimes were attached to them and added a simple melody to the night air. All of the seating, pillows and chairs had been removed to create standing room only. Torches lit the wall and along the outside veranda creating a soft ambiance.

Many hands reached out to congratulate me, all of them strangers. I swallowed my nervousness at being touched and smiled politely at them, weaving my way through the room looking for a familiar face. Where was Joss? Kael? Nero? There must have been over fifty people on this level alone.

A cold hand grabbed my elbow and I turned in surprise to see Talbot, Mona and Xiven’s father. I breathed in sigh of relief at the sight of someone familiar.

“I don’t know if I congratulated you last week when Joss first made your announcement.”

“No, I don’t think you did.”

“Well, I would like to extend that now.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind.”

“By the way, have you seen my son?”

“Xiven?”

Talbot threw his head back and laughed. “Why of course, Xiven. Who else would I be speaking about? I have no other sons.”

Thinking quickly, I tried to tell him the truth without diverging everything I knew. I didn’t want to be the one to tell him his son had run away. “Umm, not since this morning?”

“Really?” He drawled out slowly. Talbot’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully and studied me closely. “And what was he doing this morning when you last saw him?”

“I was exercising with Hemi and Xiven challenged me to a sparring match. We both ended up pretty beat up in the end.” It was the truth, but I didn’t elaborate more.

Talbot’s firm mouth twitched. “Who won?”

“What?” I asked confused.

Talbot ran his thumb down his jawline thoughtfully, his dark eyes boring into mine. The gesture made me feel slightly sick to my stomach. “I asked you, who won?”

“Oh uh...” He had caught me off guard and all I was able to squeak out was, “Tie,” I turned my back on him and tried to disappear into the crowd of strangers. But Talbot’s arm snaked out and grabbed me again. Pressing painfully, he leaned into me and whispered in my ear.

“We both know that’s a lie.” With a shake he released my arm and walked away. Talbot left me with a feeling of unease and I tried to shake it off.