I bark a laugh. “A crush?” And then I shake my head with a wrinkled nose. “No. Absolutely not. I don’t even know what they look like. And I do what the other things look like. Nnnno.”
My smile tempers a little, and I clear my throat. I feel like tossing up the hood of my cloak, to cower from the suddenly very real reality sitting next to me: I have a family that might reject me. Might think I’m a grifter looking to rub elbows with the famous and powerful. My heart pounds.
Flora nudges my shoulder, and I look back at her, at her warmth despite the unimaginable weight that bears down on her. “My mom knew your dads.” My hands are shaking, and I have to curl my fingers to hide it. My words tumble like water bubbling down a steep hill. “They haven’t spoken in like ten years. She’s scared to, she made a lot of mistakes. But she still, even now, calls them her brothers.”
I’m so exposed that I might as well have stripped down bare. This is the queen I’m speaking to. She has the authority to keep me from Torchline, from them, doesn’t she? She doesn’t seem like the type, but how I can know that?
“I’m trying to find them. To meet them. I left my mom so I could do more than hide, and I want to start with family.” I swallow hard. “Which also means… you.”
but my god, you're alive and it's spectacular
