The Antidote by Shelley Sackier

Author:Shelley Sackier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Twenty-Four

FEE PICKED UP THE SMALL WOODEN BOX ON THE BROAD table in Rye’s sitting room and cracked the lid to peek inside. The box held five trinkets: a locket with a tiny inlaid portrait of Rye and Xavi’s parents; Xavi’s treasured pen, which he’d gifted to Rye before he departed with the strict instruction to write weekly and return it in good use; three dried forget-me-nots Fee had given Rye before he left; the empty glass vial that had once been filled with sunflower seeds; and finally, a worry stone with a groove worn smooth by ten thousand thumb strokes.

Fee felt her eyes blur as she rubbed the stone, imagining how awful it must have been for Rye all these years on his own.

“I wish you hadn’t seen those. They’re proof of what a sentimental sop I used to be.”

Fee snapped the lid shut. She whirled to see Rye standing at an open door beside the fireplace, his expression dour and disconcerted. “I wasn’t expecting company and obviously left in haste, otherwise I would have . . . well, kept those silly keepsakes out of sight.”

“I don’t think they’re silly. And I don’t think less of you for keeping them. I was just surprised they still held relevance.”

A shadow passed over Rye’s face, and Fee fumbled with her next words. “Of course, they probably still hold relevance. What a stupid thing to say. Or at least some of them still do—”

“Yes. Some of them still do, Ophelia,” he said, staring at her.

Fee felt a rush of heat travel up her chest and into two bright spots of pulsating warmth on her cheeks. It was wholly frustrating, but the alternative—taking Savva’s daily tonic to tamp down the fire of feeling anything—was an unthinkable choice. She’d never go back. She pressed on, set on recovering a thread of mental clarity.

“Have you managed to find a room for me to hide in?”

Rye gestured with his hand. “The adjoining one to my suite. As I mentioned to the man Lord Drachen in the courtyard, it’s to be known that I’ve traveled with a manservant from Fireli. No one will think anything of it. And you needn’t be seen much in that regard, as I’m always assigned a full detail of guardsmen whilst here. Most of the time you’ll be outfitted in this.” He held up a woolly brown robe. “Mistress Goodsong delivered it moments ago and said she’d be back with food and news.” He gestured with his head. “You might as well settle in. I imagine you’d like to be free of that getup and scrape the layers of road dust from yourself. I’ll call you when Mistress Goodsong returns. Then we can refine our plans.”

She stepped past Rye in the doorway that connected their rooms. He put out a hand, grasping her arm and stopping her. “I know he’s here, Ophelia. I believe I would feel it if he were dead. And I don’t. He’s every bit as alive as you and I.

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