The Graces by Laure Eve

Author:Laure Eve [Laure Eve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571326815
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2016-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Thalia and Fenrin made their joint entrance about twenty minutes into the party.

I learned later that this was a traditional ritual called Lammas – the Graces observed it every year. The music cut off. A bell tinkled sweetly in the hallway, and the guests gathered at the foot of the stairs, their heads tilted expectantly up to the first-floor landing.

After a moment, Fenrin appeared to whistles and claps. He was so lovely to look at, it made my throat close up. He wore a white muslin shirt, with his shell dangling through the shirt’s open V. His hair was loose and tousled, and his grin was extra lazy. He looked fresh as the wind and cool as the sea.

He waited on the landing, and then Thalia appeared, to more noise. Fenrin offered her his arm and she took it with a coy smile. She looked incredible in a white drippy gown covered in crystal bead patterns that caught the light, and her hair was done in a loose knot at the base of her skull, as if she’d just carelessly swept it back – a chignon, she called it. I could just see her horse-hair braid twined into the style, its coarse ridges nestled against the soft lines of her hair. A pure white feather dangled from the tie down her bare back.

Two members of the audience, a different two each year, approached the foot of the stairs, each with a half loaf of bread. They proffered up the bread halves to Thalia and Fenrin with bowed heads and raised hands. Solemnly, the Graces took them. Fenrin winked at Thalia as he took a bite out of his, and she raised a brow back as she did the same with hers. Then they gave back the rest to the two bread bearers, who melted into the front of the crowd.

Together Fenrin and Thalia walked slowly down the stairs, and the waiting audience of Graces clapped in time with one another, a deliberate, strong beat that pumped your blood for you. I wanted to join in, but I couldn’t quite shake the embarrassment. Summer led us back into the living room before the clapping died down.

‘They’ll split the bread again,’ she said to me when we were alone. ‘And then the four pieces will be put at the four corners of the house, for three days. It’s a good-luck thing.’

‘Thanks for letting me watch it.’ I had the impression that it was something outsiders weren’t supposed to see.

She smiled reassuringly. ‘It’s okay. I vouched for you.’

‘Is that why Fen and Thalia don’t get to invite anyone from school to their birthday? They don’t like people seeing that kind of thing, do they?’

‘Well, there’s that, and then there’s this thing, this accident that happened at a party when they were, like, eight.’

Matthew Feldspar.

‘I may have heard about that,’ I admitted.

Summer sighed. ‘Yeah, I figured. They only let me have other people at my birthday because I promised we’d always stick to the cove, but ever since the thing at that party, we don’t have friends come to the house any more.

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