Chapter Three
By the time we’re done cooking and eating, we’ve used two of the eggs and all the milk and flour.
We probably should have saved some, eked it out to last as long as possible, but I can’t find it in me to regret it.
For the first time in ages, my belly is full – painfully so – and from the way Kay is sitting with her hands resting on her stomach, she feels the same.
‘That was so good,’ she says, a grin spreading across her face. ‘I could eat like that every day.’
Sadness pangs within me. Back in the High Hold, we would have done. We would have eaten like that and more. Meat. Fruit.
I’m pretty sure the only reason we’re still as healthy as we are is because of the tonic we take. One of my mother’s own creations. One she insisted we take every day. Even when she was sick, she still brewed it, until I took over the role, ensuring Kay and I both took it.
Thankfully, the ingredients flourish in colder climates and are currently growing well in small pots that litter our floor.
I’m not sure my version is as potent as the one Mother used to make. I certainly can’t imbue it with magic the way she could back when we lived in the High Hold.
But it’s not like Kay or I have ever got properly sick. So I guess it works.
Either way, I keep on making it. One last connection to Mother and all that came before.
I pick up the plates and move over to the basin of ice water, ready to clean them. It’s so cold that even though I broke up the ice that morning, it’s back again. We both go still when there’s a knock on the makeshift door.
‘Expecting someone?’ I ask Kay, anxiety stirring in my gut as I think of Tella’s less than subtle comments earlier.
She shakes her head. ‘I did say I’d go to Evelina’s this afternoon.’
I nod, but we both know our neighbours Corem and Evelina never knock on us.
My body stiffens. When we first arrived, we suffered countless break-ins.
Some were people seeing what the Queenkiller’s family had that was worth stealing.
But not all. The person who previously considered this patch of squalor their own had racked up a string of enemies, with debts and broken promises littered all through the slums. People wanted payment, and they didn’t think twice about breaking down our door to try to get it.
It was after one particularly scary invasion that I went to Rula, cap in hand, to ask for protection. Luckily, Kay had been with Evelina at the time.
Since we paid for protection, we haven’t had a single issue.
Cynically, I wonder how many of the people who came banging were Rula’s people in the first place. It was certainly one way to drum up business.
Reaching for the pan I was about to clean, I edge towards the entrance.
‘Who is it?’ I call out. ‘You should know I’m armed.’
‘That sounds like it could be fun,’ a familiar voice calls back.
Relief floods through me as I open the door.
A gleaming smile grins down at me. ‘You know it’s not great manners to threaten to attack everyone who knocks on your door, Rosey. I could take offence.’
With a shake of my head, I step back and give my closest friend room to enter.
‘Ruben, what are you doing here?’ Normally, when we see each other, it’s under the cover of darkness and far from Kay’s innocent eyes.
‘Just came to offer my neighbourly services.’ His brown eyes twinkle. ‘See if anyone could do with a warming hug?’
There’s a hint of mischief glittering in his expression, but before I can reply, Kay leaps forward.
‘Yes please! I’ve been freezing all day. It’s a miracle my hands haven’t turned blue.’
With a quick smile for me, Ruben turns to Kay and opens his arms.
‘Come on in,’ he says. ‘How toasty do you want me? Comfortably warm or hot enough to feel the sweat on your spine?’
‘Hot!’ Kay answers immediately, but I cut in.
‘Just comfortably warm is fine,’ I tell him firmly. ‘You know how much worse it is if you start sweating,’ I add to Kay. ‘You’ll be shivering the minute he leaves.’
Her lips pout, but she doesn’t object, mainly because she knows I’m right. Instead, she lets Ruben wrap her up in his arms and I watch her colour rise.
While fire wielders are two a penny in the High Hold, the same can’t be said out here in the slums. Anyone with magic strong enough to be of use tends to move into the inner rings, while those with limited powers – or in our case, none at all – seem to end up stuck here.
Ruben’s mother, Noleen, however, is one of the few who can actually make a flame. It’s not massive, more like a match’s light, but it’s handy.
Ruben’s powers don’t produce a flame, but he can heat his body up to well above normal temperature.
I’m pretty sure people would pay a fair price for that, even in some of the inner rings where they have jobs and actual brick walls. But that’s not Ruben’s style. He offers his warmth to others because he wants to help, not to make money.
As I watch my sister’s body relax into Ruben’s large frame, I shift away, only for him to catch my eye.
‘And you, Rosey?’ he asks, and we both know he’s asking about more than a hug.
I bite my lip. Stress is riding me, and thoughts of getting caught in the Goddess’s Garden are buffeted by images of what will happen to Kay if I don’t go. Anxiety is a lead weight in my gut, so maybe a tumble – purely for stress relief purposes – wouldn’t be a bad idea.
‘If you’ve got time,’ I reply, involuntarily licking my lips.
He follows the movement of my tongue with avid interest.
‘You know I’ve always got time for you.’ He grins.
A minute later, he and Kay break apart. Her cheeks are flushed with warmth, and she stares at her fingers in pure pleasure as she wiggles them, almost in disbelief.
‘Better?’ Ruben asks.
‘You have no idea.’ Kay lets out a happy hum.
‘Glad to be of service.’
Ruben’s eyes move to mine, but rather than speak, his lips just twitch slightly, and an unexpected nervousness fills me.
‘Actually, before you warm up, Rose, I need to get out of here,’ Kay blurts. ‘I said I’d pop around to see Evelina,’ Kay explains for Ruben’s benefit. ‘She’s not been feeling great. I’m sure it’s nothing, but you know how she likes to chat with me.’
‘How late are you going to be out?’ I ask casually.
She shrugs. ‘I’m not sure. But you could always cook Ruben something. Maybe make an omelette. To thank him for our warm hugs. After all, we have plenty.’
Plenty is a stretch, but I get what she’s saying. It would be wrong to take advantage of his good nature when we’re in a position to give back, as we are today. He never charges for his warmth, but truly he should.
‘Okay,’ I tell her. ‘Then I guess I’ll see you later.’
Rather than move to the door, she catches my eye.
‘Can you just help me outside for a second, with the door?’ she says.
‘I can close it from in here,’ I reply, confused.
‘Yes, no … I know …’ She grabs my hand. ‘Can you just come out with me, please, for one second?’
I do as she asks, throwing Ruben a secret look of exasperation as I go.
‘Bye, Rue,’ Kay says, practically dragging me out so forcefully that my feet clatter against the pan. At least I know she’s not as weak as I sometimes worry.
‘What is it?’ I say when we’re outside. ‘Why are you being weird?’
‘He likes you,’ she replies with a doe-eyed sigh. ‘Ruben likes you.’
I offer her the most incredulous look I can. ‘Yes, he does. He’s my friend. Generally speaking, it’s important that you like your friends. If that’s not the case, then you’re probably doing something wrong.’
With a long sigh, she shakes her head. ‘I don’t mean like that. I mean, likes you likes you. As in he could be your boyfriend.’
‘Kay—’
‘No. I know what you’re going to say. That you don’t want anything. That you’re fine on your own. That you have enough to worry about. But he’s sweet, and he’s kind, warm … and he’s sexy.’
She says this last bit like I haven’t noticed, but with his big brown eyes and cute smile, Ruben has a comforting attractiveness about him.
‘Please just think about it.’
I roll my eyes, stifling a grin. ‘Ruben and I are just friends, Kay. That’s it.’
‘But you could be more,’ she presses. ‘You would be such a cute couple. And think … you’d never be cold again.’
‘I can’t date a guy just so I’m not cold.’
‘Of course not. You could date him because he’s sweet, and kind, and funny, and—’
‘Are you going to see Evelina or not?’ I interrupt her. ‘Because if you actually like Ruben, then standing out here, wasting all the magic he just used on you, is hardly a great way of showing it.’
She sniffs slightly, but she knows I’m right. ‘Just think about it?’
She has no idea how much I’ve thought about it, and for that, I’m grateful.
‘See you later, Kay.’
As she finally relents and moves down the alley towards Evelina’s, I head back into the house.
‘Everything okay?’ Ruben says, sidling up beside me as I close the door, his warmth already easing the tension in my muscles.
‘All good. Just Kay trying to convince me we’d be good together as a couple.’
He arches an eyebrow. ‘Is that right? And what did you say?’
‘That we’re friends. That we work well as friends. And that’s all we’ll ever be.’
‘Right,’ he says. A fleeting look of disappointment dances across his face before he takes a step closer, a roguish grin lighting up his handsome features instead. ‘Friends who have a lot of fun, right?’
‘Right,’ I reply, a matching smile stretching my mouth an instant before his lips land on mine.