[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.]
Matt stayed quiet for a few long moments. If he’d noticed any change in her expression from the pain moving had caused, he didn’t show any sign. He just stared at nothing for the space of a few heartbeats before he said, “My sister’s looking forward to finally meeting you.”
Hecate startled a little at the news. “Really?”
He nodded, seeming thoughtful. “She was up at the forge when I got there. Said she’d needed to stretch her legs, but I think she was mostly there because she was looking for me. She kind of admitted to that.”
“She was worried about you?”
“A little,” he admitted. “Not as worried as I thought she would be, though.” He lapsed into silence again, but looked down at her afterwards. “I really think she meant it.”
“Meant what?”
“That she’s looking forward to meeting you.” One corner of his mouth tugged upward in a now-familiar smile. “Said you must be something special.”
She blushed and burrowed deeper under the blankets, vainly trying to hide the mixture of pleasure and embarrassment that washed through her at the thought. She was flattered, that was for certain, but there was also worry there.
It was an old worry, the same one that had plagued her for centuries, one she’d never quite seemed to be able to escape no matter how hard she tried. She’d always feared that somehow she wasn’t good enough.
What if Marin Astoris decided that she wasn’t good enough for her beloved brother?
“Hey,” Matt murmured, lifting the blanket to peek beneath it, seeking her face in the shadows. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said, though the answer came a little too quickly for him to believe her—she knew it, too, even without seeing the slight shift in his expression, the flicker of worry in his eyes. She stopped just shy of sucking in a breath, not wanting to further betray her nerves.
Please don’t ask. Please don’t ask.
He hesitated a second too long before he sighed. “All right,” he said. “But if you—”
“It’s not really anything worth worrying about,” she said—and meant it. “Just baggage. Shit I should have let go of a long time ago and…didn’t. In my defense, I never really had much opportunity to work through it, though.”
Matt nodded slowly, then leaned down to kiss her gently. “As long as you’re sure.”
She wasn’t, but she was more than halfway there and didn’t want to let her uncertainty win this time. “I’ll be okay,” she said, then smiled weakly. He brushed her hair back from her face again and smiled back.
“Promise?”
Hecate nodded. “I promise.”
Those words, at least, were true.
