Resonant

Chapter 19

Zale

I probably should have asked Fen more questions about this dinner. Specifically, who was going to be there.

Fen had simply said he wanted to introduce me to his friends. I never realized he had so many. It always sounded to me like he mostly just had the one friend, Luin. And I figured it was a given that Luin's soul mate, Arrowan, would be there. What I found when we arrived in a house-turned-magic shop was a much bigger crowd than I expected.

Luin and Arrowan were there, sure. But there were also three witches (Glenna, Safiya, and Roderick) as well as two werewolves (Lachlan and Magnus). That put the total party count at ten. Three witches, two werewolves, three fae, and two merfolk.

Astrea seemed unperturbed. In fact, she seemed delighted to be in a magic shop and unphased by the number and diversity of our party. She was used to being around a diverse group of people at Ashen Oak, I supposed.

I was grateful to my upbringing for making me so good at remembering people's names, or I would never have kept everyone straight. And while I expected that Fen would want to go sit on the couches with Luin and Arrowan in their little bubble of calm, instead we were dragged over to the dining room with Safiya and Roderick.

Safiya was a firecracker. I couldn't remember ever meeting anyone with so much energy, and I badly wanted to get away until she said something that piqued my interest: "You know, Fen's the reason Roderick and I met."

"Really?" Astrea asked before I could.

Safiya was obviously delighted to have gotten such an eager reaction. "Mhm! Fen has bond magic. It means he can see the connections between souls. He can find anyone's soul mate."

Astrea's eyes went wide and wonder-filled as she looked at Fen in a new light. It was obvious that excitement was building up in her, and despite how interesting this new tidbit about Fen was (how had I never known about this aspect of his bond magic?), I wished Safiya hadn't brought it up. The last thing I needed was my adolescent sister thinking she needed to go off chasing her soul mate. She was way too young for something so serious.

But that wasn't what Astrea was thinking about at all.

"You can find Kyra's soul mate for her!" Astrea said to Fen.

And my stomach turned, because the odds of Kyra's soul mate being someone her father would deem appropriate weren't good. It was far likelier that this would only end up hurting Kyra, since it would just confirm for her that whoever she ended up with wasn't her perfect match.

Not that I would ever tell Fen what to do with his magic. In fact, I was making a purposeful effort not to tell him what to do at all. So, it was a relief when I glanced his way and saw that he looked distinctly uncomfortable and reluctant.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Fen said quietly. He always put so much energy into making the people around him happy that it had to hurt him, denying Astrea.

"But-" Astrea protested, but no way was I letting her make Fen feel bad about this.

"We can talk about this later," I cut her off firmly. She looked like she was going to argue more, but I held her gaze with a stern one of my own until she clenched her teeth and looked away.

But Astrea didn't let it end there. "You look just like Dad when you do that," she said. "You sound just like him, too."

It was like a blow to the gut, but I didn't let her see me falter. An awkward silence passed before Safiya cleared her throat and started talking about all the food that would be on offer tonight. Fen reached for my hand under the table and I clasped his gratefully.