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March 5, 1203
"Sorry."
It was a sad excuse for a greeting several minutes after she'd picked the lock on her sister's door and slumped into the bedside chair, most of that time spent with her eyes one her own lap rather than on Aspen. If not for that barest turn of Aspen's head when the door had opened, though, Celina would have thought she'd gone unnoticed. Of course, if anyone had cause to be distracted...
Well, it wasn't Celina herself, even if some of her leftover queasiness hadn't settled.
"I should have figured Darry had some reason for inviting me to the party, but I was too excited to question it. I really should have--and I shouldn't have pushed you. I know you don't like parties."
"Don't apologize." Aspen flicked a finger at the end of her braid, the flash of gold about it not beyond notice. Why was she wearing the ring? Insane as his plan had been, had Darry at least been right about Nato? "I'm not angry with you."
"Just Darry, then?"
Aspen shrugged. There must have been more, then. But if even Celina got a pass, then surely someone who'd had even less of a knowing role...? And if she was wearing the ring...? "You're not mad at Nato, are you?"
Her sister shook her head. "No, not Nato. I'm not even mad at Darry, really. Anger isn't the word for it."
"Oh." Sad? Disappointed? Shattered? Celina gave up quickly on guessing. If Aspen hadn't said the word, then she didn't know it herself. "Are you still going to leave?"
"What else would I do? Stay and be Nato's wife?" She punctuated the thought with a dismissive sniff, but that wasn't--not quite--an outright 'no'.
Or was it? The question of yes or no never seemed as simple as it ought to have been. Or perhaps it was simple and the mind took too much glee in making it complicated. Celina didn't know. She was too young and stupid and still mildly hungover to figure it out.
"I don't know what that means."
Her sister spun the wedding ring about her finger. Celina tried not to read too much into it spinning toward the knuckle rather than the tip. "It means I want to be alone for a while. Maybe a long while."
NEXT CHAPTER:
March 2, 1203
"Oh my God! Aspen! Can you believe it? I finally get to go to an actual university party!"
Celina's older sister, as she'd expected, gave no hint of finding this impressive. Aspen had less than a month left at the university; she'd been able to attend an actual university party every week for four years. And Aspen didn't like parties much anyway.
Celina, however, did. Quite a lot, actually.
And a university party! With guests who were--well, a little older than her, maybe, but closer to her age than her parents'. And no one who was liable to rat her out to her parents if she happened to have a little more wine than she was typically allowed, or if she happened to bring her acquaintance with some handsome young man to a lip-on-lip level. Not that she made a habit of that, mind.
But oh, to keep the possibility open!
But Aspen pursed her lips. So unfair, really. Celina understood that Aspen didn't like parties. Why couldn't Aspen understand that Celina did? "Do Mother and Father know you're here?"
"Of course they do! Darry brought me here, in case you haven't noticed him standing there!" Though, now that she thought about it, he hadn't said all that much since they'd arrived on campus. Had he even spoken at all on the ride over? Here she'd thought they'd had such a nice conversation. "Darry made the convincing case to Father that it would be better for everyone if I attend my first university party while I still had two siblings on campus and one who still had friends there. Wasn't that sweet of him? Darry, you're my knight in shining armor!"
She turned around to pay her eldest brother a grin and a squeal, whipping back to Aspen just in time to see that her sister wasn't quite so enthused.
"Two siblings on campus? It's not enough that Darry and Dally go with you, but I have to go as well?"
"What can I say?" Darry swooped in before Celina had a chance to answer--possibly a first. "Father insists that she'd be better off if there's a responsible big sister around to balance out her two big idiot brothers."
"But it's my last term! I have so much work, and I have to prepare for the island, and--"
"And you're running out of time to spend with your family! That's partly why Father let Celina come."
That... was probably true. Celina forced herself to keep smiling. "That's true. If you insist on leaving, you can't expect us to just stay away."
"But--"
"Nato will be there." Darry smirked. "Falidor made sure of it."
"I'm not talking to Nato. We agreed that we both have our own problems and it's easier if we don't have to deal with each other's--and that was no big deal, since we weren't friends anyway." Aspen tugged at her braid, agitated. "Nato hates parties even more than I do."
"But he's there, since it might be his last chance to see you before you leave. Isn't that sweet?"
She snorted. "He's probably only going because it's the last place his mother would think to look for him."
"And it also happens to be the last place he'll get to see you." Celina widened her eyes and swayed about in search of that oh-so-important balance between adorable little sister and nearly-grown woman desperate for her first taste of independence. The Nato argument might have been something Darry made up in his head, but sisterhood was real. "And it might be the last place I get to see you too. Please? I never ask you for anything."
"Ugh. Fine." Her sister curled her mouth to a short-lived scowl, then took Celina by the arm and yanked her inward. "But the second somebody throws up, we're leaving."
NEXT CHAPTER:
