Serena stood in silence for a while, her eyes still locked with Darius'.
"It's urgent," Darius added.
"I see," she said, her voice steady despite the sudden tightness in her chest. "Give me a moment while I change."
She brushed past him, glancing at Darius for a moment before turning her head away. Serena took her time climbing the stairs, her mind blank.
Her stomach was in knots, and nausea overcame her. She willed herself to stay calm before she ended up throwing up everything she had eaten.
It would be horrible to think she had the luxury of wasting her moonshade pies. She had been so happy to make them, happier still to share them.
Her grip tightened on the railing as she continued her ascent to the second floor.
And yet, in the end, the pie had only been nice.
So Darius was better off just telling her he had come to take her to their priestess, instead of this complicated plan, sitting with her, trying to be her friend.
Or at least, that's how it had felt to Serena.
