Page 87 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
For a delight that she knew was to come…”
Adie.
He drew closer to the song, but he could not see her, could not see anything but green and brown.
“Oh!” A twig dropped from above.
Dimitri glanced up, sharply. Adeline sat on the branches of a large elm, several feet above him.
“Adie?”
“Dimitri!” The branch wobbled, and for a second, he thought that she might fall. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to apologise. What are you doing up there?”
“Umm, climbing a tree?”
“That doesn’t strike me as a thing you’d be good at.”
“No, I’m not,” she admitted. “As a matter of fact, I’m a bit stuck.”
Saints and stars.“Why did you climb a tree in the first place if you’re so prone to getting stuck?”
“How else am I supposed to get better at it?”
“Fair point,” he acknowledged. “Do you need some help?”
“Hmm. Maybe. Yes.” She lay her stomach flat across the branch, lowering her feet to the one beneath. “Just let me know if I’m doing it wrong,” she said. “Or… catch me if I fall?”
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to play the romantic hero?”
She laughed, the sound stretching across his chest. She couldn’t be too mad if she was laughing like that. “Just play a mat, then!”
“Fine.” He watched her slip gracelessly onto the next branch. “Adie,” he started, “I’m sorry for last night.”
“Apology accepted.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” She turned around on the lowest branch, facing him. A grin spread across her face. “Last night wasn’tallbad, you know.”
“No,” he admitted. “It wasn’t, but I feel like I ruined it anyway.”
Adeline shook her head. “We’ll blame Guy for anything bad,” she told him. “And even if the end was not what we would have chosen, the bad parts don’t negate the good ones. I still liked dancing.”
His cheeks warmed, even more so when she held out her arms to be helped down the final stretch. He dropped her in front of him, her face inches from his, and she reached up to pry a loose leaf from his hair.
“I don’t understand,” he whispered. “Why are you so forgiving? How are you still not horrified by me?”
Adeline’s smile dropped. “Because you’re not remotely horrifying!”
“You sound angry.”
“I’m bored with your self-hating.”
“You’rebored of it? I’ve had to wear this face for five years—”
“Your face isn’t the problem, Dimitri,” she said tartly. “You are.”
