Page 18 of The Stone Secret
“Hey.” I leaned back on my seat. “Where do you think you’re going,lover?”
Shar choked on a carrot stick, and Ginia snickered.
Curi stilled.
I pulled out the chair beside me. “If we’re going to play a couple, we should learn to share meals. You know, be seen together.”
Curi turned to face us, his expression tight. “I said I’d help you. You don’t have to bribe me with food.”
“This isn’t bribery, Mason, it’s an invitation to hang out.”
Silence filled the room, pregnant with expectation. If someone had said to me a week ago that I’d be asking Curi Mason to hang out with me, I’d have laughed in their face, but the goyle had proven not to be a total dick. He’d saved my ass on more than one occasion, and I’d seen a reflection of my own loneliness in his eyes. I knew what it was like to be an outsider, and for all his bluster and aggression, Curi was just a male who wanted to belong.
Maybe he could belong with us. Maybe I was overthinking, but fuck it. This felt right.
Touron broke the silence by slapping a steak on a plate and holding it out to Curi. “Hope you like it medium rare.”
Curi’s shoulders relaxed. “Yeah, I do.”
He took the seat beside me, and Palia slid a couple of jacket potatoes onto his plate.
“You can help yourself to salad,” Shar said. “I don’t serve.”
We dug into our food, and for a little while, the only sound in the room was the scrape of forks and knives on plates.
“What did you season this with?” Curi asked after polishing off his steak.
Touron tapped the side of his nose. “Secret recipe.”
“Well, I’ll have to figure it out myself, then.” He took another steak off the skillet and rejoined us.
“You won’t be able to,” Touron challenged, looking smug.
Curi ate slowly this time, savoring each bite, and Touron watched him, the smug smile still in place.
“Salt, pepper, garlic,” Curi said.
“Of course,” Touron said. “Standard practice.”
“A hint of lemongrass.”
Touron’s smile dropped slightly. “Right…”
“And…” Curi chewed slowly, then swallowed. “Ginger and…a hint of chilli.”
“Fuck! How did you guess?” Touron shook his head. “Impressive.”
“My mother always said I had a clever palate. We used to cook together before…” He popped another bite of steak into his mouth, the sentence unfinished.
“What do we have here?” Dayn entered the kitchen, trailed by Bax and Saffe. “You slumming it with the losers now, Mason?” He smirked. “You think having a Basque in your bed makes you better than us, makes this group of losers suddenly worth something?” He sneered at me. “I heard about you taking the elite trial. You’ll be dead before then. You might be a Basque, but you’re still a halfblood. And you…” Dayn turned his sneer onto Curi. “I paid my mother a visit. It’s been a while since she’s seen me, so she was more than willing to tell me exactly what happened between you and Selas.”
Curi went as still as stone beside me.
Dayn smirked. “You’re nothing, Mason. Not anymore.” He spun on his heel, but his exit was ruined when he bumped into Bax, who then knocked into Saffe.
“Fucking out of the way!” He shoved past them both, and they followed him out of the room.
“What was he talking about?” Sharniza asked Curi. “What happened between you and Selas?”
