✦Josiah✦
Blaise opened the door before I knocked. That was annoying. Not surprising. Just annoying.
“You took too long,” she said.
“I didn’t know I was expected,”
“You always arrive when you look like that,” she remarked, and I looked down at myself.
“Like what?”
“Like you want to tear the world apart but haven’t decided where to start,” she stepped aside to let me in.
“Then you should be pleased I came here first,” I said.
“I am,” her house smelled like herbs, old books, and warm tea. It used to smell like lessons. Like another life. Like the days when I had been younger, angrier, and convinced that if I learned enough, I could outrun what had been done to me. I had been wrong then, too. Blaise led me into the sitting room without asking if I wanted tea. She made it anyway.
“I
