If only Quinn had taken her alternate form, but she hadn’t and likely wouldn’t. Being her sister’s familiar made their relationship necessarily nonsexual. Besides, for a glassmaking duo like them, alternate form wasn’t a priority. Still, Nic wondered if Quinn wasn’t wistful about it, as having an alternate form was one of the few perks of being a familiar.

Finished with enough nondisclosures to cover their current group, plus a few extra—it would be good to have Gabriel’s parents sign them, too, though she doubted she’d get any of them to agree to that—she began her letter to Alise.

Dear Alise,

I hope you will forgive…

And there she stopped. The empty space glared at her accusingly.

Would it be tacky to include a bullet-pointed list of all the transgressions Nic hoped Alise would forgive? Starting with their childhood and all the innumerable ways Nic had been overbearing to her little sister, so certain of her golden future as the head of House Elal. Looking back, she cringed at her own behavior. How could she even begin to make that up to Alise? As she stared at those brief lines, the conspicuously empty space after that innocuous word, “forgive,” the letter began to seem like a gargantuan task. She dropped her aching head into her hands.

“Ready for dinner?” Gabriel asked.

Startled, she looked up to find him standing on the other side of the desk. Asa and Laryn were gone. She groaned, folding her arms and collapsing onto them. “I cannot face formal dinner with all those people.”

“Surely that’s my line.” Gabriel sounded amused, though not unsympathetic. He came around behind her, brushing soothing hands over the back of her neck, bared by her short haircut, digging his thumbs into the tense ligaments at the base of her skull. “You could probably claim feeling unwell and skip it. No one would blame you.”

For a brief, giddy moment, she considered that option. She could go take a hot bath and read her new book that she’d barely had time to get into, and go to bed early. Then Maman’s voice scolded her sternly about her duties as Lady Phel. “No.” She sighed and sat up, her groan turning to a purr as Gabriel slid his arms around her in a loose embrace, his lips nuzzling her temple. “I should be by your side, particularly in these early days, especially with all that happened this afternoon.”

“Pity,” he murmured, kissing her ear. “I was going to take the excuse to stay with you.”

She laughed throatily, not at all surprised. In fact, knowing Gabriel would try to avoid dinner if she wasn’t there was a large part of the reason she knew she had to go. “I should check on the progress of dinner. I hadn’t realized it had gotten so late.” The overcast sky outside the windows had darkened to full night. It had been an incredibly long day, and she was still wearing the gown she’d worn to assist Gabriel with the levee repair. She probably looked terrible. “But I also need to clean up and change for dinner.”